Nobody Wants to Die Reviews

"Nobody Wants to Die", the first game by the Polish studio Critical Hit Games, is a sci-fi first person narrative game with light detective-style puzzles, set in a dystopian future where humanity unlocked the secret to eternal life and people are forced into mandatory subscriptions if they want to continue living in human bodies. The game was revealed with a fancy CGI trailer with a futuristic detective noire style found in games like Deus Ex Human Revolution, showcasing the time manipulation gadget which is a central feature of the game's puzzles.

James Karra, a hard-boiled detective is sent to the death scene of Edward Green, a wealthy, high-profile businessman who is one of the main people in control of the system which allows people to transfer their consciousness into new physical bodies. Karra is instructed by the policy chief to retrieve the man's ichorite, a substance containing a person’s thoughts, feelings, and knowledge – and make sure that it will be transplanted into a new body. But what the detective finds is what looks like a suicide with the ichorite being damaged making a transfer of the consciousness impossible. Karra suspects a murder to be the actual cause and against his supervisor's instructions, aided by his partner Sara, he decides to investigate further. Sara Kai often is the voice of reason where Karra is irrational. The story starts fairly strong with complex world and a deep intrigue. There is an unjust system that enslaves the lower class people while the rich are getting richer - where truly "nobody wants to die". This is reflected in 24th century New York city where the game takes places: Endless skyscrapers darken the skies to accommodate millions of common folk like James Karra in their small and shabby apartments, trying to earn enough money to keep their body, while the rich people in power live on top of the world live an excessive life, savouring pleasures that other can only dream of. The game is heavily inspired by the movies Blade Runner (1982) and In Time (2011), with themes such as immortality and corporate slavery affecting the society, and a tired detective questioning his own beliefs and morale. Sadly in the short timespan of the game, it fails to paint a full picture of what it is like to live in that world, but still what you get to see is pretty solid.

Speaking of Blade Runner visually the game also takes a lot inspiration from Ridley Scott's film. The city is always rainy and dark, flying cars zip around the tall skyscrapers, buildings are decorated with bright neon signs and holograms, the apartment complexes of the common folk are dirty and plastered with old posters, while the rich people live in large luxurious apartments above the clouds and meet in extravagant bars to party. While Blade Runner's sci-fi tech looks old nowadays, the developers of Nobody Wants to Die went a step further and combined future tech with a 1930s style, more fitting the noir fiction. The vehicles look like from the 30s but with hover tech, the interiors apply art decor, the devices in Karra's appartment look like they are from the 50s. All locations are well detailed and visually interesting to explore thanks to Unreal Engine 5. Also the voice cast does a great job bring the characters to life.

The gameplay is fine but unremarkable. Compared to other games from this "walking sim-lite" genre it's one of the better ones as it offers easy puzzles to solve, but those expecting a large game with a deep gameplay like for example Deus Ex, will be let down. The game's highlight feature is a time manipulation device that Karra uses on crime scenes during investigation to see what happened. It's fairly simple where once activated via a mini-game you forward/rewind the scene with the controller's should triggers (/) by a few seconds in order to find a new clue which then leads to a new "time bubble" where the time manipulation can be triggered again. The detective additionally can use some x-ray gadget to locate electrical devices. There are also certain points in the game where Karra will use clues he has found, represented by holograms on the floor, to summarize crime scenes and draw a conclusion. The game will inform you if the clues you combined are incorrect, so you don't need to worry about making a mistake. During conversations with other characters you can choose certain dialog options which can alter somewhat the story, resulting in 2 endings.

It takes around 7-10 hours to get through the game and unlock all the achievements, depending on how much you spend exploring the locations and reading optional news articles which help with world building. There are some missable achievements which are easy to overlook, for that matter I recommend following this guide which guarantees a 100% completion: https://www.powerpyx.com/nobody-wants-to-die-trophy-guide-ro...

In summary Nobody Wants to Die is a short, decent sci-fi noir narrative game with interesting visuals, light detective puzzles and an interesting story about immortality and corporate slavery. Unfortunately while there is a lot of potential in the game's world, the game's small scope limits it's potential.