Intro: A New Monster Hidden In The Shadows
In the age of jump scares and oversaturated tropes, horror as a genre often feels like one of the most crowded and formulaic spaces in gaming. Finding a game that isn’t built on cheap startles or endless wandering can be tough. Let’s be real-those games can be fun, but they rarely take risks. Ghosts, ghouls, and shambling undead have become the expected faces of horror over the past decade. But every now and then, something different creeps in. Death Relives may not be perfect, but it takes some bold swings that horror fans will want to pay attention to.
Story and World: Creepy Mansion ✅Aztec God ✅
The story starts deceptively simple. The opening cutscene shows Adrian, the player character, driving with his mother, who’s proudly reminiscing about his college graduation. That calm moment is cut short when she notices a body lying in the middle of the road. She steps out to investigate, and almost immediately the nightmare begins. The corpse springs to life, drags Adrian’s mother into the nearby forest, and suddenly the player is thrown into chaos.
Chasing after her, Adrian encounters a shadowy figure in the ceremonial garb of an Aztec priest. Just as things escalate, the screen goes black and Adrian awakens back in the car. Following a trail of blood, he’s faced with one impossible choice: enter the decrepit mansion looming before him, or abandon his mother to a twisted fate.
The mansion setting is one of horror’s oldest tricks, but Death Relives manages to make it feel suffocatingly personal. Its crumbling halls are lined with locked cells, skeletal remains, and hiding places you’ll soon learn to rely on. But what really sets the game apart isn’t the mansion itself-it’s what stalks its halls.
The main threat isn’t just another masked killer or ghostly phantom; it’s Xipe Totec, the Aztec god of agriculture, reimagined here as a towering monstrosity of muscle and malice. As Adrian, you’re forced into a constant game of cat and mouse with a being that feels truly godlike, and the tension of simply surviving in his presence gives the game its edge.
Gameplay: Surprisingly Varied In It’s Execution
Gameplay-wise, Death Relives leans on familiar horror mechanics but adds a unique twist. Adrian is given two tools: a cursed Aztec firearm, resembling a souped-up double-barrel shotgun, that can temporarily banish Xipe Totec to Mictlan (the Aztec underworld), and a ceremonial blade that dispatches the priests loyal to him.
The catch is clever-each time Xipe returns, it takes one additional shot to banish him again, creating a steadily mounting pressure. You can fight back, sure, but he’s terrifyingly fast, and eventually brute force won’t cut it. Hiding in closets, boxes, and dark corners becomes less of an option and more of a survival necessity.
On top of the hide-and-seek tension, the game peppers in puzzles that break up the pacing. Some are simple-color matching, lever-turning-while others require careful observation and problem-solving. They’re never overly complex, but the real tension comes from knowing Xipe Totec could interrupt you mid-puzzle at any moment.
It’s an effective way of keeping you on edge. That said, outside of the priests and Xipe himself, the horror elements can feel a little limited. Once you’ve experienced a few of these encounters, the repetition starts to creep in. The game does introduce some clever twists toward the end, but I’ll leave those unspoiled.
At around 2_3 hours, Death Relives isn’t a long experience, but it’s one that lingers. It succeeds in making you feel small, powerless, and constantly under threat from the things bumping around in the dark. The inclusion of an Aztec god as the central antagonist is both refreshing and unnerving in the same breathe, lending the game an identity that stands out in a sea of more generic horror titles.
While it could benefit from a wider variety of scares, the oppressive atmosphere, puzzle integration, and relentless game of survival against a literal god all make it worth the time for horror fans.
Final Thoughts: A New Twist in a Saturated Genre
Death Relives doesn’t reinvent the genre, but more than anything it embraces its inspirations while bringing a new kind of fear to the table. It’s unsettling, tense, and surprisingly creative. If you’re craving a short but memorable horror experience, stepping into Adrian’s nightmare might be worth the risk-just be ready to feel hunted every step of the way.
Death Relives was reviewed on PC and was released on the 28th of July 2025.
