Letters of Bernard Thorne: Paralyzed By The Past

From the mind of the developer of Love, Sam comes this heart-shattering story: Letters of Bernard Thorne.

Released in March 2025, Letters of Bernard Thorne is a two-hour single-player game developed by Korean Linguistics Lab. You can experience this story-driven psychological horror game on Steam or Windows.

**Trigger Warning**

Before you sit down to play this truly devastating game, I feel I must warn you that Letters of Bernard Thorne covers many heavy topics like survivor's guilt, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), drug abuse, elderly neglect, and suicidal ideations. Play at your own discretion.

A Home Filled With Dread

In Letters of Bernard Thorne, you play as a disabled elderly man who is wheelchair bound and unable to stand for prolonged periods of time. This man is Bernard Thorne who is a veteran suffering from PTSD after serving in the Vietnam War. 

Bernard is prescribed Codeine (an opioid pain medication) to help with his chronic pain. His dosage has changed, and he’s now being monitored for a Codeine overdose after falling down a flight of stairs. With the information that Bernard’s Codine dosage has been lowered, the player is also informed that he may be experiencing hallucinations.

From the very beginning, you have an uneasy feeling about this wheelchair accident, and when you learn he may be experiencing a codeine overdose, you start to feel like Bernard has been doing things behind his caregiver’s back. 

Not like that’s very hard for him to do, since his caregiver has recently left, leaving him to be taken care of by his family, a family that is never there. This isolation and lack of human interaction leaves Bernard to fall further into the darkness of his mind.

Searching For Meaning

Bernard navigates around his home using a motorized wheelchair. This limits how the player moves around. In addition to movement constraints, Bernard is scared of the dark. If you wheel him into an area that’s too dark, he’ll begin to have a panic attack that will ultimately lead to a game-over screen. 

One of the most impressive parts of Letters of Bernard Thorne is the mechanics of moving around Bernard’s home. He can’t go up and down stairs or over ledges in his wheelchair, which forces the player to problem-solve and find other ways to navigate around the home. When navigating, you must accommodate for space to stand up and place transfer ramps around to be able to go into certain areas. 

Letters of Bernard Thorne is set in 2014, meaning Bernard has some technology that helps him navigate. The most important is his tablet, a device he can use to pull up a map of his home, open doors, and control lights. 

Waging War In Your Mind

The main goal of Letters of Bernard Thorne is to help Bernard get his pain medication so he can get into the attic—what he wants in there is unknown. There’s this dread that builds as you are playing and learning the story. As Bernard searches for the medication and has this inexplicable urge to go into the attic, you feel as though you are helping him get one step closer to doing something irreversible.

Bernard served in the Vietnam War and has gone through many tragedies; because of that, he suffers from survivor's guilt and PTSD. You can find letters Bernard has written, and in these letters, you learn he doesn’t understand how he’s still alive when people he’s cared about have died. 

Bernard is unable to fully care for himself. He’s semi-self-sufficient, but not enough to live on his own. He now lives with his son and his family. Bernard feels as though he has forced his son and family to become caretakers, something Bernard never wanted to do. 

Bernard feels like a burden—useless.

Throughout the story, these thoughts are devastating, and you find yourself wishing you could just reach through the screen and tell this character he isn’t the things he thinks he is. By helping Bernard overcome the traumas of his past, you can attempt to assist him in moving on and finding the joy in life again. Bernard’s story and life is a sad one, and you learn most of it through letters lying around the home, flashbacks, and voicemails.

Bernard’s flashbacks are vivid and horrifying for the player to experience. You must navigate these flashbacks and visceral hallucinations of ghosts from Bernard’s past. There are two main ghosts, both of which were prominent figures in Bernard’s life. 

One of them is Bernard’s wife, a woman you learn about through Bernard’s letters. Their love story is sweet and full of adoration. That story ends in heartbreak. 

You also get information about the dynamics between Bernard and his caretakers through sticky notes around the home. These notes make it seem as though Bernard is home alone far more than he should be. You almost get this feeling Bernard is neglected, but perhaps he’s the one who has pushed these people away…

The Past Lingers

The scares in Letters of Bernard Thorne are well-crafted, like in Love, Sam. They’re a combo of subtle and in your face—all good horror games are. You see figments of Bernard's past around the house, like him and his wheelchair toppling down the stairs. 

My favorite building of tension is when Bernard goes into dark rooms. Bernard is horrified by the dark, and it sends him into panic attacks if he’s in the dark too long. In the pitch black, you may not be able to see, but you can hear his heartbeat quicken, accompanied by his breathing turning inconsistent. 

I’d recommend paying attention to these scares and figures you see; they subtly hint at the truth behind Bernard’s story and make playing all that more impactful.

One Last Letter

The story, representation, and overall message make Letters of Bernard Thorne so incredibly heart-wrenching. As someone who’s grown up in a household that’s always had a caretaker and an elderly person in need, Letters of Bernard Thorne struck a chord with me. Being a caretaker is hard, but it's harder to watch someone who used to be independent become dependent.

When I started Letters of Bernard Thorne, I didn’t think it would hit me as hard as it did. I thought it would just be another short horror game, but it wasn’t. Instead, I’ve found possibly one of my favorite stories. 

My Rating