Screenshots
Watch trailer on Steam ↗Burn-9
14 Hours Productions · Published by Fellow Traveller
Content notice: This game may contain content not appropriate for all ages: Cursing and Crude Language, Military Violence, Acts of Violence and Terrorism, Mention of Suicide, Mention of Animal Cruelty/Pet Death, Blood, Body Horror, Emotional Abuse, Bullying, Dead Bodies, Gore, and General Mature Content.
Last updated 28 Sept 2026
A spy thriller where you’re not the spy. Safe behind your screen, guide the last survivor of an elite black-ops team in a desperate attempt to salvage a mission gone horribly wrong. Caught between military command and your agent, information is your greatest weapon.
Adventure, Indie · 2026 · More free games
About this game
BUZZ
“It's a little bit Papers, Please, a little bit Metal Gear, and it looks fantastic.” - Jessica Conditt, Engadget
“The demo was tense and absolutely thrilling to play through, and I cannot wait for the full experience.” - Jordan Ramée, Gamespot
“Metal Gear fans will find a lot to love with this one, especially its music, which I’ve been humming all day since playing the demo.” - Lucy James, lookingfor.game
About the Game
Burn-9 is a political spy thriller in the tradition of Hideo Kojima and Tom Clancy, but you are not the soldier on the ground. Instead, you’re the one in the chair, coordinating the mission from afar.
When a top secret military research facility in the Antarctic goes dark, an elite strike force of cybernetically-enhanced black-ops super soldiers is dispatched to investigate and secure Burn-9 at all costs. Minutes into the mission, the helicopter is shot down.
There is one survivor… and you’re her only lifeline.
As the team’s Operator, you are physically safe behind your computer screen - but the pressure is relentless. Caught between the demands of the top brass and the reality on the ground, every piece of intel you gather becomes a decision: what to share, what to hold back, and who to trust.
You’ll guide your agent, feeding her the information she needs to survive. At the same time, you’ll report up the chain of command, receiving orders that may conflict with what’s unfolding in front of you.
Your goal is simple: get your agent to the objective and complete the mission.
Whatever it takes.
Because there will be a cost.
A secret Antarctic base has gone silent. Your objective: secure Burn-9 at all costs.
This is your chance to prove you can handle the toughest assignments and make the calls no one else will.
You play as the Operator - managing logistics, counter-hacking, intelligence, and strategy as the voice in the ear and the eye in the sky. You’re miles away from the mission, connected to your team only through a laptop screen and a stream of biometric data.
You sit safely behind the glass sipping coffee … while they’re knee-deep in it.
As the eye in the sky, you have access to cutting-edge surveillance and intelligence systems - scanning for threats, collecting and collating data, and turning it into the real-time insight your agent needs in the field.
Then it’s on you to use that intel to guide her, direct her… and keep her alive.
As the Operator, you’re not just the eye in the sky - you’re inside their network. Breach their systems to disable cameras, unlock secure doors, and extract secrets you were never meant to see, turning every vulnerability into an advantage for your agent.
Use every black ops tool at your disposal to keep her alive. She’ll need every edge you can give her.
Epoch Base is meant to be an all-weather drone and vehicle research facility - operated by the United States, supposedly for the betterment of the world.
But beneath it lies a project no one is meant to know about: Burn-9.
No one will talk about it…
And everyone is willing to kill for it.
The field agent under your command is Dodo - the tip of the spear, the one who goes in first… and the one who gets hit first. Today, the weight of the world rests on her shoulders. Trapped, alone, and without support inside a secret Antarctic military base, she has no one else to rely on.
She may be under your command but she has a mind of her own.
You’ll have to earn her trust, manage her state of mind, and navigate the fact that she’s on the ground while you’re just in the chair.
The top brass are watching - and they’re the ones calling the shots.
Morrigan: the CIA spymaster: no nonsense, no humour, no patience.
The Admiral: commander of the carrier fleet: a navy man… the Navy man.
The Politician: the President’s Chief of Staff: a politician through and through.
They’re tight-lipped and have their own priorities. They won’t tell you what Burn-9 is… and they’re not about to start now.
An elite military force controls the Antarctic base, led by a commander respected as much for his principles as his ruthlessness. At his side is a handpicked squad of specialists - some of the most dangerous operatives in the world.
But the deeper you dig, the less clear it becomes who the real enemy is.
And every single one of them is hunting Dodo.
As the truth behind Burn-9 begins to unravel, you’ll have to decide who deserves to know what you uncover. Your agent. Your superiors. Maybe no one at all.
Every choice shapes the mission - and the people trying to survive it.
Although you’re hundreds of miles from the action, you’re at the center of this mission, you’ll be the one making the critical calls.
Manage your agent, navigate the competing priorities of your bosses, uncover what’s really going on and ultimately decide what path to take.
Your choices might save the world… or end it.
ABOUT THE DEVELOPER
14 Hours Productions is an indie game studio that is run more like a co-op than a traditional company. Founded by Matthew Ritter, 14 Hours Productions aims to create games that don't already exist, trying to find new ways to tell interesting and compelling stories. We pledge to entertain you, inform you and engage you.
The 14 Hours Productions team has worked with companies like Telltale, Silver Volition, Dontnod, Teyon, and many more. Having worked on properties like Robocop, Streets of Rage, The Walking Dead, and also, many more. The team is prolific, we like making things.
System Requirements
Will my PC run this? →Minimum
- OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)
- Processor: Dual-core 2.0 GHz
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: DirectX 12 or Vulkan compatible, 1 GB VRAM
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: 500 MB available space
Recommended
- OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)
- Processor: Quad-core 3.0 GHz
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: DirectX 12 or Vulkan compatible, 2 GB VRAM
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: 500 MB available space
Supported Languages
Latest news
AnnouncementsOfficial
Terminarch: The Who, What and Why
Terminarch! It’s the name of the secretive military branch where YOU, the operator, the player, work within the world of Burn-9. What are they? Who are they? Why are they? These are all fabulous questions! I thought I would take some time as the lead writer of Burn-9 and try and explain what this organization actually is and how it fits into the setting. I’ll also take a few moments to talk about why I made the choices I did as the lead writer. The short and simple answer is that the Terminarch is a skunkworks branch of the Navy. Here is the actual lore entry in game:“Established in 1952 under growing concerns of the spreading communist menace, it was meant to be a forward facing ‘black’ operation. The forward facing part of the organization would be Terminarch Black Ops, a truly invisible strike force utilizing cutting-edge technology, both as a way to maintain operational excellence, but also to test ideas that might be too expensive or niche for standard military use.”Within the setting, there was a famous event in which a known terrorist (at least as far as the United States is concerned) was skillfully captured and extracted from his home country by TBO (Terminarch Black Ops) and what had been a fairly well kept secret leaked into the open: The world learned that the United States had finally created TRUE super soldiers.However, that’s just what the average military fetishist within the setting would know. This is also the part of the organization that the player/Operator works for as Black Ops mission control.There are two other branches of Terminarch, Terminarch Tech Ops and Terminarch Psych Ops. Tech Ops is where most of the useful technical innovations have come from, such as the Augmentation program that most of the soldiers seen in the game have gone through. Psych Ops, while less successful, is also far more horrible! It’s basically a modern version of MK Ultra. Their goal is to achieve the impossible, astral projection, psychic powers, ghosts, and even ...Read full article on Community Announcements (Fellow Traveller Ben K)AnnouncementsOfficial
"It's a Reverse Metal Gear!"
“What is Burn-9? Why, it’s a Reverse Metal Gear!” What a heady phrase… I’ve been saying it a lot over the last year.Greetings fellow tacticool enthusiasts! I’m the studio head of 14 Hours Productions, Matthew Ritter, and the director of Burn-9!!! I’m the one who is most required to have some kind of “vision” of what the project is. Sometimes more important than game vision is finding a way to get people to ‘get’ that vision as fast as possible. “Reverse Metal Gear” has been the single most potent pitch I’ve found when it comes to grabbing people’s attention. While Burn-9 has always been heavily inspired by Metal Gear, I hadn’t intended for that to be its ‘elevator pitch phrase’. However, I was at Tokyo Game Show pitching my studio’s games to anyone and everyone who would have a meeting with me. I messaged every single person who was going to the show that had a tag even remotely close to “producer” or “investor”. Every last one.Eventually, I’m sitting at a small table with a very nice producer working through a company that has direct connections to Nintendo. Sweaty and surrounded by infinite bodies, I’m pitching my games. Teddy Bear chases a little girl? Sci-fi shmup rhythm game? I go on for about twenty minutes, and as I’m winding down I’m hit with the most terrifying statement someone in my position can hear. “Very interesting… anything else?” I was sent into an immediate existential crisis. I had been working on Burn-9 a bit and I had a VERY terrible mockup of the worst test level imaginable. So, I told him “Oh, I have something that’s kind of like a Reverse Metal Gear.”“Oh, Reverse Metal Gear? Tell. Me. More.” The shift in energy was palpable. Suddenly, he was FASCINATED. He had to know more, he had to know EVERYTHING. I realized that if someone who worked so deep in the industry was interested in that, everyone would be. I spent the rest of the show pitching Burn-9, and everyone wanted to hear more. “Reverse Metal Gear” is a good soundbite, but it doesn’t real...Read full article on Community Announcements (Fellow Traveller Ben K)Press Coverage
Burn-9 is a political spy thriller that puts you behind Metal Gear styled codec calls
Due out for release later this year - Burn-9 is an intriguing looking political spy thriller that's basically a reverse Metal Gear. Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/07/burn-9-is-a-political-spy-thriller-that-puts-you-behind-metal-gear-styled-codec-calls/Read full article on GamingOnLinuxAnnouncementsOfficial
20,000 Wishlists?!
Wow, we've hit 20,000 wishlists already? Thank you so much to everyone who saw our spy thriller, and thought "Yeah, that's totally for me!" Whether you played the demo, or even just liked the look of the game and hit that wishlist button (but seriously, give the demo a go too!), a sincere, heartfelt thank you from all of us who have been working so hard on Burn-9.We're incredibly excited that you're excited to see more of Dodo and the rest of the cast, and we're looking forward to be able to show you even more.And if you're not one of the cool 20,000 people who hit wishlist for Burn-9, well - you can fix that right now! We'd love to have you! Here's to another 20,000 wishlists!Read full article on Community Announcements (Fellow Traveller Ben K)Community & EventsOfficial
Play the Burn-9 Demo During Steam Next Fest!
Phew! After an amazing reveal at the Story Rich Showcase, we're diving into Steam Next Fest, too! If you've not had a chance to play the Burn-9 demo yet, it's a great opportunity to do so. Guide your operative, Dodo, whose mission has gone horribly wrong, and she's relying on your support.We've also made some updates to the demo since the initial reveal:Added:Escape key now dismisses Settings.New music tracks.Dodo wake up animation.Hacking minigame to S7.Changed:Updated Settings dialog look and organization.Removed old settings from in-game Menu and allowed new Settings dialog to be opened from it.Made Settings dialog behave modally.Made the dialogue continue button flash.All settings changes now autosave.Updated Credits screen, adding James.Updated many placeholder assets.Fixed:Fixed miscellaneous dialoge mispellings and grammar.Fixed map dragging / zoom when the settings window is open.So be sure to give it a go this Next Fest!And don't forget to wishlist Burn-9 - we really appreciate it, and it'll help you stay up to date with news! It's a win-win!Read full article on Community Announcements (Fellow Traveller Ben K)
