Within the opening moments of the groundbreaking cyberpunk mystery game called ‘Nobody Wants to Die’, its protagonist quickly takes us through a series of typical noir elements. Swallowing a handful of pills, washing it down with his hip flask, mourning his lost wife, and introducing himself as an exiled detective who doesn’t always stick to the book – all fit neatly into the first five minutes. The game from Critical Hit Games is a tribute to the quintessential noir genre, despite being rooted in a rendition of a retro-futuristic New York City buoyed by levitating vehicles and life-extending scientific advances. At heart, it is a thrilling crime drama oozing with notoriety and while it strictly adheres to the genre’s conventions, it capitalizes on this rather than detracting from it.
The world constructed by Critical Hit Games is engrossingly gritty and deserving of time and exploration. The crux of this narrative hinges on the assassination of a character named Green, the inventor behind the city’s most groundbreaking achievement – the ability to live forever. In this innovative world of ‘Nobody Wants to Die’, it’s possible for individuals to shift their consciousness between various bodies, effectively achieving immortality. Death isn’t the end; you could purchase a new body, a commodity that doesn’t come cheap, needless to say. However, Green’s demise is such that he won’t be availing of another body for his conscience. His assassin saw to that.
The detective saga unfolds at a riveting pace, spanning roughly six hours in total. Playing ex-detective James Karra, temporarily reinstated to investigate this particular murder, you’re led across varied crime locations in an attempt to reveal the conspiracy beneath it all. The initial assignment, seemingly a suicide, spirals into something far more ominous, dragging New York City’s high society into the entanglement. In this context, ‘Nobody Wants to Die’ is essentially a creative interpretation of timeless noir gems like Chinatown, with an impressive execution.
Introducing a twist with the science-fiction elements, detective Karra is equipped with unique tools that allow him to replay crime scenes and deduce the sequence of events leading to the crime. This sleuthing technique forms the crux of your engagement with the game, scrutinizing each crime scene in reverse and forward in time to unravel the mystery. A few more tools are available, but the gameplay primarily rests on straightforward and stylized crime-solving. This aspect of the game is visually compelling, turning the crime scenes into striking tableaux worth appreciating.
The game’s aesthetic brilliance is showcased in scenes like the grand private apartment with its majestic staircase and a massive cherry tree impeccably adorned in the center of it all. Initially, the entire room, including the tree, is set on fire. As you reconstruct the events, the fire subsides, the colors return and you witness this dazzling transformation in reverse. The result is nothing short of breathtaking. The game also features intriguing destinations like a floating bar and a hidden pleasure club, proving to be fascinating locations to explore with intricate details for added immersion.
This visual masterpiece isn’t just limited to the crime scenes in ‘Nobody Wants to Die’; the representation is woven into the very fabric of the game. The game world is bathed in aesthetics that amalgamate the charm of the forties with a Blade Runner style grimness. While your journey through this world follows a certain path, it never feels confined due to the attention to detail in each space you venture into. All elements in the game belong to a larger picture — be that the conspiracy you untangle or the depiction of New York itself.
The game conclusions (as there are multiple ones to explore) may not tie up every potentially captivating subplot or world-building element with the same finesse as the rest of the narrative. However, the slightly underwhelming finale didn’t dampen the overall experience of the game. The journey was intriguing despite the somewhat muted climax.
Upon reflection, what left an impression on me was the depth of the lore in ‘Nobody Wants to Die’. The concept of a world devoid of death isn’t merely the hook to pull you into the mystery; it’s a substantial moral and ethical issue that is persistently explored and questioned by Critical Hit Games. In the depiction of New York in 2329, dialogues hint at bodies being treated as government assets. The notion is as alarming as it sounds, and the game delves deeper into these complexities such as bans on harmful habits to prevent body damage, subscription charges for using your body, and the rise of a macabre thrill amongst the rich who temporarily inhabit the bodies of the poor for the experience of death.
This unsettling vision serves as a biting commentary on societal class disparities and the materialistic attitude of the wealthy towards the underprivileged. This exploration of a dystopian future is among the most intriguing elements of the gaming experience, providing both an immersive backdrop and deeper understanding of the central crimes investigated. I had minimal expectations from this game, but its briskly paced film noir mystery, underscored by a fascinating world, quickly catapulted it into my roster of hidden gems of 2024.