Originally published September 27, 2016. Updated April 16, 2018.
Calum Petrie reviews The Bunker…
The Bunker is a point and click psychological horror game created with all pre-recorded film footage. The game does not allow any control over the on screen character directly, rather you will click command points on screen and the player will interact with your chosen object. Developed by Splendy in association with Wales Interactive The Bunker is a uniquely styled game, using all pre-rendered footage to create a truly interactive cinematic gameplay experience.
The game takes place exclusively inside a military bunker that is being used by the British government as a foothold in an undisclosed part of England. The game is focused solely around John who is the only remaining survivor of the bunker after his mother passes away during the game’s opening chapter.
John was born in the bunker and knows nothing of the entire outside world; his mother is the sole parent, with no mention of his father ever delivered throughout the game. The focus of the game is to help John focus on his day to day routine that will keep him safe and sane. It is no spoiler to admit that things go pear shaped pretty quickly when left to his own devices; these events were unavoidable in retrospect as the bunker no longer contains its maintenance team. Players must help the character overcome his anxiety and fear of the lower levels of the bunker and make the repairs that upset his day to day routine.
I played this game on the Xbox One; initially the game works rather well. The only issue is that the interaction on screen works with a cursor pointer. There are moments when playing the game that if you have not manually put the cursor back to the centre of the screen then you run the risk of not reaching a quick time event. I quickly got into the habit of centring the cursor every chance I could, sometimes to the point I would get caught trying to align it as near to the middle as I could.
The rest of the game is rather basic and familiar to fans of the point and click genre, and is rather simple to get your head around.
The game delivers the narrative in a pace that would not be out of place on the big or small screen; however, when delivered as a computer game it can come across rather rushed. Though this is because as a gamer, I am not used to sitting and playing a game for two hours and that is my complete adventure. It is an interesting and refreshing concept that could have great potential; the horror genre is a great place for these lengths of adventures to be delivered so the suspense is not drawn out and loses the attention of the player.
The actors used to play the roles within the game are extremely convincing and the on screen portrayals of characters lend an extremely positive note to the game performance. The credibility of the actors holds you in place and engrosses you within the game’s story.
The Bunker is not a long game by any stretchy of the imagination, and can be completed in a single sitting lasting about two and a half hours. The game may be best enjoyed in a single play through, but this does not mean that the it can only be played once. The amount of collectibles items and objects to find is more vast than I realised, and after my initial play through I noticed I had missed a great deal of the collectable items and tape logs that are to be found throughout the game. The amount of replay value may reach to a second or third playthrough, but as the game does not allow players to start at a specific chapter you will have to restart the whole game if you wish to go back and find items.
Rating: 7/10
The Bunker was reviewed on Xbox One.
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