Kujlevka is a strange, intelligent game about an old village bureaucrat, already troubled by political upheaval and dreaming of death and trauma, suddenly given the responsibility of communicating and controlling access to what appears to be humanity’s first contact with an alien mind.
All these themes indicate a heavy, self-serious game. But the great strength of Kuylevka is its lightness. While not particularly funny, his consistently wry humor perfectly balances all the talk of political chaos, existential futility, and petty greed. His discovery should have been a clue, really, given that you’re hanging out with skeletons, drinking and commenting on food on a train in outer space.