Smashing Through a Post-Apocalyptic Void
A new survival game? In the era of Resident Evil: Requiem? All I can say is that the developers must have a lot of faith in their abilities to craft a game!
I guess the real question we need to concern ourselves with is a simple one though – what can From the Bunker, the creation of Upscale Studio and SergOBW, offer? Pull up a chair and I’ll lay it on the line for you.
Kicking off with the story of the game and it seems fairly straightforward, to be honest. We are in a bunker, and armed with nothing but some kind of axe/hammer hybrid tool. From there comes the need to escape. The bunker in question is apparently crumbling and post-apocalyptic, but you’ll only glean those details from the Xbox store page, rather than from any kind of storytelling in the game itself.
Gas Masks and Smashable Pallets
If we take a look at the presentation of From the Bunker, and it’s all fairly basic. The action is viewed from a top down, three quarter isometric perspective, with not a sign of any movable camera malarkey here! Through exploration, we have to use our tool to smash up everything present: boxes, barrels, pallets and so on. Each item smashed is drawn nicely enough, and you can certainly tell the difference between the various items.
Our hero is a short guy in a gas mask and a fetching black jump suit, and while enemies are thin on the ground, they are represented decently enough. Further, the rooms available for exploration come in various sizes and havea number of routes to find and explore. The graphics work well enough for what we need to do, but fast and furious this game isn’t.
Sound is equally restrained and low key, with a few swishes as things are smashed, and some impacts heard depending on the item being hit. And that is really all she wrote: there are simple games, and then there is From the Bunker. However, for the style of gameplay, the graphics and sound do work quite well.
The Upgrade Loop
Sticking with the gameplay, there isn’t a massive amount of survival required in this survival game, to be honest. As it kicks off, we’re left to pick up our tool, and then start smashing stuff. Each item requires a certain level of tool to allow for breakage and so the core of the gameplay is the upgrading of the tool loop.
Basically, we start by smashing the stuff that is present (just wooden things initially) and then take the materials collected to a workbench. Obviously, each level of the tool requires different upgrade materials, and handily, if we go near the bench, it displays what is needed until the next level, working up to Level 15.
Zen-Like Exploration
Smashing, collecting and upgrading our way through the bunker, allows us to stumble upon a pistol. As part of the tutorial, we shoot a zombie with said pistol, but after that, I never had to use it again: seems a bit odd to include an item we use once, but what the hey. What this means in practice is that we are free to wander around the bunker minding our own business, and nothing is going to interfere with us.
The overall goal is to escape the bunker, and to do this, we will need to find and repair a car that is handily placed just outside. Of course, bits are required for that to happen, and this requires us to explore the bunker, which in turn means further upgrading of that tool to keep smashing through doors and so on. And that is it; the end result is kind of zen, helped by the controls.
You see, all we need to do is move our hero around, and he will swing his mighty tool about all on his own. The only buttons required are those attached to the various workbenches dotted around, as we confirm how many cogs or planks should be created. These are then used to open doors or upgrade the tool. From there? Well, rinse and repeat ad infinitum.
A Brief Escape with Zero Replayability
The problem with From the Bunker is that it is so linear, and so simple, that once you have played through and escaped, the replay value is almost zero. On my first run through the game, I picked up 10 of the available 11 achievements, and to be honest, playing through to get the last one probably won’t be high on the agenda.
From the Bunker does provide an hour’s worth of entertainment, but once you’ve escaped there is no completion screen, and no desire to ever play it again. You are merely told the game is over. And that is about it.
There are much better, longer lasting games out there, and so From the Bunker is hard to recommend to anyone but the most time poor of gamers.
Important Links
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/from-the-bunker/9ph3w36sqg16
