What to Expect From Death: The Game

It likely won’t surprise any of you that the chance to play a video game in the role of a smart-mouthed, animated, amnesiac skeleton appeals to me. It likely won’t surprise me that at least some of my readership is probably similarly inclined. The opportunity to do just that is in the works in the forthcoming project Death: The Game, from France-based Entreprise Naglfar, comprised of the duo Falko Jakubikowa (lead artist) and Marek Speck (lead animator).

Death: The Game is a story-laden third-person adventure that dances along the top of the fourth wall, as its playable protagonist is aware of being a video game character — and that’s about it. With no recollection of his previous experience and no familiarity with where he is or why, this as-yet-unnamed bag of rearticulated bones is on a journey to find answers to these questions and more.

Somewhere in between, Death themself might show up to comment on your in-game actions — while elsewhere you explore extensively and exhaustively, wandering between odd discoveries, clues to your mystery, and meta jokes and Easter eggs. Much of the game thus does seem to fall in the vein of some familiar interactive experiences like What Remains of Edith Finch and Abzû, with “countless points of interest” up for discovery.

Alongside them though are five objectives offering different gameplay mechanics to shake things up and it’s these segments that will grant you the capacity to fill in the blanks on what our protagonist-to-be can’t recall of his past and identity. What we do know about him so far, is that he’s got a smart mouth on him and is liable to sass the player and even insult them as they progress, so I hope those of you wanting to pick this one up are ready to get lovingly bullied a little.

In terms of the game’s technical requirements, those details are still in the works. What we do know is that the game is slated to be released through the Epic Game Store for PC and that the creators are planning on releases for PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch as well, though the console releases have yet to be confirmed. Content-wise, Death: The Game is expected to net a Teen (ESRB)/PEGI 16 rating for mature language.

Beyond that, we’ll have to keep our eyes open for a release date and a demo or press build. One should hopefully be forthcoming soon — I for one will be looking out for it — but for now, the developers are still working on getting these elements together.

In the meantime, you can check out the video below from the developers — it’s in French but subtitled in English — and their social media accounts for a closer look. À bientôt!