The dutifully written diaries and dictaphone recordings of horror games and immersive sims are one of the most overused shticks in games, but The Bunker's implementation feels fresh. On that note, I have to praise The Bunker's use of, well, notes. Dickian mind benders, The Bunker's more straightforward yarn is elegant, and finally piecing together exactly what happened and protagonist Henri Clément's role in it is devastating. While I love Frictional's stabs at Philip K. In contrast to the mythos-expanding psychedelia of Amnesia: Rebirth, The Bunker's story is a deliberate contraction-it feels like an Amnesia side story, an episode within the greater setting, and one that only hints at the series' unnerving lore and Lovecraftian other dimensions. Alien: Isolation is the only game I can think of that offered similar simulationist depth and strategic choice in concert with this very specific feeling of being pursued.īut instead of Isolation's lengthy campaign, The Bunker is this perfectly compressed diamond of just you, The Beast, and the awful, horrible place you're trapped in together. You have all this immersive sim freedom in how you explore and react to the Beast, but it's in service of a cat-and-mouse game with an apex predator rather than the sneaky power fantasies of Thief or Dishonored. I led the Beast into traps, used gas grenades against it (once I found the gas mask), hid in closets and under tables until it moved on, but most of the time I just wanted to hightail it back to the safe room at the center of the bunker the second I heard it nearby. Besides, what if you need that bullet later when faced with a padlocked door? Your WWI revolver-complete with a deliciously agonizing multipart reload where you hold one button to keep the cylinder open and press another to slot in individual bullets-can be a get-out-of-jail card when you're cornered, but the Beast will be back in your neighborhood eventually, out for your blood and able to take even more hits before it retreats. The endemic mutated rats who feast on corpses that have valuable locker combinations can be driven off with fire (flares or a homemade torch) and toxic gas and frag grenades, but each action expends resources and risks attracting the Beast. Blowing open a door will get you where you need to go quickly, but you better have a hiding spot mapped out for when the Beast inevitably arrives. Atmospheric dread is maximized by this frantic, spinning-plates exercise of managing fuel, healing consumables, grenades, and key items, all of which take up exactly one inventory slot apiece and do not stack.Įvery option in The Bunker feels like a carefully calculated conundrum. The Bunker is at its most utterly dreadful when all the lights are off and the Beast is on the hunt.Ĭertain puzzles on the critical path require the power being on, and your fuel economy is constrained not only by The Bunker's randomized item placement, but also limited inventory and storage space. Running the bunker's generator (located in the safe room) and keeping the lights on generally lowers the risk of Beast, leaving it less likely to home in on you and less aggressive when it does. There's always a less conspicuous alternative, like smashing a door with a cinderblock (making them, oddly, one of the game's most valuable resources), or finding a concealed vent in an adjoining room, but those take patience and a keen eye to take advantage of while you're playing under a constant time crunch.įinally piecing together exactly what happened and protagonist Henri Clément's role in it is devastating. The sounds you cause while exploring build up to a chance of the monster appearing, with actions like running, cranking your flashlight, or scaring off rats gradually attracting it, while an aggressive, loud move like blowing open a door or shooting its lock off practically guarantees its imminent arrival.
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