Set in a semi-far-flung future that is clearly inspired by either Philip K Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep or Ridley Scott’s film adaptation, Blade Runner. Nobody Wants to Die wants to bring a touch more retro-futurism to this age of bio-engineered replicants. You play as a down-on-his-luck cop, James Karra, who has done something so terrible he’s been suspended and no one can bend the rules to keep him officially on the books. Clearly, he did something much worse than kill an unarmed Black/brown man in broad daylight. I’m sure this comment will age like fine milk.

While Nobody Wants to Die isn’t about replicant humanoids, there is (to put it awkwardly) something significant to do with humans. Though the title might be a bit forgettable, unlike Horizon Zero Dawn, it is part of the plot: In the world of Nobody Wants to Die nobody will die, sort of, as the fantastic bit of capitalism for this dystopian nightmare is the Ichorite program. Is illness getting you down? Is old age making you feel old? Transplant your lived experiences into the body of a much younger person with the Ichorite program, which everyone is legally obliged to sign up for at 21.

Nightmare-ish retro-futures where cars look interesting aside, unofficially James is assigned to the off-the-books case of Edward Green. Though he isn’t officially working for the NYPD, or as Doctor Who put it this could be the NNNNNNNNNNNYPD, he is assigned a liaison for the case, Sara Kai, a “ground floor” shut-in who isn’t cleared for fieldwork. Together they’ve to investigate this off-the-books case, however, Karra’s 120-year-old mind is failing him a little, and is experiencing traumatic delusions and some drug withdrawal symptoms. Forced to live through whatever it is thanks to the US Declaration of Immortality in 2137.

Given the neo-noir setting, Nobody Wants to Die is filled with the clichés you come to expect, but not the fun ones from Duck Detective. They aren’t even the eye-rollingly bad ones from a B-list movie. They just simply are clichéd; using metaphorical language about gods and peasants when talking about the class divide between the haves and have-nots of 2329, smoking and drinking like you don’t have to worry about your “Shell,” and just a whole lot of grim “woe is me” anger and self-hatred from Karra. I don’t hate it, I just find it interesting, fitting, and worth mentioning.

What is a little more lacking in this dystopian thriller is the gameplay. More loosely linked with LA Noire or Observer than anything else, you are exploring crime scenes and piecing together evidence to solve an odd case of someone who was able to die. In a world where it is illegal to do so, that becomes rather more interesting than it sounds to us mortal souls. There I go with the clichés. The point is that akin to LA Noire you explore crime scenes but that falls apart when you sit for 10 minutes listening to exposition.

In Team Bondi’s 2010s title, you could explore the 1940s city as Phelps and co-rattled off details. I’m not expecting Critical Hit Games, the small Polish studio behind Nobody Wants to Die to make a totally explorable futuristic New York City. Yes, I think we all just heard the voice of Matt Berry. So without that exploration, your time with Karra in the car(ah) is spent trying to keep your attention on the case at hand and not cleaning out the fluff from your belly button. During these exposition sessions, you can’t even flick switches and play with your gun like a normal depressive cop.

There are dialog trees, if you want to replay and role play as Karra’s more acrid personality or his more personable one. Though like most dialog trees, they don’t always have that freedom they often promise, more often than not changing the flavor of ice cream at the end – Looking at you, Mass Effect 3. Similar to other dialog option-based systems, the short summary doesn’t always feel as direct with what is going to be said either, though some of that could be a translation thing, maybe?

Nobody Wants to Die’s world and atmosphere are so thick you’ll choke, thinking it was the 1940s again: When cigarettes were promoted to kids and public smoking was encouraged. The good old days, eh toots. I’m making a point that despite Philip Sacramento and Keaton Talmadge’s elongated back and forths, the world and setting will most likely pull you in eventually. The sudate opening could severely put some people off, which is my big “It’s great, but you need to stick with it in the slow moments to get to the highs.”

Aside from the gameplay being few and far between, and the fact it is very pedantic about where you stand/point the mouse, I have one other odd note. One that might stun my editor as it is about swearing and its use. I have no problem with “foul” language, it is difficult to be a prude when you can be called a certain word beginning with C by the age of 5 where you’re from, and I don’t have so much of a problem with it used in games.

However, the particular word beginning with C is used and many that start with F and S, some of which work and others feel like it is thrown in to say “No, this is grown-up writing.” I’m trying to avoid using it as we have a policy not to use swearing too much without a warning, but the use of that particular “C-word” doesn’t feel as if it is confident. Where such a word is commonly used (Scotland, the wider UK, and Australia), it feels off-putting or wrong because the use of swearing is different in the US. Even in 2329.

By this I mean that Nobody Wants to Die’s example of swearing is very American, and where every swear lands in a sentence this “C-word” acts as a shotgun blast to shock. I’d argue a shock that pulled me out of the game and the world, particularly in that high drama moment. Where swearing could offer a more fluid transition in the dialog of topics, some particular uses like the one I’m highlighting can be and feel like it is just there to surprise you and remind you “No, this is a totally grown-up story. Look at me, I can say that word.”

Part of me wants to also ding Nobody Wants to Die for its occasional performance hiccups, though as is apparent, Unreal Engine 5 is the common thread with performance issues lately. For the majority of the time, I’d see a somewhat stable 60 with almost all graphical settings, but closer to “epic” and higher settings I’d see occasional drops to 55 or even mid-40s to high-30s. However, from a technical standpoint, this isn’t the biggest offender. Audio mixing can sometimes be good to fine, hearing where a different recording kicks in, but occasionally towards the end, the bombastic third act, some dialog is completely drowned out.

Nobody Wants to Die isn’t original, it isn’t very groundbreaking in terms of its gameplay or even some of its story, and while that sounds like it is a sign of something not worth your time, Critical Hit Games does the opposite. Yes, the gameplay cuffs you and drags you through every bit of the investigation, almost scared you’ll miss portions of its central plot. While allowing some minor things to go amiss to make you regret not searching everywhere or saying the right thing to ask all the questions. However, its dystopian story hits quite close once it decides to pick up.

Comparisons to Electric Sheep aside, the world of Nobody Wants to Die almost feels like a darker, more broken, and cynical world of Luc Besson’s Le Cinquiéme Élément, or The Fifth Element. From Karra sharing his bathroom with his neighbors in his grimy and disgusting apartment building to the opulence and deviance enjoyed by the rich and powerful. Player agency might be low on the priority list but exploring and absorbing its details almost make up for it.

Nobody Wants to Die is flawed, sometimes lacking things to keep you focused, and has occasional tonal issues, but beyond Children of the Sun and Duck Detective, I don’t think there has been a better story I’ve played this year. Ultimately, I wanted more agency in the tale of James Karra but I also simply wanted more of this world and its aggressively beautiful style, atmosphere, and overall story.

A PC review copy of Nobody Wants to Die was provided by PLAION for this review.

Phenixx Gaming is everywhere you are. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Also, if you’d like to join the Phenixx Gaming team, check out our recruitment article for details on working with us.

Phenixx Gaming is proud to be a Humble Partner! Purchases made through our affiliate links support our writers and charity!

Nobody Wants to Die

$24.99

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• A grim and hard-hitting story.
• Absolutely stunning world design and atmosphere.

Cons

• A lack of overall player agency.
• Quite a bit of sitting around waiting for the exposition to be over.