2023 really has been nothing short of a superb year for games (casting aside the typical annual releases that are predatory and suck like usual), and one of the biggest highlights has easily been Amnesia: The Bunker.

While I don't think this reaches the absolute peaks of The Dark Descent - my personal favorite in the series, it is on the whole a much more consistent experience, being far less reliant on scripted events for scares. Instead, it relies on randomizing key items, traps and nests of rats to constantly keep your on your toes. This also has the added bonus of making the game highly re-playable, a rarity for a lot of horror games, Dark Descent included.

Can we take a minute to talk about the audio design? Because good GOD, The Bunker exceeds anything Frictional has done up to this point, which is saying a lot because basically everything they've put out starting from Penumbra Overture has had exceptional audio design. The Bunker though is on another level. The hollow reverb as you hear The Beast crawling, scratching and roaring through the interiors of the bunker, the chirping, chomping and hissing of the rats, the sounds of artillery going off above ground, shaking the entire bunker, causing dust to kick up and ceiling lamps to sway around violently. It is masterfully done, and creates a soundscape that traps you into this desolate, horrifying, claustrophobic pit of Hell no man should wander into.

The sound design also plays heavily into the gameplay loop. The Beast is completely blind, only being able to navigate the bunker via sound, so the actions your player causes can heavily influence its direction and who its next prey is. It adds hugely to the tension, with things as simple as cranking your flashlight to turn it on or even your own footsteps feeling deafeningly loud, knowing what you have to stay silent from.

While I do think SOMA is the peak of Frictional's environmental and art design, The Bunker is absolutely in the leader ups. These environments are painstakingly detailed, well textured, dimly lit and full of atmosphere in a way you'd expect from studios who have triple the budget of what was spent to make this. Effects work like the aforementioned dust from above-ground artillery explosions, fire from molotovs and volumetric rays from artificial light sources is also absolutely stunning.

Alright, I've gushed about this long enough. Do I like everything about this game? Not necessarily, it has some faults. Minor ones, but it adds up enough to create some annoyances.

So remember what I said about the element of sound being heavily integrated into the game's core loop? While it starts off very strong and engaging, it does become easy to cheese once you find out the pattern The Beast operates on. In the game's defense, it does try very hard to throw you for a loop constantly, and the obscene amounts of darkness can cause you to run into traps accidentally, which make tons of noise and are guaranteed to attract the thing - but once you learn where the positions are, you can simply defuse or jump over the majority of them causing little noise. It becomes too easy to stay quiet.

Another thing is that it's too easy to abuse saving in the game, which can take away a lot of the tension when you can just make a B-line for the one of two safe rooms in the game and stay safe until The Beast walks away.

My last negative would have to be the ending "boss fight", which feels incredibly half-baked and kind of frustrating the way you have to stack boxes and keep running circles, less you get mauled. I am aware there is a way to lure it into a trap that makes this a non-issue, but this may have been the one time the game would've benefited from linearity in objectives. This is possibly an awful take and you're allowed to criticize me for it, but I will stand by it.

See? Minor annoyances. They ultimately do not hugely degraded one of the best horror experiences I have ever played.
This game is nothing short of a triumphant accomplishment, and it's a crime it wasn't nominated at The Game Awards for a single category. I don't personally care about the show, as I believe it's just 2+ hours of glorified advertising, but it still would've been a giant publicity boost for Frictional and their non-stop commitment to quality games. They deserve all the success they've worked incredibly hard to earn.

If you're reading this, I highly encourage you to nominate The Bunker as GOTY during The Steam Awards. It's the reason why I'm writing this review in the first place!

Absolutely stellar work, Frictional. Never stop doing what you do. You're a shining star in an industry currently full of stinkers right now.