Sitting atop a hill in the Balkan mountains, nestled in central Bulgaria, is a massive concrete monument shaped like a flying saucer situated next to a large pillar adorned with a star. This monument is officially called the ‘Monument House of the Bulgarian Communist Party’ but is often called the Buzludzha Monument or ‘the soviet UFO’. It was built in 1974 to commemorate the events of a group of socialists led by Dimitar Blagoev, who in 1891 started a communist movement in the area. How do I know this? Well, it’s not because I’ve played The Life of Buzludzha, a first person exploration game from BUL Games. That’s for sure.
With a title like “The Life of Buzludzha”, you might have expected an element of narrative to this game. Maybe some information about the monument, how it came to be and why it was built? You would, unfortunately, be incorrect to assume that, as I was. While this game is set in the Buzludzha Monument, with a faithful recreation of its innards, the game itself has nothing to do with communism, soviets or their history. You’ll get more information about the Buzludzha monument from the PlayStation store description of the game than you will from the actual game.
Stinking Switch
Instead, The Life of Buzludzha is essentially an interactive diorama. A recreation of the monument, you’re free to explore some of it. Invisible walls keep you in a small area inside the UFO shape with a few offshoot corridors. As you explore the space, you’ll see a number of switches. All but one of these switches is red. One is active and is green.
The aim of the game is to explore the area and to press the green switch, which activates the next switch. So on. So forth. This would be entirely boring if it wasn’t for the fact that twice during the exploring and flipping of switches, a timer will start. This timer forces the player to quickly find and press the next few buttons before the time runs out. If the timer hits zero, it’s game over, and you have to start the whole game again.
The sequence for pressing the switches is the same for each turn at The Life of Buzludzha, which introduces an element of trial and error. The time limit during these sections is quite tight, so the search for the new green switch to flip can be a little frantic. Once you know where the next switch is, however, it all becomes routine.
That is essentially the core experience of The Life of Buzludzha – run around and flip switches. Even with the tension of the timer looming over proceedings, it’s painfully simple. What’s more, the content only lasts a total of 20 minutes. If you use a guide, it’ll be done in 10.
“You are good job”
The only other positive element about The Life of Buzludzha is the visuals. The Buzludzha Monument is a fascinating setting (which is even more of a shame when the game shares nothing about it), and the art and visuals inside it are thought provoking.
You’ll know all of this if you’ve already played BUL Games’ other title, The Trap or its remake. The setting here was used heavily in this previous game, and The Life of Buzludzha reutilises all of the same environmental assets. You’ll be walking the same halls in both games, only The Trap has a narrative and far more interactivity. I’d accuse this title of being an asset flip, but I’m not actually sure a developer can flip their own assets. At best, it’s recycling. At worst, it’s utilising premade assets in a cynical cash grab just to fill digital stores with more eSlop.
Localisation is also an issue for The Life of Buzludzha. The few lines of text that are present in English in the game are grammatically broken, stilted and don’t make much sense. You can infer the intention from what is there, but it might take a few moments.
It’s probably plainly obvious by this point in the review just how disappointing I found The Life of Buzludzha. Aside from some respectable environmental art (which is recycled), there are very few redeeming qualities. There was a lot of potential with the setting to explore how the monument was constructed, its controversial history and preservation efforts. None of this potential is realised. Unless you’re a huge fan of Bulgarian communism, there’s little reason to play The Life of Buzludzha aside from a cheap Platinum trophy.
The Life of Buzludzha Review is available now on PlayStation 5 (review platform) and PS4.
Developer: BUL Games
Publisher: BUL Games
Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.
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