Developer: Splendy Interactive, Wales Interactive
Publisher: Green Man Gaming Publishing
Rrp: £14.99 (Steam and Humblebundle)
Released: 20th September 2016
Available on: Steam and Humblebundle
Played Using: a Mouse
Approximate game length: 2 Hours
Imagine doing the same few things everyday, without ever deviating from their intended order, day in day out for a month. Now imagine it for a year. How about two years? At what point do you think you would snap, have a total break from reality? I know that if it were me I’d maybe last a week.
The Bunker is a point and click thriller that has been created using FMV (full motion video). What’s quite interesting is the fact that the game is completely without computer effects and that the developers were able to film in a real life decommissioned bunker. I have to admire the dedication to their craft.
A word of warning there are some fairly graphic depictions of gore in this game, ordinarily I wouldn’t bother to put a warning out but because of the live acted nature it feels wrong not to mention it.
At the start of the game you just help John (the protagonist) go through his daily routine, a routine which John sticks to rigidly, as in, will not deviate from it at all. You’re forced to go through this, fairly short, routine three times and each time it cuts out part of the process so you won’t have to keep doing the same actions over and over… unlike John. As I mentioned, John sticks to this routine rigidly which shows you something of his character as well as informs the player that you have to do things in an exact process even if it seems illogical.
The story is told through flashbacks that John has, with each one you find out a little more of why John seems to be all alone. Sadly if your looking for answers as to what exactly happened to the world outside the bunker, well, your out of luck, the most you’ll find is some vague passing information.
No game is without flaws and it seems that even being one that was filmed doesn’t change that. I had a strange glitch occur where all the sound disappeared, at the time I thought that the silence was an effect to hammer home a sense of isolation for a moment. But when it went on for much longer than seemed reasonable I checked the game and system settings which all showed things to be normal. So I did the only logical thing… it turned it off and on again, which worked.
Another somewhat annoying issue I found was that the animations can’t be interrupted or skipped once they start, meaning that if you have to backtrack, as is normal with a point and click game, you’re forced to watch the same shot every damn time. Thankfully there isn’t much backtracking to be done but all the same some ability to cut the animations short would’ve been appreciated.
Because of the short length of the game and the fact that there really isn’t any replay value (no divergent paths etc) to it I can’t recommend this game in good faith, not at the current RRP. However if you ever find it on sale for say £6 or £7, I would definitely give this game a go.
If this appeals to you perhaps try;
Her Story
Contradiction
Oxenfree
