The Bunker

The Bunker came up as a recommended title a few years back but I didn’t buy it as it seemed quite expensive for what it was. However, it came up in a sale recently so I got it and played it as part of the True Achievements 12 days of Christmas Challenge – which again shows how far behind I am on these reviews. It’s another one I’ve bought and played quickly which makes a change to my usual gaming habits of buying and then letting them collect cyber dust for years.

A quick note on that, I’m not sure if it is being used as a device to get money out of people or what, but the digital marketplace is a treacherous beast. I’ve compiled a list of games I want to buy but I have this devil on my shoulder that keeps on whispering in my ear… what happens if they delist this content from the marketplace? It’s a valid concern. This can happen at any point so the principle of waiting for an item to go on sale or come down in price is now a risk. Game developers could also go bust which leads to delistings and content not being available forever. At least with a hard copy game, you stance the chance of being able to buy an old copy of a delisted marketplace game. But that doesn’t mean I am going to spent in excess of £100 on Kickass 2. Anyway rant over, on to the game review.

The Bunker follows the bizarre story of John, a guy who is born in a bunker after nuclear war breaks out. For some reason, it’s just him and his mum, who immediately dies leaving him alone. Let alone, he sticks to the routine his mother taught him until things start going wrong and he is forced to face demons from the past while everything goes to shit.

The game does well in a lot of areas – story and atmosphere being the two highlights, however there were a few things I didn’t like. The first thing is very personal but I didn’t like having to see John on the toilet while eating his daily helping of food. It was just really unnecessary and didn’t make a lot of sense. Why would you keep your entire food supply right next to the toilet? Mother obviously didn’t teach John any basic hygiene lessons.

The other think, which isn’t as personal, is that I found the navigation controls really clunky. The game is essentially a point and click adventure game, with a really slow moving mouse, as you move through live interactive scenes in the same way as Late Shift.

The highlight is definitely Adam Brown’s portrayal of John, shitting aside. The acting throughout is great in what I can only imagine was a difficult task – playing a character that has had no other human interaction other his mother for 30 years.

The music really adds to the creepy atmosphere and helps emphasise that feeling of emptiness that comes with isolation. However, sometimes it gets obscenely loud for no reason which didn’t make a lot of sense.

Achievements – 1,000 Points – 28 Achievements

Considering it’s such a short game (it can take less than 3 hours to run through) it’s got a lot of achievements. 13 can be obtained by navigating John through the various chapters of the main story. There is another achievement available for choosing a different ending but this can be obtained simply by replying the last chapter.

Outside of this there are collectibles throughout the bunker which amount to John collecting his childhood toys. There are nine of these each carrying an achievement and then another one for collecting them all. There are also documents and cassettes throughout the bunker and you need to read and listen to all of these for another two achievements.

Now, the last two I had to get on another playthrough as I missed them on the first run. The first one of these is really dumb. You have to read to your mother, once when she is alive and twice when she is dead, and there are three books you can read. You get the achievement for reading the three different books. However, one of these books, Treasure Island, is automatically picked for you on the third reading so if you chose to read this book on the first two goes, you screw yourself out of the achievement without knowing it.

The last one I got also doesn’t make any sense. There is a puzzle on the wall in your mother’s room and it’s missing a piece. The achievement is awarded for finding the missing piece which shows up at the end of the game… but it only appears if you look at the picture at the beginning?? Why would looking at a puzzle cause the missing piece to appear? It doesn’t make any logical sense.

Downloadable Content – N/A

The Bunker is a solid story game but it’s not very long and expensive for the content you get – it’s retailing at £15.99 currently on the Xbox marketplace. Also, once you know what happens, running a second playthrough goes from decent to depressing very quickly so there is little replay value after the first 3 hours.