Nobody Wants to Die Review – The Future Looks Bleak

Nobody Wants to Die Review

I love film noire, great detective stories, hardboiled dialogue, and true crime. As genres go, they’re a bit underrepresented in video games, though not entirely absent. Add to the roster Nobody Wants to Die. In addition to being a genuinely impressive retro-future noire narrative, it’s a troubling meditation on several hot topic issues. You know, little things, like the downside of immortality and massive economic inequality.

Forever Young

Nobody Wants to Die came totally out of the blue for me, a happy surprise. It’s set several centuries in the future. For many players, its art direction and aesthetic will bring to mind classic games and movies. Hints of Blade Runner, BioShock, The Fifth Element, and Chinatown blend into a strong vision. Flying cars crowd the urban sky, and the decor is Art Deco meets industrial grit. The blend of styles is a visual metaphor for society and its stratification.

In the world of Nobody Wants to Die you forfeit your body to the government at age 21 unless you can pay rent for it. People can endlessly switch between bodies bought at auctions, cheating death. If, that is, they have the wealth to do so. This conceit generates many of the game’s more philosophical questions and most compelling metaphors. For example, the very wealthy can jump into the bodies of the poor for what is, essentially, a riff on auto-erotic asphyxiation. One class seeing the other as inferior and exploitable is hardly an unfamiliar problem. One of Nobody Wants to Die’s strengths is that it rarely delivers its weightier ideas in a heavy-handed way.

Personal Demon Hunter

You play as James Karra, a classic hardboiled detective who breaks the rules and never suffers fools. Karra is reeling from the death of his wife, and chased by a whole host of emotional demons and addictions. The narrative shifts into gear when Karra and his unseen, over-the-radio partner Sara are called to investigate a potential suicide. The deceased is Green, the uber-wealthy creator of the immortality technology. Karra and his partner use a range of tools to investigate the scene, like a wrist device that can rewind time. The gear Karra uses are inventive amalgams of digital and mechanical technology. Classic retro-future stuff.

The investigation creates far more questions than answers, and the story arc grows deeper and wider. I won’t spoil anything else about the plot, which is delivered in a game that is a tight and lean six or so hours. There are multiple endings, too, and the writing and visuals are strong enough to compel at least one additional playthrough.

Mechanically, there are a couple of small annoyances, like the timing minigames powering some of the gear. Investigations themselves don’t allow much creativity. While Karra makes many decisions that impact the story, most of the investigation scenes are scripted.

Super-Script

Noire is defined by dark characters, hard-edged prose, and a catalog of tropes. The hero staring down his demons at the bottom of a glass. Lost love. Double dealings and betrayals. Nobody Wants to Die embraces them all. With excellent writing and voice acting, the game does the genre proud. The script does a masterful job of fleshing out its cast of characters and world. Nothing comes across as one-dimensional.

Equally impressive: the game’s art direction and luxurious attention to world-building and detail. Not an open world or even a very explorable one, scenes and areas are separated by cinematic transitions. Like the best retro or cyber-punk settings, Nobody Wants to Die features environments I wanted to thoroughly explore but would never want to live in. The game’s intense musical score is full of nods to noire classics. It’s orchestral, at times jazzy, and almost always tense. It’s unfortunately a bit repetitive at times, with the loop of cues becoming a little too obvious.

On PC, there were a few moments of graphical wonkiness — maybe related to motion blur run amok — where moving the field of view made everything go out of focus. Aside from that, the game ran well with no major issues.

Play It Again, Karra

Like the best genre fiction, Nobody Wants to Die uses its narrative, character, and world to express some deeper concerns. In this case, the allegory is about the downside of immortality and the specters of power and wealth. Some of the game parts don’t work as effectively as the writing and acting, but Nobody Wants to Die leaves a strong, lasting impression. It’s one of the most original and striking games I’ve played this year.

***PC code provided by the publisher for review***