Amnesia: The Bunker

Amnesia: The Bunker Release Date: 2023 Developer: Frictional Games Series: Amnesia Platforms: PC Genre: Stealth Horror

Amnesia: The Bunker is the fourth title in the Amnesia series of survival horror games; it is the first game in the series to feature combat, though Frictional Games' first horror series, Penumbra, did feature melee combat. The bunker's main antagonistic monster is invincible, with weaponry only stunning it or making it briefly retreat (for how long depending on difficulty), with it promptly returning in an angry, harder to fend off state, making combat more of a last-ditch means to force the monster to retreat to allow the player to find a hiding spot or the saferoom quickly.

Set in 1916, players control Henri Clément, a French infantryman who wakes up inside his unit's bunker complex with no memory of how he got there. The bunker has been seemingly abandoned, with only the dead bodies of his fellow soldiers to keep Henri company. However, he soon finds out he is not a alone- a mysterious, light-sensitive monstrosity known only as "the Beast" is stalking the halls. Armed with only a flickering flashlight and a revolver with certainly not enough ammunition, Henri sets out on a desperate quest to find a way out of the bunker alive.

The following weapons appear in the video game Amnesia: The Bunker:

Revolvers

MAS Mle. 1892

The "Gun" is an Mle 1892 Revolver, being given to Henri Clément by an injured French soldier to end his suffering, however when Henri obtains ammunition for it, the poor soldier is dragged off and killed before Henri can put him out of his misery. The in-game revolver is mirrored, with the cylinder swinging out to the left instead of the right. It can be used both to force the monster to briefly retreat (though the monster will swiftly return in an enraged state where it will take two shots to force it to retreat if the player doesn't use the monster's retreat to hide/flee to a safe area) and as one of the methods to open locks, at the cost of noise and ammunition. As is typical for video games; Henri manages to eject the spent casings from the Mle. 1892 by simply shaking it.

Revolver d'ordonnance modèle 1892 - 8x27mmSR

The "Gun" in the inventory menu.

Henri checks his empty revolver in the prologue.

Henri explores the bunker armed with his hand-cranked dynamo powered flashlight and gun.

Henri recharges his flashlight while holding his gun; the flashlight's cranking noise is audible to the monster.

Having found some rare ammunition, Henri inserts a bullet into his gun.

Henri rotates the cylinder after loading the bullet with a total of three bullets in his gun.

In the "Training Grounds"; a firing range/obstacle course introduced in updates and unlocked after beating the game, Henri finally gets to have a fully loaded revolver which is a rare sight in the main game.

Henri aims the gun; aiming the gun with the flashlight out will have Henri's aim sway, while aiming without the flashlight will have him steady his aim due to the two-handed grip.

A box of Revolver Ammo; sadly each box contains only one bullet. Note that while the box correctly describes it as 8mm ammunition, it incorrectly claims that the ammunition is for Lefaucheux Revolvers, which use a completely different style of ammunition (pinfire, rather than the Mle. 1892's centerfire).

Shotguns

Winchester Model 1897 "Trench Gun"

The Winchester Model 1897 "Trench Gun" appears as the "Shotgun" and is the the second and last firearm available to the player. It does more damage than the Mle 1892 revolver, requiring only a single point-blank blast to force the Beast to retreat, but ammunition for the shotgun is even scarcer than the revolver. The weapon can obtained from the Tunnels and rarely it will appear in one of the lockers allowing the player to obtain it faster. It is mildly anachronistic as the Trench Gun variant of the M1897 was introduced in 1917 on request of the US Army. Regardless, it is an unlikely weapon to find in a French bunker as France, like other European powers involved in the war, did not issue shotguns as weapons in an official capacity.

Winchester Model 1897 "Trench Gun" - 12 gauge

The "Shotgun" in the inventory menu.

The shotgun on the ground.

Holding the M1897 and flashlight together; the shotgun is always held pointing upwards with one hand when not aiming/reloading.

Henri checks his empty shotgun.

The shotgun loaded; the player can only see at most if the shotgun has two shells loaded (with a shell in the chamber and magazine tube).

Back in the saferoom, Henri aims the shotgun.

Henri fires the shotgun at the Training Grounds.

A box of Shotgun Ammo, found far earlier than the weapon itself.

A close-up of the ammo with the text visible; just like the revolver ammunition, each box only contains one shell rather than the stated 10. The player will need to be extremely lucky to encounter 10 shells in the entirety of the story mode.

Rifles

Lebel Mle 1886

A Lebel Mle 1886 appears as part of a propaganda poster in the Bunker's locker section.

Lebel Mle 1886 - 8x50mmR Lebel

Henri looks at the poster, wondering if maybe the additional stopping power of a rifle that he doesn't have would actually be enough to deal with his stalker.

Mauser Gewehr 1898

In a brief encounter in the prologue, Henri finds himself pinned down by four German soldiers shooting at him with Mauser Gewehr 1898 rifles; the player is able to fire back and kill the soldiers while any survivors are killed by his friend Lambert, who also carries this rifle in the prologue.

Mauser Gewehr 1898 - 7.92x57mm Mauser

Henri aims his revolver at the German riflemen.

Lambert hands Henri a gas mask with his rifle in his other hand.

Explosives

Mk 2 Hand Grenade

The "Grenade" is a Mk 2 hand grenade. It is anachronistic (the grenade was not made until 1918) and out-of-place (French forces should be using the F1 instead). Grenades also appear as part of booby traps in the bunker. Notably, grenades can actually destroy doors as a means to open them, though at the cost of one less obstacle for the monster, one less weapon to force the monster to retreat, and the monster itself surely being drawn to the blast.

Mk 2 hand grenade

The Mk 2 Grenade in the inventory menu.

Henri holds his time travelling Mk 2 Grenade.

Henri prepares to throw his grenade.

A grenade dropped on the ground.

In the prologue, Henri uses a grenade to blast open a door; you can see the door mid-destruction ahead of him.

A tripwire grenade trap.

Suffocante Mle 1916

The Suffocante Mle 1916 appears as the "Gas Grenade". It's effective with dealing with the mutated rats and forcing the Beast to retreat but the gas can damage Henri if he doesn't have a gas mask. In the prologue, German soldiers use these grenades to try to gas Henri as part of a scripted event.

Suffocante Mle 1916

The "Gas Grenade" in the inventory menu.

Henri holds a gas grenade.

Preparing to throw a gas grenade.

Henri tests out some gas grenades in the Training Grounds while wearing a gas mask.

A gas grenade tripwire.

Molotov Cocktail

Henri can craft Molotov cocktails (named "Petrol Bomb" in-game as the moniker "Molotov cocktail" would be anachronistic) from bottles, cloth, and fuel. They were unusable in the demo due to the lack of a lighter.

The "Petrol Bomb" in the inventory.

Henri holds a petrol bomb.

Preparing to throw it.

Dynamite

Much of Henri's quest revolves around acquiring dynamite from the locked-down Arsenal as part of the required items in order to escape the bunker.

Henri discovers dynamite in the Arsenal; only the the bundle can be picked up, the individual sticks are unusable.

Henri holds the dynamite.

Henri prepares the dynamite.