Nobody want To Diehas almost every detective noir staple in one game . You play as a hard - boil detective with a tragic yesteryear and a imbibing job . There ’s a adept - fuzz / bad - fuzz dynamic with your collaborator as you turn together to lick a murder case that exposes the city ’s morally crooked underbelly . It takes spot in New York City . It ’s constantly raining .
It sounds like your typical film noir criminal offence play from the mid-1900s . I ’ve seen all of these tropes play out in interchangeable games in the musical style like the groundedLA Noire , the hauntingMurdered : Soul Suspect , and the Zanzibar copal wackiness ofMaster Detective Archives : Rain Code . So , what’sNobody Wants To Die ’s unequalled twist ? It like an expert blendscyberpunk elementswith a granular 1940s aesthetic . Even with some issue , Nobody want To Diekept me enthral from start to finishing .
Nobody Wants To Dieis set in the year 2329 , but I was n’t able to make out that properly away . The plot starts with our champion , James Karra , as he sits next to his wife , Rachel , in a 1940s - era classic car . While watching a movie together , she glitches out and disappears . James then open up his door and there are flying cars right beneath him . What I reckon was the start of another typical sure-enough - school tec noir game all of a sudden looked more likeBlade Runner . It left its mark on me ; I need to see what other tropes it would subvert next .
New York in 2329 is still take with the same issues we confront today , like capitalism and corporate greed . While these themes have been explored to death , Nobody Wants To Diethrows in another twist : humankind has achieved immortality . Once you turn the age of 21 , you have to ante up a subscription in edict to keep your body , and if you ’re ineffective to , it conk out off to auction to the high bidder . This is how the sinewy and ultra - wealthy can extend their lives indefinitely , by using poor people by transfer their consciousness to younger physical structure .
By connecting that to a review article of capitalism , Nobody require to Die‘s sci - fi premiss feels close to home . It serve that it does a superb chore of build its world . James himself is in a new body , which his consciousness was transplant to after his old one was involved in an accident . In his flat , there ’s a note tell that he has to be measured as his new body has allergy . mankind has essentially achieved godhood , but in the end , they ’re still human .
Between the game ’s investigating , James and his cop partner , Sara , telephone exchange conversations about mortality rate and existentialist philosophy . James would rather give up extend his life if it mean seeing Rachel again in the afterlife . It ’s sober up and center - opening moments like these that makeNobody want To Diestand out among its literary genre peers , despite heavily relying on detective noir tropes .
I’ll be your guide
On the gameplay front , Nobody Wants To Diehas James scour crime picture for evidence using futurist convenience . The main one is a gantlet called the Reconstructor that lets him rewind time and see how consequence played out at the scene itself . James also has X - beam and UV luminance devices to check for additional clue .
The take withNobody Wants To Die ’s gameplay is that it entirely guides players through the investigating process . Sara and James will say the next step out loud , and then a marker will look on the projection screen to show musician what to do next . I did n’t have much federal agency in my investigation ; it ’s all just trial and error with no fail state . If you ’re looking to actively solve a mystery or mystify like inZero EscapeorAce Attorney , then this is n’t the game to do that .
On the plus side , I appreciate that I never got sting on a special clew or sequence , and envision how the setting play out with the Reconstructor matte up just as square as if I address the criminal offence scenes myself . I could just sit down back , relax , and enjoy the story , which is the ultimate draw here .
Nobody Wants To Diehas multiple endings , but like many mystery games , subsequent playthroughs lose their lustre as you already know what happened and who did it . There ’s one autosave slot , so if you ’re looking to see all of the endings , you ’re go to have to play through the entire secret plan again .
Even with its shortcomings , the seven hours I spent withNobody Wants To Diewere stimulating . There are so many smart twists packed into this tightly paced police detective tale . While it does n’t reinvent the tec noir genre , its aroused story beats , strike setting , and killer style had me yen to revisit New York again .
Nobody Wants to Dieis usable now on PlayStation 5 , Xbox Series X / S , and PC .
