Vortex Gaming

Among the many game genres, horror games are highly divisive, but some have become popular and widely known. Outlast and Alan Wake are prime examples. Among them, Frictional Games' Amnesia series has overwhelmed everything with its atmosphere, showing the essence of horror games and has been regarded as a masterpiece.

Released on June 6th, 'Amnesia: The Bunker (hereinafter The Bunker)' is the fourth installment in the Amnesia series and is set during World War I. As the protagonist is a soldier who participated in the war, weapons appear for the first time in the series. As the series gained popularity with the confrontation with an unknown enemy that can only be escaped from, the setting of this work is no exaggeration to say that it is unconventional.

I was worried that the fear might be diluted by having weapons, but that was only for a moment. It was a work that made me want to quit the review because it was so scary.

The root of horror games comes from fear. It's obvious, but just as action is important in action games, stimulating a scary psychology is important in horror games. Therefore, many horror games try to create fear. It is the essence of the genre and determines the fun, so it cannot be neglected.

Among the various techniques, one of the most popular is the jump scare. It's a way to surprise players in unexpected places. It's easy to use and can be very effective if used well, so you can easily find jump scares in most horror games.

However, if you overuse it, it can actually reduce the fun of the game. The first one or two times you might be surprised, but once you get used to it or can predict the pattern, the scary feeling can quickly fade away. Personally, I don't really like jump scares. I feel a sense of rejection as if I'm being forcibly injected with fear.

One of the reasons why the Amnesia series has remained a masterpiece in the horror game world is that it doesn't heavily rely on these jump scares. It's not an instant fear that comes quickly and fades quickly, but it has really well implemented an environment that oppresses the player throughout the game.

This has been inherited in The Bunker as well. As mentioned earlier, the theme of this work features a French soldier who participated in the war during World War I. While retreating from a battlefield where bullets are raining down, the protagonist tries to save his comrades and is hit by German artillery fire, and is then trapped in a bunker with its entrance blocked. The game depicts the process of escaping from here.

The player, left alone in a closed underground bunker, cannot easily let go of the tension in any situation. This is because scary situations are indirectly created through constant sounds and the surrounding environment. Occasionally, the bunker trembles from the bombing, and the growling and scratching sounds stimulate the player's imagination.

Because of these sounds, I can't help but keep thinking scary thoughts such as "If I go past that corner, something will definitely appear" or "I think there's something behind me." In reality, there's nothing around, but the fear I create myself makes me shrink, and this prevents me from letting go of the tension throughout the game.

And like taking a moment to steam delicious rice, if the player has shrunk to some extent with their imagination, the highlight part shows the reality of the horror. It's crazy from the perspective of the person doing it because it knows when you're about to let your guard down and comes to find you like a ghost. If you're looking at the texture of fear, it's easy to understand if you think of the movie 'The Conjuring,' which is famous for its psychologically stimulating horror.

With the exception of the first work, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, which received the best reviews, there were several disappointments in the subsequent series. In the case of A Machine for Pigs, the proportion of horror decreased, and Rebirth also focused more on adventure than horror. It seems that they have been trying to alleviate the limited situations that were shown in the first work for the sake of the series' popularity.

On the other hand, in The Bunker, traces of efforts to balance the horror and adventure shown in The Dark Descent could be found in various parts. First of all, the game's progress method has been changed to a non-linear open-world structure. While the previous works progressed to the ending by solving fixed puzzles for each chapter, this work requires you to explore various parts of the map and solve puzzles according to the main items you obtain randomly.

The main spaces in the game are the room where you can save and turn on the generator, and the mission storage where the cabinets containing the main items are located. In order to progress through the game, you must open the cabinets and obtain the main items inside, and the passwords for the cabinets are written on the dog tags of people who have died here and there.

Each map has restricted spaces that can only be accessed with certain tools, and the progression method may vary slightly from player to player depending on which items they obtain first. In other words, the play experience may differ even if you play the same game.

The monster has also undergone major changes to suit the environment. Like the previous works that presented supernatural phenomena and unknown enemies as objects of fear, this work also features a similar feeling enemy. The visual, which looks like a human and a rat were put in a blender, ground up, and then kneaded appropriately, is enough to take away the appetite of the person looking at it.

In the previous work, the monster was generated in a fixed place when a specific area was reached. This method has the advantage of being able to convey fear according to the flow designed by the developer, but it also has the disadvantage of being less scary once the pattern is identified.

On the other hand, the monster that appears in The Bunker exists in real time and roams around the area to find the player. It mainly reacts to noise and blood, and if a loud noise such as an explosion or a gunshot is heard, it will almost always appear in that place.

When playing the game, there are often situations where you can't help but make noise even if you don't want to. A prime example is the charging sound of the new item, the manual flashlight. Because it is a pitch-black situation where you can't see an inch ahead without light, you almost always have to carry a flashlight. When you charge the flashlight's light, you will hear a whirring sound.

In addition, making noise by throwing stones to forcibly break down doors or running to avoid traps or swarms of rats. It doesn't necessarily come in the direction of the sound, but actions can be more cautious as it can stimulate the monster. In other words, there is no safe zone except for the area where you can save, and because of this, you have to be more nervous than in the previous work.

Meanwhile, the resources that can be obtained in the game are limited to suit the closed environment. The area itself is diverse and you can acquire various consumables if you search here and there, but as a result, you cannot obtain more than what is determined.

Unlike the previous two works that supported automatic health regeneration along with the deletion of the mental system, this work does not automatically recover health. When your health drops, you bleed from your body, your vision turns red, and your gait slows down. The problem is that blood stimulates the monster, increasing the probability that the monster will find the player even if they don't move. In the end, you can't help but slowly wither away as time goes by.

Although firearms appear for the first time in the series, the fact that you can't think of using them to do anything about the monster is also due to the limited resources. If you shoot the monster, you can temporarily push it back. In fact, if you've been playing the series, this alone is such a groundbreaking change.

However, if you simply use bullets for survival, it's like losing one way to go comfortably to a specific area later. For example, to open a locked door, you can drag a bomb nearby and blow it up with a gun to get there easily and quickly, but if you don't have bullets, you have to go around and go very hard.

Therefore, although I can use weapons, I didn't really feel less scared or reassured because of this. It's better than not having any means to respond, but it was still safer to hide inside the surrounding lockers the moment I heard the monster's sound.

In summary, The Bunker was a work that revisited the basics along with the big changes in the Amnesia series. Parts that could interfere with the horror were boldly cut out, and the overall system was designed to make it feel as scary as possible. Thanks to this, the player faces tremendous fear in an environment of a closed bunker and an enemy that finds the player in real time.

The sound, which has been praised throughout the series, gave me the same impression this time. The trembling unique to the underground environment felt scary enough even without the sound of monsters. Since almost 70% or more of the horror comes from sound, I would recommend playing the game with headphones if possible. Turn off all the lights late at night too.

If you find some disappointments in The Bunker, you can point out the fact that it does not support Korean only in Korea, the disappointing story proportion compared to the previous work, the somewhat unfriendly puzzles, the limitations of the closed space that can feel monotonous if you get used to it, and the monster pattern of hide-and-seek.

In particular, the puzzles were difficult not only because of the language barrier, but also because the player had to figure out how to use each item on their own. In particular, it can feel even more difficult because you get items randomly. You have to go around the entire map to find out where it is used, and if that process is repeated, you may lose interest and feel bored.

It is said that this year will be especially hot. How about spending some quality time with monsters in a cool underground bunker in the hot summer? If you know the reputation of the Amnesia series well, this work will feel quite fresh, and if you are new to it, you will be able to enjoy it as a fun horror game.

7.5

Amnesia: The Bunker

Amnesia: The Bunker

• A vivid sense of realism as if you were in a closed underground bunker
• The novelty of non-linear level design
• An enemy in real time that you can't let go of the tension

• A relatively high language barrier limited to Korea
• Inconvenient puzzles that you have to find yourself
• Hide-and-seek patterns that can be bland if you get used to them

리뷰 플랫폼: pc(1.0.0)

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웹진 인벤정수형 기자
2023-06-19