Nyctophile Studios is a small-sized team from Istanbul, and this is their first project, and it is shaping up to be a great starting introduction into the world of gaming. Released on the 25th July 2025, I was fortunate enough to receive a copy to review on PC. Available across both generations of Xbox, PlayStation, and PC, there are plenty of opportunities for people to experience Death Relives.

Death Relives is a single-player survival horror with four difficulties to choose from. You begin as Adrian on a car journey home with your mother, Julia, through some wet and dark woodlands. You are forced to stop due to something in the road, and Julia goes to investigate. This marks the beginning of the story.

You are forced into searching for your mother in a large mansion, but you are far from alone. Xipe Totec, an ancient god, possesses the halls, and you find yourself running and hiding from him. But this is where things get interesting, bringing a different take on the survival horror genre.

As you will find a God Seed, which is a radar worn on your wrist, white dots on the radar are your current objective, and a red dot is Xipe Totec. This way, you can stay aware of the location at all times.

You will also find weapons that can be used to expel Xipe to the land of the dead, Mictan. With each Xipe respawn, he gains more health and becomes harder to take down. But there is another problem: your seed begins to die while he is there, and if that dies, you die too. You’ll locate syringes to heal, but this will also bring back Xipe.

With this in mind, you will begin to locate your mother and learn about God Xipe and the history of his ancestors. Graphically, the game is quite beautiful for a first title, with some issues at times with frame rates, but it wasn’t enough to spoil the experience.

The ghostly echoes of the past are well created, and the voice-over work is pretty great. Adrian’s voice-over genuinely sounds in terror in the intro sequence.

Sounds are at the same level too, which is enhanced when wearing headphones to gain that environmental sound elevation. I am genuinely taken aback by the effort put into the title.

There is a companion app for the game that allows you to scan in-game QR codes to experience the messaging between Adrian and his father, Jeffry. However, I found this feature unnecessary and gimmicky, and it’s unfortunately full of AI.

Controls are standard with FPS Horror Survival with no over-complicated mechanisms. You will be given button guides throughout the intro and with any new experience you encounter.

Overall, Death Relives is a great new spin on the horror survival genre and a great first project for Nyctophile Studios. For all horror fans alike, I would recommend adding this to your roster.

Written by: Kevin Lal