Frictional Games
My name is Gibson Vasela. I am a freelance writer who has been playing video games for almost 20 years now. I play all kinds of games, but I especially love immersive sims and RPGs.
Reviewed by Benjamin Barr
With the recent release of Amnesia: The Bunker, returning fans of the Amnesia series have been asking themselves, “Is this new game good? Is it better than the last one?” While both these entries are similar, they are also very different in several ways. It isn’t obvious at first glance which one is better.
That’s where we come in. Here in this article, we are going to be walking you through the differences between both games, giving our takes on which one is better and which you should play. I have played through and beaten both games, and I’m a long-time fan of the series, so I feel qualified to answer.
Amnesia: Rebirth vs. Amnesia: The Bunker
Without further ado, let’s jump right into the article!
Gameplay
Let’s start out with gameplay. Both Amnesia: Rebirth and Amnesia: The Bunker are survival horror games. Both are played from a first-person perspective. And in both games, you are faced with several different enemies that you need to escape from and/or navigate around. However, these two games differ in their design philosophies quite significantly.
Amnesia: Rebirth is a more traditional survival horror experience. You are unable to defend yourself from enemies, and your only options when encountering a monster is to run, hide, or both. You can do this in Amnesia: The Bunker as well. However, The Bunker features several elements of an immersive sim. You are given multiple different options for how you want to handle the monster. You shoot it, lay a trap for it, create distractions, and of course, run and/or hide.
Both games also feature puzzles to solve, but they differ in many ways. Rebirth sees a lot of environmental puzzles that can vary greatly from one puzzle to the next. The Bunker does have a few unique puzzles, but not many. Most “puzzles” (for lack of a better word) are simple obstacles you need to overcome. This includes things like wooden doors and locks. These are common throughout the bunker and can be solved in multiple different ways.
Difficulty
Many fans were disappointed by the monsters you would encounter in Rebirth. They were nowhere near as threatening difficulty-wise as they were in The Dark Descent. You could run past them or even bump straight into them and live to tell the tale. This took away some of the “survival” element of survival horror, and for that reason, people rightfully thought the game was too easy.
Frictional Games has fixed this problem in Amnesia: The Bunker by ramping up the challenge. In the hardest mode, the monster is aggressive and intelligent. Making the wrong move or getting too close often results in death. And it can easily track you down if you are heavily bleeding. Additionally, resources are scarce, forcing you to use them wisely.
If you love a challenging game, then The Bunker is definitely the better pick between the two.
Replayability
Replayability is something a lot of people look for when deciding what games to buy, so it’s worth mentioning. Rebirth is a game that does not really feature a whole lot of replay value. Sure there are multiple endings, but you can always just reload a save to right before you chose to experience them. The game is still great fun to play through again, but it’s not like there is a big incentive to go through it a second time.
Amnesia: The Bunker, on the other hand, was specifically designed to be very replayable. Certain items and obstacles will spawn in random places on each playthrough. You might find some really useful items in one room on your first playthrough, but nothing at all on your second one. You can also complete your main objectives in (more-or-less) any order, which further adds to the amount of replayability that this game has to offer.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere of a horror game is probably one of the most important parts. While good gameplay and a solid story can make you win or lose many players, oftentimes the atmosphere is the first thing you judge when you see a trailer or screenshots of a game. Rebirth takes place in two main settings: the Algerian desert, and a strange, alien dimension. The desert environments feel hot and harsh but also manage to make the player feel isolated and alone.
The desert interiors are dark and dreary, with minimal light. There are also underground segments that remind me a lot of the castle from The Dark Descent. The alien world that you visit is just OOZING with atmosphere! It’s a post-apocalyptic nightmare that will make anyone’s hairs stand on edge. I remember my first time seeing it, I just stopped and looked around and took everything in.
The Bunker also has a really great atmosphere as well. Set in the middle of World War I, you are trapped inside of a dark bunker that is constantly shaking due to the gunfire and mortar strikes from the surface. Later on you visit some ancient Roman ruins, which are really fascinating to look at but don’t invoke the same feelings of claustrophobia that the bunker’s interior does.
As for which one is better… That’s a hard one. Rebirth’s alien dimension is really, really fantastic. The Algerian desert is good, but not as memorable or terrifying as the WWI-era bunker. I’ll give this one to Rebirth because I’m a huge sucker for cosmic horror, and that’s what that game does better.
Story
When it comes to the story, Amnesia games have always made sure to make it a top priority. Rebirth follows the story of a young woman who is pregnant. The game starts off with her waking up in the deserts of Algeria near a crashed plane. She does not remember how she got here, and must travel through Algeria–and a strange, alternate dimension–to piece together what happened and return home.
The Bunker’s story is much shorter and more simplistic. You are a French soldier fighting in the trenches of World War I. After rescuing your injured friend during a battle, you awaken inside of a dark, dusty bunker, with no recollection of how you arrived there. All of your comrades are dead. And worse, there is a horrifying creature inside the bunker that is actively hunting you down. The escape route is blocked, and you need to blow it up to escape.
Both stories are good for different reasons. Rebirth is a cosmic horror. The Bunker touches lightly into cosmic horror elements, but for the most part its a classic tale of a horrifying monster hunting down and killing humans. Rebirth features a voiced protagonist that not many fans liked, whereas The Bunker had a silent one. Personally, I liked Rebirth’s story better. It’s much longer and more in-depth, with lots of interesting story moments. The story in The Bunker is a lot shorter and less interesting, but still good.
Endings
Both Rebirth and The Bunker feature three different endings. However, the quality between the two games is night and day. Rebirth’s endings all feel very distinct and different from one another. And each one is morally gray, forcing the player to really stop and think about which ending is the “best.”
As for The Bunker, however, the endings were nowhere near as interesting. Two of the endings are almost exactly the same, save for one small difference. And the third isn’t really a full ending. As for the main two endings of the game, they are interesting enough, but they are nihilistic and–in my opinion–underdeveloped.
Final Verdict: Which is Better?
Both games we discussed today are incredibly fun, and I highly recommend them to all Amnesia fans and survival horror junkies. However, not all games are created equal, and these two are no different. Our pick for the best game out of these two is…
Amnesia: The Bunker!
This is an innovative game that takes everything we loved about past Amnesia games and adds in a host of new features to really make it feel fresh. It’s an immersive sim that gives players multiple different ways to overcome problems, giving us a sense of agency we’ve never gotten before in an Amnesia game. While the game is short, it makes up for it with high replayability.
While Rebirth is a good game, it oftentimes felt more like a walking simulator than a full-blown survival horror game. The Bunker remedies this problem with non-stop scares and an atmosphere that always keeps its players on edge. While you should definitely play both, if you could only get one you should DEFINITELY pick up Amnesia: The Bunker.
Join the High Ground
We hope that you enjoyed reading this article: Amnesia: Rebirth vs. Amnesia: The Bunker – Which One is Better. What are your thoughts on these two games? Be sure to let us know in the comments. And subscribe to our weekly newsletter for more regular guides and features on all your favorite games.
Happy gaming!
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