Nameless Graves by Rinanda Hidayat is a short PC game that puts you in the role of a military clerk. Instead of fighting the war, your job is to match war victims’ bodies with the list of missing persons. Let’s find out what this game offers!
No Longer About War
Imagine being part of the military, but not to fight in the war. Not even to plan attacks. You just sit at your desk, staring at a list of names of soldiers who went missing during a conflict.
One by one, corpses are brought to you. Bodies with no names, no clear stories. And somehow, it’s your job to complete those stories.
That’s the silent world of Nameless Graves, a short indie game made by Rinanda Hidayat. You’ll examine each corpse carefully, check their height, weight, and how they died.
Were they severed? Crushed? Shot? What part of the body was injured? The head, the torso, the arms, the legs? Every detail has to match the missing persons list. And from there, you make a decision if this is the right person.
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Mentally Exhausting
At first, it feels simple enough. You sit at your work desk, reading and comparing data. But the longer you play, the weirder it gets.
The edges of your screen start to darken. A vignette effect slowly creeping in, day by day. Eventually, you’ll find yourself having to drag your cursor to the dark areas just to see clearly.
Why does this happen? The game never tells you. It feels like the pressure keeps getting heavier. It’s like your character’s eyes are also tired, worn out from seeing so many dead bodies.
And surely this isn’t just a visual effect. Maybe it means something deeper? No voices. No friends. Just you, paperwork, and the bodies.
Cost of a Life
Nameless Graves doesn’t tell you who you are, where you are, or why this war is even happening. Every time a corpse is brought in, you get this sense of curiosity. Who were they? Is their family still looking for them? And if we stop searching, who will?
In the game, you’re tasked to assign a status to missing people who haven’t been found yet. If someone’s been missing for a day, they’re still considered on duty. Two to four days? They’re being searched for. Four to six days? Officially missing. Beyond seven days? Presumed dead.
And your job is to match the bodies you receive with those statuses. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll help bring closure to a story that never got an ending.
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Short but Heavy
The game itself doesn’t take long to finish. Just around 10 to 15 minutes to finish. But the emotional weight lingers for long.
There’s no horror music, no jump scares. But the atmosphere is heavy.
The silence is loud. Every click, every file check, feels like it carries a burden. No big reward, no score. But you know that matching just one name could mean the world to someone’s family.
Worth a Try
If you’re into games with strong vibes and stories that are not told explicitly, you’ll definitely like this one. Nameless Graves isn’t for people looking for action-packed gameplay or complex upgrade systems. But if you enjoy games that make you think and stir up your feelings, this one’s absolutely worth it.
Also, It’s free, tiny in size, and doesn’t require a high-end PC. Just 50 MB (yeah, even smaller than some of my lectures PDFs), but it could be one of the most melancholic and thoughtful experiences you’ll ever get from a screen.
Download it now on itch io!
References:
Rinanda Hidayat – itch.io