Experience a next level whodunnit mystery with aliens, AI, and a paranoid band of human survivors.

EarthBreak: Omega Protocol is a mystery puzzle game by Hunt A Killer, who normally specialize in more whodunnit type mysteries played out of a box of clues. This time, however, they offer a rich, mixed-media experience combining a box of physical documents and knicknacks with an online computer interface.

Aliens came to Earth. They poisoned the air and devoured the population. You’ve been rescued from the surface by a pocket of survivors who’d hunkered down in a government intelligence bunker designed to survive nuclear fallout. Enter a world where scouts in hazmat suits sneak around alien patrols to scavenge food and medical supplies and scientists work to perfect an AI that can run a whole community indefinitely.

And the topic on everyone’s mind: Are we safe with access to the surface, or do we seal ourselves inside and trust that we’re self-sufficient?

This society you find yourself in suffers from PTSD in various forms, but mainly paranoia and distrust. Most have lost everyone they’ve cared about. Everyone worries about death finding them. They send notes in code. They encrypt computer files. They hide and squirrel and compartmentalize data.

And someone is trying to sabotage them.

The AI at the heart of the mystery is P.A.T.R.I.C.I.A (it’s a forced acronym, no reason to boggle over it). A mysterious concerned citizen, probably one of the governing Council, needs your help to unravel the double-dealing, and grants you access to the mainframe.

You can access audio files (with passable voice acting), video surveillance recordings, scientific data, logs of supply requisitions, reports from scouting teams, personnel rosters, and a forum like the station’s own Netdoor app all in the service of getting to the bottom of a series of interconnected mysteries.

Along the way, you’ll get to know a cast of characters, all broken by their traumas in some way, and piece together a picture of just who wanted to undercut the efforts of these survivors and why.

Because as far as you know, you’re the only humans left on Earth.

Fair warning, this one’s listed as Hard 5/5 by Hunt A Killer. My wife and I got through it, but we do a lot of these type of things. If you’re new to puzzle box type mysteries, maybe warm up with an easier one.

But if you’re undeterred, pick up a copy of EarthBreak: Omega Protocol and test your puzzling powers!