Bury me, my Love

These are minor things, but slightly destabilising things. Not to the point that this is not a journey worth making. The intensity of the decisions, the mounting fear when things go wrong or days pass without hearing from your partner, the relief when a message comes, the joy of silliness in uncertain times, the dogged sense of hope even after a string of disasters. Bury Me, My Love isn't, first and foremost, a treaty about refugee-ism: it's a compelling and effective game about deciding what the hell to do next.

You wait impatiently for your wife to answer. It's been an hour, but it feels like forever. Your only connection is through text message, as she journeys through war-torn Syria in an attempt to flee for her life. Just as you're about to text again, a notification pops up.

Message received.

Using only text messages, Bury me, my Love develops two relatable main characters and tells the engaging story of a Syrian woman’s search for refuge in Europe after her sister is killed in a bombing. The game rewards multiple playthroughs with its compelling writing and interesting storylines, though replaying the same passages can be tedious.

The former omission likely stems from the game’s second significant issue: Bury Me, My Love began life as a mobile game and it seems that relatively little has been done to enhance it. The Nintendo Switch version of the game has a feature whereby you can play the game in portrait mode, but the touch controls are rather unwieldy. So you’re left playing it with a joypad, which makes it harder to ease yourself into the game’s text-messaging world.