Nobody Wants to Die Review

Nobody Wants to Die starts at a drive-thru theater, our protagonist James taking in a black and white movie with his wife Rachel. You spend this peaceful moment joking around with her through conversation options amidst the pouring rain, but that respite is quickly destroyed. Rachel vanishes and the scene zooms out to reveal the dark, 24th century hellscape where James lives. It’s a great setup, showcasing everything you need to know about this moody cyberpunk detective noir. The world might be familiar, but the developers at Critical Hit Games have managed to fill it with fun details and a few moments that flip your expectations. Unfortunately, that strong start doesn’t quite hold up throughout Nobody Wants to Die’s roughly six-hour runtime; there’s a bit too much hand-holding during its investigation scenes, and it’s missing important features that would make its branching story structure easier to explore. But what it might lack in polish it makes up for in style.

Nobody Wants to Die is a story you’ve probably seen before: James is a detective with a tragic past he doesn’t remember, and who drowns himself in booze to dull the pain in a city full of flying cars, giant holographic ads, and buildings so tall you can’t see the ground. When he’s pulled into a case that ends up being bigger than he could’ve ever imagined, both his will and his skills as a detective are put to the test as he gets caught in a conspiratorial plot. On paper, it looks pretty basic; maybe even outright boring. And there are moments where it does stick to that script a bit too much.

But this isn’t just any detective story; it’s a cyberpunk neo-noir that isn’t shy about its artistic and narrative influences. There’s a lot of

in its premise, specifically in how people can swap bodies after death (or just whenever they want). The sleek, jaw-dropping aesthetic is very reminiscent of Blade Runner, but with a 1950s Dark City pastiche instead of a Japanese one. It’s also not hard to see some Cyberpunk 2077 here, both in its basic cyberpunk elements and in how you can reconstruct crime scenes with gadgets that run on technobabble. Of course, there’s also the early 20th century detective noir of it all — complete with femme fatales, constant rain, lots of alcohol, and monologues from James that straddle the line between perfectly melodramatic and a bit too over the top. It’s true greasy, wet pulp.

Critical Hit Games wears an “eat the rich” attitude on its sleeve. The body swapping system seemingly allows for immortality, but you have to purchase a subscription when you come of age. If you can’t afford it, you’ll get arrested, with your brain put into “bank” storage; if you’re rich, you can just buy new bodies and switch out whenever you want. Sadly, the class warfare this concept enticingly establishes is mostly just used to move the plot along. It’s more an opportunity to call…