Thank you IndieGala for sending us this game to preview!

The Stayin’ Well nursing home has several wheelchair bound senior citizens who have decided that they are ready to meet their Maker and wish to end their lives. The nurses, however, are tasked with keeping them alive at all costs. Who will win in the end? The saviors or the suiciders?

Stayin’ Alive is best enjoyed with the maximum of eight players, four nurses and four elderly people. The handful of available maps are pretty big and it’s hard to locate players when there are less than eight of them in-game. Sadly, I couldn’t find any online matches to join but was able to play against family members and bots. The bots are pretty competent when it comes to killing themselves, but none of them attempted to save my suicidal character despite many chances to do so.

Taking and saving lives in this game takes some effort. All of the players are limited to their left and right hands for carrying items. Many of the suicide recipes require more than two items and you can craft the ones currently in your possession to make room for the final ingredient. Once the crafting has begun, a notification of your progress is broadcasted allowing the nurses time to gather the required remedy items. It’s a mad hunt for cures and killing methods. Only the proper cure will save a person’s life.

For example, if a patient is electrocuting themselves you’ll need to remove the offending equipment with padded gloves. The nurses have the advantage of sedating patients and bringing them to isolation rooms. It’s advantageous for patients to collect and hide sedatives from the nurses. The wheelchairs give the senior citizens a bit of a speed advantage since the nurses have stamina levels that deplete when they sprint. While I have won a match as a savior, in my experience, the suiciders tend to win most of the time.

The recipes for killing and saving methods are readily available. Poison has to be pumped out, and stimulants need to be reversed. The stimulants in this game consist of various erection pills with goofy names like “Horny Boy” and "Super Boner". Aside from the sexual humor, this game is taking suicide lightly and depicts horrific ways to die casually.

There are three maps available that offer some change in scenery. The most unique level is the catacombs one. The other levels take place at the nursing home and hospital. Overall, the visuals get the job done, but they are a bit dated. If you look around and read signs you’ll quickly discover that the developers have a (disturbing) sense of humor.

The sound effects are good, but the background music is forgettable. The noises made by the dying senior citizens are pretty disturbing, as are their methods of death. There is a lot of blood and vomit shown.

Since this is an early access game it’s bound to change before its final release. Hopefully, the balancing issues get addressed and the player base grows. Until then, the $4.99 asking price is reasonable and the bots are decent.