Amnesia: The Bunker proves that Open World Games don't have to be big
6Open world games have been a staple for AAA-games and every new game tries to be bigger, vaster and include more side-missions, NPCs, and collectibles than anyone could count. But is it necessary for a good open world game?
Enter Frictional Games most recent horror game Amnesia: The Bunker.
Stuck in the titular bunker amidst the first world war and surrounded by very aggressive German soldiers, the protagonist suffers from - you guessed it - amnesia and has to piece together what happened by finding notes and exploring his surroundings. Sure enough, he soon finds out that he is not alone but shares his accomodations with a foul, loud, and gigantic beast that hides in the walls but is happy to come out and wreak heavoc whenever you party too loudly.
With gameplay options that involve grenades, flares, a gun, bandages and a noisy party flashlight, the protagonist soon gets access to the different sections of the bunker and can gather resources such as life-saving fuel to keep on the lights (which the monster hates) and to find out what really happened. On top of this, he has to find the right items to get the hell out of this place.
The saving screen tells the player often enough that there are many different ways to play the game. Grenades are not just there to keep the monster at bay for a while or blow up some rats. They can also help break down obstacles - with the caveat that the noise will inevitably alert our good old wall-crawling friend. Most objectives can be solved by finding the right clues through the notes but can also be reached by being very patient and thorough when going through all rooms, nooks, and crannies to look for items. There is a certain order to the main objectives but within their confides is a small but gratifying world to play as you like: gung-ho and noisy, careful and elegantly or - like myself - a chaotic mess stumbling and bumbling your way through the different sections.
The beauty of Amnesia: The Bunker is that after a short tutorial section all levels are open for the entirety of the game (of course with some locked doors which need to be opened through sheer force or ingenuity). The Bunker offers you plenty opportunities to backtrack, explore, and restock your supplies. It is by definition an open world game that uses the small map to its advantage.
A small map can be incredibly useful to tell a tight story that is still full of many little details and subtleties. Slowly getting to know the many tight corridors and dark labyrinthian rooms can help the player to be more bold in their approach and get a grasp of life in the bunker itself. A map too large would mean for many players that they'd never get fully familiar with their surroundings. But in the bunker, you sooner or later know your hiding spots, dead ends and the "bad corners" where lights are out or rats make life harder for you.
Every room offers some sort of world building, from notes to hidden wine crates up to a box full of fingers?
The objectives tie into our protagonist's goal to escape the bunker and all collectibles (aka notes and photographs) are closely tied to the main story. It makes sense to forego the main goal to look for resources and thus increase your chances of survival. It even makes sense to look for notes since our protagonist wants and needs to find out what happened to his comrades and his best friend. And for the player, the open world allows for a game-style variety that rewards stealth experts and fans of the classic Amnesia as well as people who just want to blow shit up (and run for it).
Whereas gigantic maps can offer so much more gameplay, they also often lose a little bit of their tension and immediacy. The urgency of any crucial, life- and earth-saving mission tends to get lost once you stop every few steps for a side quest, to learn how to play and master a card game or collect trinkets. In Amnesia The Bunker, the main goal is impossible to forget because the threat is always there, collectibles are needed to get the hell out of there.
Thus, the main objective never gets lost and everything we do closely ties in with the core story and characters which helps us relate much more to their fate even if we only get a few notes and diary entries, pictures and remnants of their lives in the bunker.
I am not saying that every open world game has to be short. But I am saying that a small map and a playing time that can easily fit into one or two afternoons can help keep a game crisp, enjoyable, tense and immersive. In fact, it helps to polish the things that do matter: environments and visuals, sound effects, gameplay mechanics, puzzles and the writing. Instead of half-assing all of these things to stuff as much content as possible into the game and risk having mediocre gameplay or empty landscapes of no value, a developer team can full-ass them and create a nearly picture-perfect gaming experience like Amnesia The Bunker.
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