Buried Alive: Breathless Rescue is an Indie action-thriller escape simulator, developed by Geekon and published by Midnight Games. I was fully under the impression that this was an escape-the-clone/crypt-type deal, but I swiftly found that there is a whole story to uncover and a variety of locations to explore. This was a nice surprise, and one of the reasons why I love diving into reviews with no clue on what to expect, especially Indie games.

You play as Jack, waking up to find himself buried alive after his buck’s night. You must escape and find your fiancé, Hanna, who is also trapped somewhere, and you will discover that this is no mere buck’s night prank. It’s something deeper and much darker. Using the clues given and surviving the obstacles in your way, discover the mystery of your abduction and the motivations behind it.

Gameplay-wise, and as an Indie game, this is pretty solid, though it could use better control tutorials. You’re left to learn these through trial and error, but you could look at the key binds in the menu. These are fairly simple, with WASD for movement, shift and spacebar to run or jump, tab, Q, and E are your item’s actions and interact keys, and F will turn your lighter or torch on and off.

Only once was there an issue with the game, but it bleeds into the graphics area, and let’s just say that I fell through oblivion. My character went for a behind-the-scenes look at the world he inhabits after falling through the floor, and not being able to die or get out, I had to restart from the last checkpoint. Luckily it was right at the end, so I didn’t have to re-solve anything. Other than that, it looked pretty decent, and there was a lot of detail that didn’t need really to be there, but it was, and it was great.

Creepy sounds and even creepier voice acting help to keep you invested and on edge, though depending on how long you take, the voice lines can get repetitive. I know I always say it, but a voice-acted game, for me, is already a positive. It brings so much more life to a game.

This is a short game, depending on how good you are at problem-solving. It took me roughly two hours to complete, but I also explored a bit to see if there were other little things to uncover. Regardless, I had a good time, and not once did I get bored or want to give up. The puzzles were puzzling and the mystery engaging.

Written by: Adam Brasher