In the science fiction first-person adventure Nobody Wants to Die is about life in the future, or more precisely the dream of eternal life. In the year 2139 it is possible to transfer one's personality into new bodies. In addition to “body lending” in general, the story revolves around a few powerful people who use this method to enjoy an endless life with all kinds of pleasures and make a fortune at the expense of the less well-off. However, a mysterious death occurs within this circle, which leads to investigations by the law enforcement authorities. This is where our antihero John Karra comes into play.
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| Here you get to see John for once – at least the John in his current body. |
Bad cop, good cop
The investigation into the death mentioned above is being carried out by the mortality police department. However, the police do not use official personnel for deaths in the circle of power. Instead, they unofficially give permission to snoop to our John Karra. He has been suspended since his last case, which went completely off the rails and resulted in the death of his partner. He is given a partner, Sara, to look after him. Neither of them is enthusiastic about the idea, but they pull themselves together.
Sara's skepticism stems from her knowledge that John is carrying at least one trauma with him and is often fond of using dubious investigative methods. He also swears like a trooper, drinks like a fish, and his excessive consumption of the “medicine” ambrosia has unpleasant side effects. In comparison to the cynical grump, Sara is in a way the good soul of the team – although she can swear just as well.
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| The detective work is limited to simple mini-games. |
Detective games
While you now move through the individual game sections with John in the first-person perspective, Sara is initially only connected to you by radio in the best sidekick manner. She supports the investigation by gathering important information via the police computer, gives general tips or the moral compass. As the game progresses, the conversations become more and more personal and the characters develop. At some points you choose from several conversation options, which in turn should influence the progression of the story.
Nobody Wants to Die is still a very linear game, you can never return to locations you have already visited outside of your schedule. As part of the investigation, you visit several crime scenes and try to find out what happened before the people present died. This includes searching the crime scenes for clues, which you then turn in all directions to find new clues. John also has a number of investigative tools at hand, which I charitably refer to as mini-games. The most important tool is the reconstructor, which you use to rewind and fast forward time to reconstruct the past. You also have a UV lamp that shows you traces of blood and an X-ray machine that you can use to locate cables in walls and metal in the human body.
Once the crime scene has been cleared, you can leave it and a story section follows, for example a longer emotional or philosophical conversation between John and Sara. Often with a view over the New York of the future, which creates atmospherically strong scenes that remind me positively of Blade Runner Finally, it is important to correctly put together the collected evidence and formulate investigative theories.
Nobody Wants to Die doesn't allow you any freedom during the investigation. The game dictates when you have to use which tool. I believe that important evidence or investigative steps are unmissable. I would like to make my belief more concrete for you, but since there is only one save game and sections cannot be repeated, I can't do that.
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| To complete your investigation into a case, you connect the right evidence together. |
Technical
I really like the look and sound effects in Nobody Wants to Die. Overall, the game world is very nicely graphically – although some scenery or models reveal weaknesses in detail when viewed for a longer period of time. Musically, Nobody Wants to Die uses swing and jazz pieces to set exactly the tone I expect in a film noir homage. I also think the voice acting of Sara and John is very good. However, the voice output is only in English with German subtitles. In addition, all texts are in English, with the translation being done in superimposed text boxes.
Unfortunately, the mouse and keyboard controls cannot be freely configured and the corresponding menu omits the information that there is a faster-run option. The fact that our protagonist's basic movement speed is too leisurely should really be a point of criticism here. When I switched to the controller after a few hours because of the unfamiliar keyboard layout, John picked up the pace after pressing the right stick. Nobody wants to Die doesn't allow you to save freely, by the way, but I feel that there are plenty of automatic save points. Nevertheless, I find these solutions suboptimal.
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| There are quite a few pieces of text to read in Nobody Wants to Die. The title hits the nail on the head here. |
Conclusion
Nobody wants to Die tells its science fiction story about the desire for eternal life and the greedy entanglements of the elite well. I did find some passages too clichéd and in my opinion the logic is a bit shaky. But that's within reason. The well-drawn main characters with their pasts, their strengths and weaknesses are the main reason why I like Nobody Wants to Die as a playable crime film.
In terms of gameplay, however, Nobody Wants to Die lacks everything. The mini-games are undemanding and the use of your gadgets is dictated by the narrative. If you're expecting detective work or puzzles – which even require logical thinking – you're in the wrong place here. Nobody Wants to Die is just a playable crime film. If you have gaming expectations in addition to a good narrative, put an “only” in front of it.
- Detective game for PC, Playstation 5, Xbox Series X
- Single player
- For beginners
- Price: 24.99 euros
- In one sentence: Nobody wants to Die tells a story worthy of a film – but on a gaming level it remains pale.