How do you live in a world where death doesn’t mean anything anymore, as long as you have the money for it? Nobody Wants to Die is a linear narrative adventure that takes you to a future that feels old. It looks absolutely gorgeous. The soundtrack is great. And the atmosphere is something to behold. This game has all the potential in the world to be one of 2024’s greatest surprise hits.
Amidst all the AAA open worlds, FPS, and third person action games, Poland developer Critical Hit Games comes in to provide something different. For better and worse. While it is one of the more unique gaming experiences I’ve had this year, it also gave me some of the weakest ones. The best thing about Nobody Wants to Die is that when it’s good, it’s really good. But it fails to sustain the quality in terms of writing, performances, and story pacing.
Pay for your life
Nobody Wants to Die takes place in a cyberpunk noir setting where mortality is a matter of money. People’s lives stop becoming their own as the pure concept of a soul is objectified through Ichorites, a storage of your consciousness. They become commodities stored in a bank, waiting for the next payment in order to be transferred to a replacement body.
You play as James, a detective who’s down on his luck, drinking and smoking his days away. He’s initially tasked to investigate a crime scene with a new partner, Sara. But they quickly find out that this is more than just a suicide case. The longer the investigation goes, the deeper the hole they find themselves in. Just when they thought they have a breakthrough, another factor comes in to complicate things even more.
Nobody Wants to Die is a fascinating exploration of what happens when the very notion of morality is being toyed with by those in power. The story talks a lot about political theme, social classes, abuse of power, and imperfect justice systems. This is a world that is far from the ideal future we’ve always dreamed off. Despite all the technological advancements, it’s a time that’s as archaic as ever.
The excellent soundtrack does a lot to immerse you into the setting. It pays a lot of homage to noir detective movies from the 40s and 50s. It’s extremely soothing in its slow, moody compositions. Music was not something the developers cheaped out on.
The one major thing that drags this game down for me is its writing. While it does have its moments, it ultimately fails to fully engage the player into the world. There’s a lot of information dump at the start which can feel jarring. And not a lot of interesting things are said which can cause you to pay less attention. Despite the game lasting only about 6 hours, the pacing feels painfully slow at times.
Unfortunately, the plot is too inconsistent and lacks the necessary foundations for key story beats to truly stand out. Character development is superficial and lacks any proper depth. Much of the narrative focuses on the relationship between James and Sara, but their connection never feels genuine, which is a huge bummer considering you’ll be spending most of your time on this. While the game attempts to give James more character with a tragic backstory, I couldn’t find myself being too invested in all of it. It jumps from the main investigation, conflict with your partner, and being hung up on your past life in such a jarring way and all 3 of them start to lose weight.
It also doesn’t help that the voice acting is less than ideal. Sentences that come after the other feel like they were recorded on separate days as the performers rapidly jump in tone out of nowhere. Sometimes, the dialogue choices also suffer from the Fallout 4 effect wherein you think you’re saying one thing but then the character goes into a different direction.
An Unreal case
Running on Unreal Engine 5, Nobody Wants to Die is a visual treat. Atmospheric lighting, high quality textures, and detailed particle and fog effects really brings the dystopian setting to life. There are multiple moments where the game just lets you take in the cityscapes. It genuinely looks like a living, breathing world. The art direction blends a mix of retro and contemporary elements, giving a feel of timelessness. I played this on a PC with all settings turned on Ultra and I constantly found myself just at awe of what I was looking at. One of the most graphically impressive titles of the year.
There’s not much to talk about in terms of gameplay. It’s pretty much an on rails experience where you walk around small areas, clicking on certain marked items for additional commentary, until you reach the next prompt to start a cutscene.
The main thing about Nobody Wants to Die is the investigation sequences. You use a reconstructor, a UV light, and a scanner to look at a crime scene, allowing you to rewind and see what happened. Those who played the Batman Arkham games will know what this is like. The unfortunate thing about it is that the game heavily holds your hand throughout. It didn’t feel like I was solving anything. I was just being pointed to where exactly should I do and what exactly should I click onto.
The choice system does offer a fair amount of replayability given how much the game emphasizes how certain decisions will affect the story outcome. But it really depends on how much you click with the story to begin with. I’ve seen a fair amount of people love what Nobody Wants to Die has to say. I guess it just wasn’t my cup of tea.
Nobody Wants to Die Review Final Verdict – 7/10
Nobody Wants to Die is a game that is brimming with potential. The quality of its production values should be enough to skyrocket this into 2024’s greatest lineups but ultimately, the lackluster gameplay experience and a poorly paced and performed script drags it a bit down. If you’re into the classic detective noir movies, this might be a good pickup to burn an afternoon with.
This review was made using a game code for the PC provided by the publisher.