The indie studio behind The Lacerator and Death Elevator have developed a new horror FPS that will have us confront God for answers. Concrete Burial was developed by Games from the Crypt and published by DreadXP under their XP Ultra series.
Concrete Burial will have us exploring ancient catacombs in search of an irrefutable wish. To overcome the four obstacles and ultimately confront God, you’re equipped with a gun that shoots your very own blood. Every attack must be purposeful and deliberate, for every attack slowly kills you.
Concrete Burial has an interesting concept. Underneath it all, it’s a puzzle game disguised as an FPS. As always, we’re walking into the dark shadows of the game and see how the story unfolds. How the atmosphere builds a claustrophobic tension, what kind of gameplay is tucked behind that FPS curtain and the low poly old school graphics add to the experience.
Story
Concrete Burial’s story is not told in a conventional way. You play as a Knight of the Crimson Clan. You choose to go through a trial no one before you has survived. If you manage to succeed, you are granted a single wish from the Entity of Desire.
The objective is deceivingly simple. Go through four areas within the Crooked Wastes and the path of the Whispering Crypt will be revealed to you. Acquire the four artifacts and place them on their pedestals to open the way.
Atmosphere
This game has a bleak tone throughout. From the offset, you get the feeling the lead has gone through a literal Hell. And now she wants God to finally give her answers and to make sense of all that suffering. You’re not going to experience a lot of jump scares, but the constant feeling of dread and panic will keep you nervous throughout.
Gameplay
You must complete the game in a single sitting. Every death and every failure takes you back to the start of a checkpoint. Checkpoints are only achieved when an artifact is placed on a pedestal. Each area can take minutes or hours depending on how quickly you find the constantly shifting artifact. Each death resets the locations of the artifact, enemies and health.
You will come across the bodies of fallen knights and you can absorb their blood to replenish your health and ammo.
Graphics
The game does a great job looking like a throwback to old school PSX games. The world gave me Doom and Hexen vibes, which the latter is rarely talked about.
There are instances where the graphical limitations make it hard to see, especially in the darker areas. But I’m sure this was all by design. The less you see the more careful you are walking around, and sometimes that’s to your hindrance.
Final Word
I enjoyed my time overall with Concrete Burial. Making this a short experience was a smart move, cause there were definitely some areas in the game that caused frustration. But games like this reward you with perseverance and learning the layout as best you can under pressure.
Even though the story bits were minimal, I did like the execution. The ending, especially, was great. Finally having all the pieces fall into place felt satisfying.
I Give Concrete Burial 3 Blood Drops Out of 5