Amnesia: The Bunker Review (Sputnik)
The last Amnesia didn't leave a particularly deep impression on me other than disappointment. The Bunker is miles ahead but we're still not quite there, sadly enough.
I won't spoil anything because the game just came out and I ended up playing it all at once as soon as I got my hands on it. The beginning truly managed to capture the grittiness and the brutal nature of WW1 and the mystery it built when the player wakes up in the bunker was enough to keep me hooked to the end, even if I understood what was going on long before the finale. The bunker itself is beautifully made and it manages to feel very diverse even if you don't really ever leave its premises (except two very specific instances, I'll say no more) and the creature is really menacing and unpredictable... until it isn't anymore and evading it becomes super easy. I loved the idea of the generator and I found myself braving the darkness multiple times without feeling the need of running back, just to challenge myself. The gore, the notes, the clues, the traps, the managing of resources and the exploration, all feels so rewarding and immersive, but the games takes you fully out of it in... what, three, four hours?
Amnesia: The Bunker is too goddamn short, and everything that comes after you blowing up the escape route feels rushed, as if it was put there right before the release of the game, and that sequence too is over in less than a couple of minutes if you know what you're doing. That ending was somewhat disappointing as I felt it could've been much more, with a few questions left unanswered and 25 euros invested in the shortest Amnesia experience I've ever played through, almost comparable to custom stories.
I'm trying not to shit on this game too hard, as I'm still recommending it all things considered, what I'm saying is that it's too short to justify that price and it could've conveyed much more as a story and as gameplay if it was longer. Everything up to that specific ending was excellent, despite the monster becoming too predictable, with one section in the fog particularly shining as the best moment in the game, if not in the entire series. This is a valid horror game and it's back on track to genuinely feel like an Amnesia game again, but there needs to be a final push. There is no need to live in the shadow of its predecessors but it's also necessary to be more daring and not using half measures to get to that point.
From what I've gathered here, Amnesia 5 will be amazing, as long as they learn from their minor mistakes. Play and see for yourselves, once it's discounted.