In 2010, Swedish developer Frictional Games released Amnesia: The Dark Descent, an absolutely bone-chilling low-fi horror about a man trying to keep sane within the depths of a labyrinthine castle inhabited by eldritch terrors. Another developer, The Chinese Room, took on its follow-up, the interesting but considerably less terrifying Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs. Frictional then returned to the fold with 2020’s Amnesia: Rebirth in which players inhabited the unique role of a pregnant woman whose plane had crash-landed in the Algerian desert in 1937.

The Bunker follows the standard Amnesia template: a standalone first-person story featuring an underarmed protagonist who must escape their surroundings by reaching out and touching objects. As French soldier Henri Clément, players will navigate the semi-open world environment while trying to evade the clutches of a single ever-present monster, a foe inspired by the formidably intelligent Xenomorph from 2014 masterpiece Alien: Isolation. Similar to that game, the creature roams the playing area of its own volition and reacts to light and sound.

Frictional’s superb (non-Amnesia) 2015 game, Soma, marked a change of course into more focused storytelling, something that very much influenced Rebirth. So expect some similar narrative shenanigans here; the game is designed to be played multiple times which hints towards something bigger at play.

Released on PS4, Xbox One, PC & Xbox Series X/S on Tuesday 16 May.