The Bunker (video game)

Lore & Background

The game follows the daily routine of John (played by Adam Brown), who grew up in a fallout shelter in Britain following a nuclear war. When an alarm is triggered, the player guides John around the bunker to venture into forgotten areas, recovering his repressed memories and unlocking the bunker's secrets. The entire game is presented with live action footage, using a point-and-click style of adventure gameplay with third- and first-person camera perspectives.

England falls under nuclear attack, forcing people into underground bunkers. In one military bunker, staff member Margaret gives birth to her son John after the bombs fall.

Reader's Guide

The Bunker received mixed reviews following launch, with a Metacritic average score of 68 out of 100 for the PlayStation 4 version and 66 out of 100 for the Xbox One version. Critics praised the game's narrative and actors' performances, but often criticized its lack of interactivity. GamesRadar's David Roberts lauded the sound design and music, calling the synths 'John Carpenter-ian' and noting the quality foley work. IGN's Joe Skrebels called it 'the strangest game played at Gamescom 2016.' Destructoid's Stephen Turner praised the atmospheric mood, while Xbox Achievement's Richard Walker concluded it was 'a linear interactive drama that fails to engender any sense of genuine drama or tension.' Eurogamer's Christian Donlan spoke highly of the production and the real Cold War bunker location but criticized the limited gameplay. The game received three award nominations at the TIGA Games Industry Awards 2016 for Most Original Game, Audio Design, and Game of the Year.

Did You Know?

• The Bunker was filmed entirely at the Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker in Essex, England over 15 days.
• The game's development team includes writers and designers of The Witcher, Broken Sword, and SOMA.
• Adam Brown, who plays John, also played Ori in The Hobbit film series.
• The game received three TIGA Games Industry Awards 2016 nominations: Most Original Game, Audio Design, and Game of the Year.

From Indie Ambition to Full-Production Horror

Splendy Games, a British independent studio, made The Bunker their first major release after the smaller FMV zombie title The Hunting, which had appeared on iOS and Android. The leap in ambition was substantial: the development team brought in writers and a designer who had previously contributed to The Witcher, Broken Sword, and SOMA, lending the project a pedigree in narrative-driven gaming. The entire game was shot over fifteen days at the Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker in Essex, with the full production cycle stretching across a year. Wales Interactive handled publishing, and the title launched in September 2016 on Windows, OS X, and PlayStation 4, with Xbox One following three days later and a Nintendo Switch port arriving in April 2018. The cast was deliberately chosen from recognizable film and television talent: Adam Brown (Ori in The Hobbit film series) starred as John, while Sarah Greene (Hecate Poole in Penny Dreadful, voice of Anne Bonny in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag), Grahame Fox (Ralf Kenning in Game of Thrones), and Jerome St. John Blake (various Star Wars roles) rounded out the principal performers.

A Story of Survival, Guilt, and Choice

The narrative is set in a British military fallout shelter following a nuclear strike on England on July 3, 1986. Margaret, a bunker staff member, gives birth to her son John in the very moment the bombs fall. Three decades later, John is the last living soul in the facility after his mother dies of old age. His rigid daily routine—checking systems, taking medication, never straying from his isolated section—shatters when the bunker's server crashes. Forced to descend through levels two, three, four, and five to restore critical systems, John accidentally triggers a contaminated backup air filter and fractures his arm. The crisis unlocks repressed childhood memories: twenty years earlier, Margaret discovered that commander Hurley had concealed the truth that supplies would last less than a year and all external contact was lost. To protect her son, she manipulated the young John into poisoning the ventilation system, killing every staff member except Hurley, who was then shot by John in a desperate confrontation. Now haunted by the ghosts of those he killed, John faces a final choice at the emergency exit: remain with Margaret's spirit and succumb to radiation, or step outside into air whose safety is unknown.

Point-and-Click Horror in a Real Cold War Site

The Bunker presents its story entirely through live-action footage, employing a point-and-click adventure structure that guides the player through John's environment. The camera alternates between third-person and first-person perspectives, shifting between present-day sequences and flashback material to weave together the timeline. Gameplay revolves around following John's daily routine until an alarm compels the player to navigate the bunker's forgotten areas, recovering repressed memories and uncovering the facility's buried secrets. The setting itself is a genuine Cold War-era nuclear bunker—the Kelvedon Hatch site in Essex—which gives the corridors, ladders, and sealed rooms an authenticity that is difficult to replicate artificially. The game's five levels function as a progressive descent, each one revealing new layers of the story and escalating the physical danger, from a broken arm to spreading radiation. The point-and-click interface keeps the player's agency focused on exploration and observation rather than combat, making the experience feel closer to an interactive film than a traditional video game.

A Divided Critical Verdict

Critics responded to The Bunker with a notably split assessment. Metacritic tallied an average of 68 out of 100 for the PlayStation 4 version and 66 for Xbox One, reflecting a consensus of mixed opinions. The narrative and the cast's performances drew the most consistent praise, with reviewers singling out the atmospheric tension and claustrophobic mood. GamesRadar's David Roberts highlighted the sound design, comparing the synth work to John Carpenter and noting how the foley and music made distressing scenes genuinely unsettling. IGN's Joe Skrebels, writing from Gamescom 2016, called it the strangest game he had played at the event and exactly the kind of thing one attends conventions to discover. Destructoid's Stephen Turner commended the close-ups, security-camera footage, and lighting for capturing paranoia. However, a recurring criticism was the game's limited interactivity; Xbox Achievement's Richard Walker dismissed it as a linear interactive drama that never generates genuine tension, and Eurogamer's Christian Donlan, while praising the production, noted the real bunker was the true star of the show.

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