Developer: The Pixel Hunt, ARTE France, FIGS
Publisher: Playdius
Release: Out now
On: Windows
From: Steam
For: 4, $5, 5
“A game about Syrian refugees” has certain connotations, at least if you are not yourself a Syrian refugee. I expected sustained suffering, a maudlin and desperate tone, confusing cultural differences and a great deal of poetic misery. Which, well, probably says a few uncomfortable things about me, doesn’t it? Because Bury Me, My Love, which plays out as a quasi-real-time text message conversation documenting one Syrian’s dramatic attempt to reach safe harbour, isn’t defined by any of those things.
It’s just as much (if not more) about shoes and emojis and jokes and irrepressible optimism in the face of rising darkness.