Well, if this isn’t a strange blast from the past. If you are well versed in your gaming history, or just lived through it, you might have thought that FMV games were a thing of the past, but The Bunker shows that the genre lives on.
FMV, short for Full Motion Video, is style of game where characters and locations are represented by live-action actors and sets. The genre was in its prevalent during the late 90s, back when 3D modeling was still in its infancy. The genre saw successes with games like Phantasmagoria and the Tex Murphy series. The genre also had its fair share of bad press as well. A while ago, Kotaku wrote about Night Trap which was criticized for its depiction of women back when it was released. The style itself seemed to fade right around the 2000s with Tesla Effect, another entry into the Tex Murphy series, being the last major FMV game to come out. The game launched in 2014 with players from Steam and GOG giving it generally positive reviews.
The Bunker boasts an impressive writing team, according to the PlayStation Blog, the game has borrowed talent from SOMA, The Witcher, and Broken Sword.
The game is set in a nuclear bunker, and you play as John a man born in the bunker the day the bombs fell. Thirty years have passed and John is the only survivor left in the bunker. Haunted by repressed memories John must make his way deeper into the bunker to discover the truth.
Much like traditional FMV games, The Bunker is a point-and-click game. Players will be tasked with solving puzzles, sifting through documents, listening to audio logs. When asked in the comments if the game would be like Myst, an old puzzle game similar to The Witness, Ben Tester, the game’s PR & Community Manager, said that it was more like Heavy Rain.
The game doesn’t have an official release date, however, Tester did say that the game would be out this month for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC.