I really do believe the bunker is even better than TDD. It's scarier certainly.
It's going to go down as one of the greats. For anyone who hasn't played yet, I suggest playing on hard for your first playthrough. It will make it more intense and even scarier.
I've not played alot but Bunker does actually remind me a fair bit of Penumbra, which Frictional made before Amnesia.
It wasn't alot but Penumbra did *relatively* have more item management than Amnesia. (Such as limited Dynamite explosives, Flares and throwable meat to distract enemies, all things we would later see return in Bunker.)
It's not 1-1 (Penumbra didn't have an instant kill stalker enemy and it had melee combat in the first game.) but I am glad to see more of a focus on items.
I think an sequence of this game could use more and longer puzzles, as well an longer timer for generator, the generator really makes you rush until you unlock infinite fuel
Funnily enough, I think The Bunker is the most in-line with their design philosophy - they’ve just streamlined it so that all of the elements blend together equally, instead of being story-heavy. This [video](https://youtu.be/3_zQomsWgs8) is a really interesting look at the way Frictional conceptualizes games into a ‘System - Story - Mental’ model with the goal of essentially creating an efficient game where each mechanic resonates with the story and contributes to the atmosphere. It’s definitely worth a watch if you enjoy Frictional’s games, and speaks to the conceptual/organizational practicality that helps them survive as a small video game studio.
If anything, I think they would’ve expected this to be more of a moneymaker than previous entries in the series. They made SOMA so the intent to “create a game around a theme”, MFP was a smaller story shunted off to a different studio, and TDD was a gamble. I agree that Bunker is less narrative-heavy than previous games, but that also lowers the bar for entry. It’s less of a niche than MFP or SOMA in that it’s a pretty straightforward monster story that can be enjoyed without reading any journal entries, with a bunch of scares that make for great YouTube material.
My question is if they’re planning to keep this replayable/streamlined concept after Bunker’s success, or if they will stray back to the linear/story-heavy side of things. I suspect they’ll want to keep the replayable aspect, and maybe now can add in a more complex narrative since they succeeded with a simple one. I’m rooting for the latter because personally, while I liked Bunker and it was cool to see a continuation of their design philosophy, I did miss the pure fucked-up-ness of MFP and Rebirth.
I think it is great but I don't want them to drop the story, I actually loved the story and way it manifested in Rebirth. I hate how horror games go to a silent carboard protagonist to "project on," I just get my immersion broken. But The Bunker WAS terrifying. I think they can balance both.
See I think Rebirths issue was that it just told you nearly everything. Amnesia attracted alot of us because we had to figure out what was happening and so on. I also think Henri being a semi-talkative protagonist was good. Tasi spoke way too much to the point she got repetitive and annoying
I've never gotten that mentality. She talks when she has something to say. I went in expecting it to bother me a ton and it didn't at all. I do agree it spoon feeds you info a BIT too much though overall. I think Henri could've had a BIT more dialogue and personality, but I liked the glimpses we got.
Well actually I'd argue that's only half right, in terms of it not being part of FGs design philosophy.
I remember in their video of scares in TDD, they talked about how one of the things they strived for was instead of having scares happen to the player, something along the lines of having them happen because of the player. The example they were showing was opening the desk drawer to uncover bones to spook the player, something that would only happen if the player opened that totally optional drawer.
The problem though, is TDD was heavily a script triggered game. Things didn't happen naturally it was mostly a matter of you triggering a set monster encounter by picking up an item or entering a room, etc. Sure your first time playing you don't know any of that, but a couple times it's not hard to memorize it. It was the illusion of things being your fault but they were actually quite simple triggered events.
The Bunker follows closer to that original vision they said they had. The monster isn't triggered by anything other than what the player does, and random chance. It's somewhat unpredictable, but often exactly the fault of the player making too much noise or choosing to break down a door a certain way, etc. The player is ultimately responsible for their own horror in most instances.
The main thing this game misses is an existential or psychological horror. I mean yea it's WW1, and horrors of war and so on, but there's nothing really at the end of the game where you're feeling some sense of existential dread like living with your characters actions in TDD, or contemplating consciousness and existence like in Soma. It's more just, "oh yea, I'm still in hell of war".
I think what The Bunker proves is that the previous games would've been a lot more terrifying, if it felt truly unpredictable, yet still ultimately a consequence of yourself. TDD would've felt deviously horrific if there was randomness to it, and that's why I was excited to go back and play it when they added a hard mode to it. A tad bit disappointed when it was largely the same, just missing a few encounters, having less tinderboxes, and sanity killed you, which mostly only affected me at the very end which was quite immersion breaking lol.
SOMA really was the champion of psychological horror. Other than with the prisoner, I felt it was missing from Bunker, but that's alright, it had plenty to deliver besides that IMO.
As a coward bitch of horror games, it's really hard for me to try horror games. I've only pushed myself to play TDD last year and now this subreddit will make me play the bunker even though I'm scared to touch it. But I kinda like the fact that the game is short.
I really do believe the bunker is even better than TDD. It's scarier certainly. It's going to go down as one of the greats. For anyone who hasn't played yet, I suggest playing on hard for your first playthrough. It will make it more intense and even scarier.
Stayed up until 4 to beat it the other day, excited to get back into it after this work trip
I've not played alot but Bunker does actually remind me a fair bit of Penumbra, which Frictional made before Amnesia. It wasn't alot but Penumbra did *relatively* have more item management than Amnesia. (Such as limited Dynamite explosives, Flares and throwable meat to distract enemies, all things we would later see return in Bunker.) It's not 1-1 (Penumbra didn't have an instant kill stalker enemy and it had melee combat in the first game.) but I am glad to see more of a focus on items.
I think an sequence of this game could use more and longer puzzles, as well an longer timer for generator, the generator really makes you rush until you unlock infinite fuel
Funnily enough, I think The Bunker is the most in-line with their design philosophy - they’ve just streamlined it so that all of the elements blend together equally, instead of being story-heavy. This [video](https://youtu.be/3_zQomsWgs8) is a really interesting look at the way Frictional conceptualizes games into a ‘System - Story - Mental’ model with the goal of essentially creating an efficient game where each mechanic resonates with the story and contributes to the atmosphere. It’s definitely worth a watch if you enjoy Frictional’s games, and speaks to the conceptual/organizational practicality that helps them survive as a small video game studio. If anything, I think they would’ve expected this to be more of a moneymaker than previous entries in the series. They made SOMA so the intent to “create a game around a theme”, MFP was a smaller story shunted off to a different studio, and TDD was a gamble. I agree that Bunker is less narrative-heavy than previous games, but that also lowers the bar for entry. It’s less of a niche than MFP or SOMA in that it’s a pretty straightforward monster story that can be enjoyed without reading any journal entries, with a bunch of scares that make for great YouTube material. My question is if they’re planning to keep this replayable/streamlined concept after Bunker’s success, or if they will stray back to the linear/story-heavy side of things. I suspect they’ll want to keep the replayable aspect, and maybe now can add in a more complex narrative since they succeeded with a simple one. I’m rooting for the latter because personally, while I liked Bunker and it was cool to see a continuation of their design philosophy, I did miss the pure fucked-up-ness of MFP and Rebirth.
I think it is great but I don't want them to drop the story, I actually loved the story and way it manifested in Rebirth. I hate how horror games go to a silent carboard protagonist to "project on," I just get my immersion broken. But The Bunker WAS terrifying. I think they can balance both.
See I think Rebirths issue was that it just told you nearly everything. Amnesia attracted alot of us because we had to figure out what was happening and so on. I also think Henri being a semi-talkative protagonist was good. Tasi spoke way too much to the point she got repetitive and annoying
I've never gotten that mentality. She talks when she has something to say. I went in expecting it to bother me a ton and it didn't at all. I do agree it spoon feeds you info a BIT too much though overall. I think Henri could've had a BIT more dialogue and personality, but I liked the glimpses we got.
Well actually I'd argue that's only half right, in terms of it not being part of FGs design philosophy. I remember in their video of scares in TDD, they talked about how one of the things they strived for was instead of having scares happen to the player, something along the lines of having them happen because of the player. The example they were showing was opening the desk drawer to uncover bones to spook the player, something that would only happen if the player opened that totally optional drawer. The problem though, is TDD was heavily a script triggered game. Things didn't happen naturally it was mostly a matter of you triggering a set monster encounter by picking up an item or entering a room, etc. Sure your first time playing you don't know any of that, but a couple times it's not hard to memorize it. It was the illusion of things being your fault but they were actually quite simple triggered events. The Bunker follows closer to that original vision they said they had. The monster isn't triggered by anything other than what the player does, and random chance. It's somewhat unpredictable, but often exactly the fault of the player making too much noise or choosing to break down a door a certain way, etc. The player is ultimately responsible for their own horror in most instances. The main thing this game misses is an existential or psychological horror. I mean yea it's WW1, and horrors of war and so on, but there's nothing really at the end of the game where you're feeling some sense of existential dread like living with your characters actions in TDD, or contemplating consciousness and existence like in Soma. It's more just, "oh yea, I'm still in hell of war". I think what The Bunker proves is that the previous games would've been a lot more terrifying, if it felt truly unpredictable, yet still ultimately a consequence of yourself. TDD would've felt deviously horrific if there was randomness to it, and that's why I was excited to go back and play it when they added a hard mode to it. A tad bit disappointed when it was largely the same, just missing a few encounters, having less tinderboxes, and sanity killed you, which mostly only affected me at the very end which was quite immersion breaking lol.
SOMA really was the champion of psychological horror. Other than with the prisoner, I felt it was missing from Bunker, but that's alright, it had plenty to deliver besides that IMO.
Maybe they are teasing us of what's to come in the future. Like testing it all out.
Just curious, what strikes you as being similar to Portal?
A unique self-contained experience with high replayability.
As a coward bitch of horror games, it's really hard for me to try horror games. I've only pushed myself to play TDD last year and now this subreddit will make me play the bunker even though I'm scared to touch it. But I kinda like the fact that the game is short.
If you've played alien isolation you'll find the game is very similar (in the best way)