Amnesia: The Bunker - first-person horror in desolate WW1 bunker

[Wirdschowerdn]

 

[Spukrian]

So it's like Alien Isolation except taking place in the Kennels level of Penumbra Black Plague...

 

[Child of Malkav]

Yeah, ok I'm excited for this. The objective is simple: escape, the area is isolated and scary, 1 monster hunting you (presumably not like in A:I where the alien knows where you are), weapons that serve more as tools than used for killing, exploration heavy, traps, maybe some puzzles, flashlight that makes noise, constant need for fuel to keep the generator going (though I'm not sure if it's mandatory). So far, I like it. They probably fired the Rebirth guy/team/whatever.

 

[Spukrian]

The Rebirth team is presumably working on a different game.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

The Rebirth team is presumably working on a different game.

This is probably the same team, minus the outsourced writing of Rebirth. Thomas Grip's project is seperate and in development ever since SOMA.

 

[Dr1f7]

was rebirth really that bad? everyone also shits on machine for pigs but I really enjoyed that one

 

[Child of Malkav]

From Odd's video:
- presence of the creature is indicated by sound but also by lights flickering (reminding me of Thief Deadly Shadows, Robbing the Cradle mission where the puppets' proximity to lights had the same effect allowing you to tell at a distance whether there were enemies nearby)
- creature spawns when you use explosives, shoot the revolver, use bricks to break open doors
- dark holes everywhere in walls, possibly spawn points for the creature (can they be blocked off?)
- can't hide in darkness, creature sees you
- can find pouches to increase inventory size (1 pouch/bag = 1 slot)
- going back to the generator constantly to keep it running already seems an annoyance
- flashlight seems pointless as the character can see in the dark a short distance in front of him, probably has other uses
- can combine items to create other ones (cloth x 2 = bandage, molotov probably bottle + fuel + cloth)
- there are flares and they can illuminate an area but also make noise (seem to be distractions mostly)
- ammunition is rare, which is good
- diegetic display of HP by looking at hand (number of bloody fingers = how hurt you are, 5 fingers 20% each)
- creature seems to patrol at random (footstesp of the creature walking upstairs caused dust to fall from the ceiling indicating its presence and direction), doesn't seem tethered to you
- empty bottles used for distractions
- apparently there are shotgun shells as well (maybe you find a shotgun, could be used to one shot wooden doors? IDK)
Anyway, pretty excited. But then again after Rebirth...

 

[Spukrian]

There's a few of these actually

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Another friction delay.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Found the demo pretty boring tbh.

 

[hayst]

was rebirth really that bad? everyone also shits on machine for pigs but I really enjoyed that one

I liked Rebirth. The writing was just okay, but they captured a nice atmosphere with their otherworld stuff. It sort of reminds me of a worse Soma.

 

[Child of Malkav]

otherworld stuff

That alien world was cool to...look at and read some lore about it. The one interesting aspect of the game.

 

[Child of Malkav]

Creature

 

[Great Deceiver]

There's a few of these actually

These thumbnails give a perfect description of why horror games have turned into absolute fucking garbage. The only exception is Darkwood.

 

[garren]

Tried the demo, cool stuff. I was super sneaky the whole time and didn't see the monster at all, though you could hear it behind the walls and inside the ceiling occasionally, there's a cool effect where dust scatters from the ceiling where it's moving. Scavenging items, finding codes, opening up new areas piece by piece. I like that you can only save in the save room, if you mess up you have to redo the whole thing so it keeps up tension. I did trigger a trap once on purpose (if you're careful you can notice the traps pretty easily) and the monster appeared, I locked myself inside a room without a spawn point (hole in the wall) but I could hear it patrol outside so I pussied out and just reloaded . There's places which you can't enter without making some noise, but I was able to complete the demo without entering those.

I hope there's a small chance that the monster might still spawn in the hallways if you're super quiet, since it is supposed to be stalking the area, that would keep up the tension even more. Maybe that's in the full game, but at least if you just walk normally without running and don't make noise (you can bump into things), then at least personally I didn't see it outside the walls. Still, all in all, I really liked the demo, there was a nice tense atmosphere.

 

[Child of Malkav]

To those that played the demo: would it be possible to play without the flashlight and the generator? To save resources and keep bactracking too much.

 

[garren]

No you don't need the generator at all if you don't want to use it, at least in the demo, it just turns on more lights, which I suppose makes the monster spawn less, and you can see better. There isn't too many other uses for the fuel though, unless you want to light random fires around I guess, maybe they can be used to burn doors, I dunno. You can make petrol bombs too but you need a lighter to light the fuel which I didn't find in the demo. The flashlight is a wind-up mechanism, it doesn't use resources.

You might want to return to the save room often anyway as inventory space is limited, so if you wanna haul all the stuff to a safe point, it's backtracking time.

 

[Rocket-Propelled Game]

From Odd's video:
- presence of the creature is indicated by sound but also by lights flickering (reminding me of Thief Deadly Shadows, Robbing the Cradle mission where the puppets' proximity to lights had the same effect allowing you to tell at a distance whether there were enemies nearby)
- creature spawns when you use explosives, shoot the revolver, use bricks to break open doors
- dark holes everywhere in walls, possibly spawn points for the creature (can they be blocked off?)
- can't hide in darkness, creature sees you
- can find pouches to increase inventory size (1 pouch/bag = 1 slot)
- going back to the generator constantly to keep it running already seems an annoyance
- flashlight seems pointless as the character can see in the dark a short distance in front of him, probably has other uses
- can combine items to create other ones (cloth x 2 = bandage, molotov probably bottle + fuel + cloth)
- there are flares and they can illuminate an area but also make noise (seem to be distractions mostly)
- ammunition is rare, which is good
- diegetic display of HP by looking at hand (number of bloody fingers = how hurt you are, 5 fingers 20% each)
- creature seems to patrol at random (footstesp of the creature walking upstairs caused dust to fall from the ceiling indicating its presence and direction), doesn't seem tethered to you
- empty bottles used for distractions
- apparently there are shotgun shells as well (maybe you find a shotgun, could be used to one shot wooden doors? IDK)
Anyway, pretty excited. But then again after Rebirth...

Seems promising to me! Actual resource management mechanics are a reassurance to me at least.

 

[garren]

Tried a rerun of the demo, this time I was less careful, but I kinda had a hard time getting the monster to spawn even when making noise sometimes, sure you can hear it inside the walls but making it come out requires even more noise. Not sure if it's dependent on location (so it's not nearby at the moment). Hopefully there's difficulty settings to make it more aggressive, once you get the hang of it's behaviour it get's kinda too easy to avoid, and less scary.

 

[Child of Malkav]

Tried a rerun of the demo, this time I was less careful, but I kinda had a hard time getting the monster to spawn even when making noise sometimes, sure you can hear it inside the walls but making it come out requires even more noise. Not sure if it's dependent on location (so it's not nearby at the moment). Hopefully there's difficulty settings to make it more aggressive, once you get the hang of it's behaviour it get's kinda too easy to avoid, and less scary.

I don't thnk it can come out in the demo but then again I haven't played it, waiting fo the full release. I noticed in the other videos that if you go all dark no generator on then the creature patrols around certain areas or randomly. It's out prety much all the time. So that's kinda like playing the game on hard mode. And you can't see far at all and the darkness doesn't hide you either so you run into situations where you barely see in front of you but the creature sees you from way further and rushes you. But they did keep the screen distortion from previous games when looking at monsters so at least you know that you either see it or it sees you. In Dark Descent there was this distortion only when you looked into the eyes of the invisible water monster. I don't remember if it was part of the lore scattered around or the game telling you that. But it was pretty chilling every time the screen got cloudy.

 

[Spukrian]

So I caved in and tried the demo. I liked it, I guess. It's much better than Rebirth so far, even if that's not saying much.

I did get the monster to spawn (or at least the screen distorted when I looked towards a hole in the wall, it was dark and I couldn't see) which caused me to panic so I opened a trapped door, I died to the trap.

 

[garren]

Tried a rerun of the demo, this time I was less careful, but I kinda had a hard time getting the monster to spawn even when making noise sometimes, sure you can hear it inside the walls but making it come out requires even more noise. Not sure if it's dependent on location (so it's not nearby at the moment). Hopefully there's difficulty settings to make it more aggressive, once you get the hang of it's behaviour it get's kinda too easy to avoid, and less scary.

I don't thnk it can come out in the demo but then again I haven't played it, waiting fo the full release. I noticed in the other videos that if you go all dark no generator on then the creature patrols around certain areas or randomly. It's out prety much all the time. So that's kinda like playing the game on hard mode. And you can't see far at all and the darkness doesn't hide you either so you run into situations where you barely see in front of you but the creature sees you from way further and rushes you. But they did keep the screen distortion from previous games when looking at monsters so at least you know that you either see it or it sees you. In Dark Descent there was this distortion only when you looked into the eyes of the invisible water monster. I don't remember if it was part of the lore scattered around or the game telling you that. But it was pretty chilling every time the screen got cloudy.

Ah not sure if it comes fully out in the demo then, I did see the hands crawling out of the hole but never stuck around to see more, I just hid and heard it growling outside

 

[Beowulf]

So it's like Alien Isolation except taking place in the Kennels level of Penumbra Black Plague...

Sure looks that way, but I liked Alien Isolation, so that's a plus in my book.
I gave the demo a try - pretty solid. Frictional knows how to create a tense atmosphere that doesn't rely on jumpscares.
Still, there are the usual annoyances - time limited light, struggling to properly open doors and drawers etc.

 

[Child of Malkav]

Frictional knows how to create a tense atmosphere that doesn't rely on jumpscares.

Yeah it's what makes them unique among horror creators since Amnesia Dark Descent. I haven't played Penumbra games so I can't say anything on those.

 

[Child of Malkav]

Ah not sure if it comes fully out in the demo then, I did see the hands crawling out of the hole but never stuck around to see more, I just hid and heard it growling outside

That's an instant kill. They act like the vents in Alien Isolation where if the alien is hiding in one and you pass underneath it it grabs and kills you. There is something you can look for that tells you if the creature is in one of the holes but IDK what is. Someone said it's dust coming out of it that betrays the beast's presence.