Confused on Steam Play and Proton? Be sure to check out our guide.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.
Note: I personally collaborated with the Spanish translation of this game, so to avoid people thinking that I'm biased towards it, this article will be strictly descriptive. I'm sure the quality of the game will speak by itself.

If you're looking to play an adventure game but you don't have a lot of time, then you may be interested to check out Sisyphus Reborn, a lightweight (300 MB) and short existential adventure that will only take you 40 minutes to finish (and that includes getting all the achievements). It was released for Linux exactly two months ago, as indicated in this announcement, where you can also find the person who made the port credited.

image
The premise and tone of the game is very philosophical: you wake up in a strange but upsetting world where everybody is doomed to live forever, and you have to either find a way to escape or to develop a meaningful reason to spend the rest of the eternity here. You won't be alone in this place and you'll be pointed towards certain courses of action, but the last word will be yours, therefore the game has four possible endings depending on what you finally choose to do. Since the title aims primarily to make you think about your existence and purpose in life its difficulty is easy, so even if you aren't accustomed to these kind of adventures you still won't find major problems to solve it.

Besides the characteristic visual style, the game has a particularly distinctive atmospheric soundtrack (free in this link) and main theme, which is one of the easiest to remember in some time, and very fit to whistle it. It's the one at 0:33 in the following official trailer:

YouTube Thumbnail
YouTube videos require cookies, you must accept their cookies to view. View cookie preferences.
Accept Cookies & Show   Direct Link

In addition, if you want to support the single developer behind the game, you can buy the Collector's Edition and you'll get access to some small extra content.

It would be nice to have a philosopher among the readers who can share his/her impressions and also to write about some of the different existential themes addressed in the plot. Also, I'm curious to know what would you do in the same hypothetical situation than the main character, what would be your ultimate fate in your personal case? Mine could be either the...
Spoiler, click me
'happy' ending or the 'insanity' one
...contingent to how difficult would be to reach the former. The game might be short, but it will surely manage to make you think about topics like these for a considerable time after you finish it...

image
Official site: Sisyphus Reborn
Steam Store page: Sisyphus Reborn

About the game (Official)
Sisyphus Reborn is a short atmospheric existential adventure game. Light on puzzles and heavy on atmosphere, the game focuses on exploring philosophical ideas in a short form context.

You wake up in a world where everyone digs forever and no one dies. You will never know why or how you came to be there, but now that you are...

How do you find meaning in a meaningless world?

Features
- Simple Point & Click interface
- Approximately 30 minutes game length
- Unique low-res hand drawn art style
- Atmospheric soundtrack
- Free! Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
1 Likes
About the author -
author picture
Just a regular Linux user (not even a programmer at the moment of contributing) who used to mostly write about obscure but still interesting games with native support, in an effort to help them gain a bit of deserved exposure.

Guest Writer
February 2016 - September 2016
June 2019
December 2019 - April 2020

Contributing Editor
September 2016 - July 2017

Opinions at the moment of writing the articles were mine, though in some cases contents were edited or critical information was added by GOL Editors before approval.

See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
All posts need to follow our rules. For users logged in: please hit the Report Flag icon on any post that breaks the rules or contains illegal / harmful content. Guest readers can email us for any issues.
5 comments

Eike Nov 28, 2016
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
I have played it and liked it.
It's not... erm... having much positive vibes, though. :)
Keep on telling us about such strange stuff!
Nezchan Nov 28, 2016
Game doesn't respect my dual-monitor setup, tries to use both as one big display. Not finding any real options to change it to windowed mode either.


Last edited by Nezchan on 28 November 2016 at 5:55 pm UTC
Naib Nov 28, 2016
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
sounds (and reads if drunk) too much like Syphilis
-Daniel-Palacio- Nov 28, 2016
sounds (and reads if drunk) too much like Syphilis
Don't get drunk then.
Nezchan Dec 1, 2016
Huh, turns out all I had to do was add "--windowed" to the launch options. That was easy.
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.