Nobody Wants to Die is a game developed by a small team from Poland known as Critical Hit Games. It is one of the most visually impressive games. It catches your eye the moment you start playing it. From the visuals alone, it competes with some of the most visually stunning games. It is eye-catching thanks to its art design and futuristic setting with elements of Nior. There are rewind powers at play with some really amazing-looking places. It is a walking simulator with some extra gameplay thrown in the mix.
The big question that lingers is whether there is more to it than being a good tech demo. Well, the answer to that mostly depends on what you are looking for in the game. Even at the initial announcement, the game showcased the power of its graphics which got some players immediately hooked. Above all else, it is a narratively driven adventure game. All this makes you wonder, Is Nobody Wants to Die worth it? Let’s find out.
Premise (Spoiler Free)
From the beginning, you get put in a retro-style future in New York. The setting is pretty interesting. There are hover cars but at the same time, people are sending messages through numeric tubes. It might seem strange but the developers are presenting Bioshock and Fallout like settings.
The story starts with a film strip that shows a groundbreaking substance known as Ichorite. Ichorite allows people to transfer their consciousness to another body. It allows everyone to have a long life span that can be eternal. There is another side to all this. If you want a new body then you need to place a bid on it in an auction and everyone is required to have a body. You also have to pay a mandatory subscription fee.
All this creates a situation where everyone is living forever but in debt. This is evident through the different places that you visit in Nobody Wants to Die. People are living miserable lives unless they are among those who can afford a healthy new body. The idea is good but has already been given in Altered Carbon. Here, the emphasis is more on the financial burden of living forever. The setting provides the game with a unique premise that could have been generic otherwise.
General Aspects
Nobody Wants to Die looks amazing and everything looks great. There is a personal touch to everything from broken crime scenes to the normal hallways. There are visual details every step of the way that will make you wanna stop and look around.
You get to see the lives of people through multiple aspects. From multiple apartments sharing a bathroom to getting familiarization events so people can get familiar with your new body and even rows of different smells to help people adjust to a new body. All of it shows how the world of the game works. So there is a lot of weird yet believable stuff going on. All of it creates a weird yet interesting setting.
The Investigations
Even though it is first-person, it is still not an action game. There is no shooting mechanics so you won’t be shooting anyone. As a player, you follow the story and get some dialogue options. However, you will be looking at the environment most of the time. The thing that makes Nobody Wants to Die stand out other than the carefully designed city is the reconstructor on your hand. It is a tool that lets players recreate crime scenes similar to Cyberpunk 2077’s Braindance sequences.
The primary gameplay revolves around these mechanics. You will go to a crime scene and scan it with the reconstructor. You have to hunt for clues to figure out what happened. The murder scenes are detailed and are a major part of the game’s narrative. Murder scenes are complex and massively detailed in terms of look. These scenes end with explosions and have lots of moving parts in Nobody Wants to Die.
Carefully piecing together everything to figure out the complete picture is a lot of fun. The developers have put a lot of work into these sequences, which are visually interesting and fun to see unravel. Unlike other games, these sequences are not afterthoughts just to keep players engaged. It’s the main mechanics and the developers go all in on it.  From a number standpoint, there aren’t that many crime scenes but the ones that are present absolutely hit the mark. The game will not waste your time with basic crimes so every single crime scene is pretty compelling.
The Gameplay
It looks good and investigations are interesting but the gameplay itself does not hold up to these standards. Investigations are good but the mechanics associated with them are pretty basic. It does not feel like you are discovering something new in the investigation. Most of the time you are just following the instructions and advancing the story. You can turn up the reconstructed by going up to the body and scanning it. Then you have to go to a glowing point, and the player’s character will say something, and then you will move to the next step.
Sometimes, you will use an X-ray to scan something while other times, you can use UV Light to scan something. That’s about it and there is nothing beyond that. It is a detective game that lacks interactivity. Nobody Wants to Die will hold your hand during the investigations which can be a bad thing if you prefer to discover stuff on your own.
Choices All The Way
You can quickly go through crime scenes by following prompts. However, by doing so you will miss a lot of information which will have an impact on the outcome of your case. There are choices that can affect the story. They don’t completely change things and mostly impact the fate of the main characters as well as the ending of your character. However, it is enough to make it feel like your choices matter.
References to these choices will pop up and extra choices will show up in dialogues. Sometimes finding clues and selecting certain choices will unlock extra options for interacting with the character which can have an impact on your relationship with that character. There aren’t that many people to talk to. You will mostly be talking to your partner whom you won’t see as well as your chief on the phone. Occasionally, you will also see the vision of your dead wife.
There are choices in the game, you can choose to follow the order or investigate in your own ways among other things. There are choices in Nobody Wants to Die that feel like they matter. The basics of the story is Nior and is as close to that as possible.
You are a detective who has hit rock bottom and is investigating a strange and secret job. You find out that your investigation is linked to some of the most influential people in the city. It’s a game that relies on the cliche to make the sci-fi stuff more digestible. The voice acting for the main characters is good but some of the secondary characters don’t hit the mark.
The Action
Despite having no action, the game still has a thrill. It is fast-paced with many curves. It does not feel like Nobody Wants to Die is filled with boring stuff. Every crime scene is carefully designed and makes you want to figure out all the pieces just to see what’s at the end of it. Watching all of it in the end is satisfying though it might not match to puzzle-solving of other games since the game holds your hand all the way.
On one hand, it might feel like a disappointment but it does keep stuff going. There are no points in the game that make you feel like you are stuck in the game. The game will keep moving forward with every revelation which keeps the story interesting. The revelations can come at the cost of actual investigation. It is a short game that can be finished in 5 hours but it was a satisfying experience for me.
Verdict (Is Nobody Wants to Die Worth It?)
Nobody Wants to Die is an amazing-looking game that is a showcase for graphics cards. The art direction of the game is also good which becomes evident as you play more of it. Despite its shiny looks, the gameplay does not hold up to its really basic gameplay. If you like walking simulators Still Wakes The Deep or What Remains of Edith Finch then you will feel right at home. It has more gameplay than other walking simulators but it is only a little. The extra gameplay is there just to push the interesting stuff of the story.
Players who are looking for a hardcore detective game could be disappointed. There isn’t much stuff in the game and the developers are aware of it so they present it accordingly. It all depends on how you approach the game. If you come with the right expectation then you might like it. The voice acting of the main characters and the music hits the mark.
The graphics are good and all the sci-fi stuff surrounding it is spot on. However, due to its low playtime, it can feel like a glorified tech demo. The story is good and it has an interesting world. Think of it like audio-visual with some interactive stuff thrown in the mix. Despite all the negatives, its positives outweigh its negatives which makes it a decent experience.
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