You play as a French soldier who narrowly escapes death in the game’s opening scenes and awakens in what seems like an abandoned bunker. Thirteen years later-and following two other installments in 2013’s “A Machine for Pigs” and 2020’s “Rebirth”-the series has shifted locations drastically, moving to a bunker during World War I. In the case of the original, it was a castle. Like many breakthrough indie games, it’s a simple concept that taps a relatable nerve-being trapped in a threatening location. “The Bunker” is not the first game in the “ Amnesia” series, which started in 2010 with the wildly acclaimed “Amnesia: The Dark Descent.' Independently released online for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, and Linux, “The Dark Descent” was a critical hit and a word-of-mouth smash, eventually working to the PS4 in 2016 and the Xbox One in 2018. “Use your wits and your brains.” If you can. I wish some of the graphics and gameplay were a bit more refined, but I admire what the team at Frictional has accomplished here, an antidote to so many high-profile games that hold your hand. Diminishing supplies, darkening corridors, unexplainable sounds in the distance, the constant rumble of warfare outside-this game is a sensory experience in ways that a lot of AAA horror games ignore, focusing on details and authorship to make you feel as trapped as its protagonist.

It’s a consistently threatening game, using its wartime setting and horror structure together for non-stop dread. Some of it can be clunky, but that almost adds to its charm. These words pop up often in Frictional Games’ “Amnesia: The Bunker,” a new horror video game experience that seems simple until you realize how much control it’s putting in your hands.

If you think something might be possible to do, it probably is.” “You can overcome most obstacles in multiple ways.

Amnesia: the bunker