Immortality never goes well, they made countless Highlander movies, and lengthy seasons explaining how miserable people are if they live forever. The rock band Queen even wrote a whole song asking, ‘Who wants to live forever?’
Unsurprisingly, the answer in Nobody wants to Die the new first person, cyber-noir walking simulator, is everyone does. The caveat being – only the rich can afford to.
The player starts in media res, taking on the role of washed-out detective James Karra. Karra is on suspension after something went horribly wrong on his last case, and he is also haunted by the loss of his wife. The chief of police (known only as Chief of Police) gets him some work off the books and teams him up with a consultant called Sara.
The elites of this future/retro city have funded the creation a substance called Ichorite, this contains the human soul and can be transferred between bodies. One of the elites has been found dead and Karra is tasked with extracting the Ichorite and throwing together a report. Except, Karra sees that it is not that simple and being the hardnosed type, he can’t let it go. Turns out he is right and that pulls Karra and Sara into a web of deceit.
All of this falls into the standard tropes of the pulp novel thriller and would not be out of place in something written by Elmore Leonard. What makes it stand out is the world that Karra and Sara inhabit. Taking visual inspiration from films like Bladerunner and Strange Days, New York is full of flying cars that are heavily restricted in terms of movement. Transferring between bodies causes hallucinations with people not always clear as to what their true memories are. In between the sleuthing Nobody Wants to Die does an excellent job of thinking out what a world would be like where consciousness could be transferred between bodies, and how a hierarchy might be imposed. As the saying goes ‘if you imagine the future car, you must also imagine the future traffic jam’.
Transferring isn’t free and only the richest people can easily afford it. The implication though, is that there needs to be a supply of bodies for the rich. Mentioned early on is how people get to live ‘tariff free’ until they are 21 and then they have to pay to inhabit their own bodies. Those that can’t afford it, go to the “bank” and can be purchased by someone else. Even though it is blatantly evil, this is all couched in euphemistic language that is easy to envision a modern government using to hide the fact that they are blatantly selling the poor to be fodder for the rich.
This world narrative is emboldened by Nobody Wants to Die looking stunning. This is showcased in the way Karra performs each investigation. On his wrist is a device that allows him to rewind time until he comes to key junctions where he must then find pieces of evidence that will allow him to rewind time further. This means that the player gets to watch burntout trees explode back into flame, ash retracting back into its branches, or witness a shoot out in a burning dirigible, and see what ignited the first detonation. Every tableau looks gorgeous and keeping things focused to a short set of rooms allows the environmental artists have a field day in creating the before and after.
It is not all perfect though. I think Phillip Sacramento channels a fantastic, tired Will Arnett impersonation as James Karra, but there are occasional missteps. There is a moment where he is looking at some mushrooms and the line delivery feels like it is from another game. There is also some incongruency in there – sometimes Karra wades into full nihilism and seems to genuinely not care about anything, then in the next scene he is cheering a group of rich people that have demonstrably made his life worse (and in light of their actions it feels weird that he even cares about them).
Also, after a mainly strong narrative delivery the ending doesn’t quite land. I would have traded out the multiple possible endings for a stronger finish, one with fewer quick time events and no requirement to mash the A button excessively.
With all that said Nobody Wants to Die is still incredibly strong and an impressive debut from developers Critical Hit Games.
Conclusion
A wonderful surprise mid-year. Nobody Wants to Die is a tightly woven walking sim, with gorgeous environmental art and a compelling story. Anyone interested in this kind of story telling should definitely pick it up.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
