Nobody Wants To Die Review (PS5) – Cyberpunk games have been around for a while but none of them captured the slow burn of the original Blade Runner that set a standard for what Cyberpunk should look and feel like.
A narrative that my co-worker called “A terrifying world that honestly I can’t think of a better life than being a hard-bitten, miserably alcoholic, ennui-wrecked detective in a setting where the future is old.” Nobody Wants To Die embodies that statement, and it delivers one of the most narratively compelling experiences I’ve had this year.
Nobody Wants To Die Review (PS5) – A Fantastic Narrative Experience In The Most Terrifying World
An Incredible Narrative Experience
The story follows a detective named James, who is suspended from duty due to a train accident that cost his partner his life. James himself is suffering from severe depression and decides to drown his sorrows with pills and alcohol. While suspended, he’s given the chance to go and declare a crime scene a suicide. The suicide in question however, was committed by the most powerful and influential man in history.
He’s partnered with a young officer named Sara, who communicates with a headpiece for most of the game. Of course, when James examines the crime scene, things don’t add up to a suicide, and he decides to investigate the crime scene against orders. Only to make startling discoveries. The most important of which is that the victim is actually dead.
In this world, death does not exist. It is one of the most terrifying and haunting aspects of Nobody Wants To Die. Immortality is not only possible; it’s also mandatory. Taking a page from Altered Carbin, people survive by transferring their minds and consciences, called Ichorite, to other bodies.
A Terrifying World Where Immortality Is Mandatory
When you reach 21 years old, you must pay a mandatory fee to keep your body. If you can’t make that payment, you’re body is taken, and your Ichorite is stored in the bank until someone can pay for you to gain a new body.
Not even death can genuinely keep you dead as you’re Ichorite is simply recovered from your corpse and put into another body, that is until James discovers that the death he is sent to declare a suicide is actually something more as the Ichorite of the victim is destroyed.
The Nobody Wants To Die narrative hooked me from the moment I arrived at the crime scene. The story follows James as he not only tries to solve the unsolvable but also to figure out why a serial killer is targeting the most wealthy and elite. Along with Sara, you build your case and learn to trust each other in an untrustworthy world.
The story is quite good, keeping you guessing until the end. The decisions you make during crime scene investigations affect the story and unlock various conversation options later in the story.
Solving Crime Is Fun But Doesn’t Require Much Thought
Solving crimes is quite fun. James has various tools, such as an X-ray to see electrical cables and hidden rooms, ultra-violet light to follow blood trails, and the most essential tool, the Reconstructor. The Reconstructer allows you to reconstruct parts of a crime scene to see what transpired.
Once a scene is reconstructed, you can rewind and fast-forward an event to find evidence. This can be anything from an object dropped by an individual to an injury they may have sustained. As much as I enjoyed the crime scene investigations, I wish the game hadn’t entirely held my hand throughout the process. Even if you get stuck, you can press a hint button, pointing you in the right direction.
The other portion of the game is putting clues together. This process involves James and Sara reviewing the various clues you collect and connecting them to keep the case moving. This is another aspect I wish was a little more intuitive, but it is simply a trial-and-error situation, which doesn’t provide the same satisfaction as actually solving something.
Great Writing And Incredible World Building
Of course, this did not deter me from enjoying the narrative. The voice work and characters kept me engaged throughout the entire experience. All praise to the developer for getting me wholly invested in the cast. It’s even more impressive that Sara is virtually a voice for most of the game, and James never interacts with another person throughout the game.
The writing is also top-notch, and the dynamic between James and Sara comes to life as you learn more about their pasts and how they ended up in the positions that they’re in.
The world is a character in itself. I love the futuristic setting with the 1940s design. The cars can fly, but they look like they’re from a 1940s sci-fi comic. The same goes for the architecture, clothing, and weapons.
Stunning Vistas And Brutally Gorgeous Crime Scenes
Visually, Nobody Wants To Die is a spectacle and the settings are grand. You can easily stand on the scaffolding of James’ apartment and stare as the cars fly by and the neon lights shine through the smog and pollution. Most of the game looks fantastic, but when you get close to the textures, some parts make you notice muddy textures.
One thing the game does that I wish more games of its type did is allow you to move through objects that would otherwise hinder your movement. It may seem like it would break your immersion, but it helps you not constantly walk around and get stuck on chairs and debris.
I’d love to dig into every narrative detail in Nobody Wants To Die, but to not spoil the experience, I’ll say this is one of the best narrative titles I’ve played all year.
From the setting and world-building to the actual story, I was hooked from start to finish. This is a fantastic narrative experience in one of the most terrifying worlds built.
No One Wants To Die is available now on PlayStation 5
Review code kindly provided by PR.