I had heard of Nobody Wants to Die when it started popping up on YouTube channels. I didn’t watch the videos, but I did check the game out and see it was a noir detective mystery set in retro-futuristic world. It was on sale over Christmas, so I picked it up as a gift to myself.

The first thing that you are hit with in this game is the presentation. Nobody Wants to Die is set in an alternate New York City circa the 2300s. Bioshock & Fallout are the easiest things to compare this art direction to, but I wouldn’t call NWtD derivative of those franchises. There’s also some Blade Runner in there and, honestly, it reminded me of the 90s Batman the Animated Series, just with flying cars. I was in love with every scene of this game. The city oozes atmosphere and I would always take a few minutes to look at all the neon signs, Art Deco buildings, and flying Ford Model 48s. The buildings you explore blend together the 1940s style and the futuristic technology artfully. The fashion is all very vintage. The music leans more into the jazzy noir tunes vs techno sci-fi and is a welcome addition to the mix. The pictures can say more than I can on just how much this game nails it’s art style. For an indie game, it's graphics and animations are punching above their weight.

As far as gameplay, this game is a mix of investigating and walking simulator. The main way you interact with the game is using a time manipulation device to recreate crime scenes, sort of like the detective vision scenes in the Arkham games. The crime scenes are usually large world spaces, like a bar or club, so the recreations are broken down into smaller stories. You find out what happened on the club stage, one of the booths, behind the bar. Once you have them all, you can put them together to find out the larger story of what happened. I also didn’t quite grasp how the reconstructor worked. It seems to be a time travel device. You aren’t seeing a recreation of past events, you are stepping back into them. There’s points where you find a destroyed safe, go back in time to when it wasn’t destroyed, then you can open it up and see what was in it, even take the valuables inside.

The other major gameplay is creating a deduction board. These are similar to those in Frogware Sherlock games. You have a selection of clues you’ve found at a crime scene and you have to piece them together to support your theories. Unlike the Holmes games, I don’t believe you are able to guess wrong, or alternative, theories. The game seems to funnel you down the correct route. You also have a partner in your earpiece, Sara, who’s on the case with you. This is where the game is most ‘walking simulator’. You have discussions with her and depending on choices you make and clues you find, you can unlock new dialogue options. And your choices effect your relationship with Sara, and I imagine, effect the ending you get.

When it comes to story and tone, this is where NWtD shines. It nails that film noir vibe it’s going for. Our hero, James Karra, is a typical film noir detective protagonist. He’s a hard drinking detective with a tragic past that’s left him jaded. He likes to wax poetically about life and the government. If it were in any other game, I’d consider it groan worthy, but for a film noir, it’s expected. The retro-futuristic vibe also helps the film noir vibe, the city is always dark and usually raining. You can’t see the sky among the towering skyscrapers.
On the futuristic dystopian side, the game does a good job setting up it’s world lore without getting the player bogged down in exposition or lore. The main thing players have to know is no one dies in this future world. They’ve found a way to transfer people’s consciousness between bodies, ensuring they never truly die. When everyone turns 21, their body is up for being used as a “shell”. If they aren’t able to pay the fee to keep their body, their consciousness is sent to the freezer and their body is sent to an auction for others to bid on. The government demands you take good care of your body, since it becomes property of the state. Bodies are rated on how desirable they are. A young, healthy body would be class A, while an old, sickly body of an alcoholic would be class E. And you aren’t allowed to die your “final death” or at least, it’s very rare, with most people living 100s of years.

So, with that lore, the story kicks off. James is a detective who is on leave due to an incident that resulted in his partner’s death. He also has hallucinations of his dead wife. While on leave, the police chief, a buddy of James’, asks him to visit a disturbance at the apartment of a bigwig as an off the record favor & assigns you Sara as your partner. From there, the mystery deepens. Anything beyond this point might be a bit spoilery, skip to “This game definitely”. It turns out that a few rich people are found dead, like final death dead. James thinks there’s a killer behind it, but his chief wants him to drop the case and write them all off as suicides, very much the stereotypical police chief. James & Sara uncover some strange Ouroboros markings that lead to a secret “Eyes Wide Shut” lounge where the rich plotted how to control the masses and do kinky sex stuff. Early on, I knew this story was likely to not have a happy ending, seeing as it’s a noir story that deals with political machinations. I figured at best, we’d end with James & Sara knowing the truth, but not being able to stop it.

As for James’ personal story, we learn that in his past body he was a professional baseball player, but after an injury, he elected to switch bodies, but his career never recovered. He became a police detective, but for his current body, all he could afford was the body of a lactose intolerant drug addict. The muscle memories of this ‘shell’ requires him to abuse drugs to stave off the hallucinations. I would imagine as a MLB player, James was one of the wealthy of society, so it wasn’t really explained how he ended up being a seemingly dirt poor detective. We're shown the event that led to his partner’s death towards the end of the game. James was chasing a drug dealer through a train, blasting away in a frenzy, killing people indiscriminately. It turns out the drug dealer sold James’ wife the poison that killed her. It’s quickly alluded that she had a miscarriage, James took it poorly, and she ended up killing herself in grief. All of that has led to James’ cynical disposition.

The story is relatively short. It is nice for attempting multiple playthroughs with different choices, but I also would’ve liked more chances to explore this city, walk the streets. You only visit a few closed off locations and rarely meet any living people, more of that walking simulator feel. The mystery doesn’t feel too rushed, but it definitely burns faster than a typical detective tale.

This game definitely has themes. There’s a lot of references to Ancient Greece, if you told me this story was a reimagining of an ancient Grecian tale I’d believe you, but it could just be they were trying to show the rich as being absurdly decadent like the Ancient Greeks. One of the main themes is one I resonated with. In the background we learn the President signed a bill into law that drops the body registration age from 21 to 20, after he promised the people to veto it. There’s a lot of talk about how he betrayed the people, but that’s it, it’s just talk. James & Sara talk about how people may finally do something, but there’s this feeling that it doesn’t matter. Those in power will keep doing whatever they want & keep the masses distracted. I’d hesitantly say this game feels a bit libertarian in theme, but I don’t want to discourage anyone from trying this game out. NWtD is anti-government/capitalism, but not in the typical rebellious anarchist way, more a defeated way. Forgive me getting political, but it is something I seem to notice in politics, people rattle sabres about how bad something is, but rarely follow through on their talk before getting distracted by the next big outrage. It’s cynical, I know. It may be worth mentioning the developers are from Eastern Europe. And at the end, the people do start rioting, but it’s not treated as a big triumphant moment. James remarks it’s about time, but maybe too little, too late. The other theme running under everything is the effect it has on people to be able to live forever. What that does to someone’s mind. I won’t go too far into that, leave that for anyone who wants to play it, but it is brought up.

All in all, Nobody Wants to Die is a game that checks all the boxes for me. The noir story, unique setting, cynicism, and detective gameplay all work for me. I was sleeping on this game to my detriment. I’d say it’s in my top 3 games of 2024 now. It’s a game that doesn’t stay long, but does make you think. I would say if you’re someone who likes detective stories or sci-fi shenanigans, I would highly recommend this game. It’s not expensive, and is often on sale for $15.

Nobody Wants to Die is tagged as a noir detective thriller. While technically this is correct, it plays more like a more interactive visual novel. There's a large sprawling Blade Runner esque setting, but we only get to experience a handful of locations, and in those locations our options for gameplay are pretty limited. Graphically it looks incredible for a smaller dev team and I really wish they would expand on this setting more in the future.

You play as a down on his luck detective who is known in the department to be the "not by the books" type of guy who likes his drinks more than his work. We're given a case as a chance to come back from a bad accident that slowly unveils itself through the game, and a young partner who is trying to still make a name for herself and move up the ranks. What starts as a basic suicide looking case quickly devolves into corruption, government interference, underground cults, and a whole lot of questioning what is real. I was pretty intrigued throughout, until we get to the end. I'm not sure if the developers were running out of funding or out of ideas but the story very quickly wraps up missing a lot of pieces and finishing with more questions than when I started. It unfortunately leaves a very sour taste even now as I type out this review.

Gameplay consists of trying to solve these cases with the use of some fancy tools. Some are basic x-ray that allows you to see even bullet paths, but the one you use the most lets you "rebuild" the events that led to what you are currently viewing. You'll need to find a few pieces of evidence like a body, blood, etc that lets you rebuild the scene with a pretty unnecessary quick mini game of holding left, right, or both mouse buttons. From there you can then fast forward or rewind the scene to find additional pieces of evidence which lets you build out even more of the scene. It's a neat idea, but unfortunately really holds your hand throughout and doesn't really give you a chance to piece things together on your own for better or worse. There's no chance you won't solve these cases, as the game does not let you continue forward until you collect all the evidence it wants you to. It feels like you are just along for the ride.

This is a really pretty looking futuristic noir detective story that plays just like that, a story. You don't have options in how you conduct the investigations, and the only real variations you have are in dialog options, and one of two endings you can get that can just be decided at the very end of the game. This is a smaller development team and an early game by them, so I'm hoping to see more in the future. For the price point, I did enjoy my time with it clocking just under 7 hours to 100% complete the game.

You ever play something where it looks like a world you’d want to live in forever.... and then slowly realize you barely get to live in it at all?

Nobody Wants to Die is exactly that kind of experience.

You play as James Karra, a detective in a dystopian future where death is more of an inconvenience than an ending. People can transfer their consciousness (ichorite) into new bodies... assuming they can afford to keep paying for them.

It’s a great setup: technoir, moral gray areas, corporate control over literal human existence. On paper, it’s doing a lot right.

And to be fair, the presentation absolutely delivers. The visuals are gorgeous, dripping with neon-soaked atmosphere, and the voice acting does a lot of heavy lifting to sell the world. There’s a real sense that this universe has depth… even if you’re not always allowed to explore it.

Because here’s the thing: this isn’t really a detective game. It’s a detective narrative.

Most of what you’re doing involves investigating crime scenes using a device that reconstructs past events: rewinding time, scanning for clues, piecing together what happened. Sounds cool, and it is… for a while. But it rarely lets you actually think for yourself.

Instead, it’s more like:

“Look here.” “Now scan this.” “Now connect these dots.”

You’re not solving the case, you’re following instructions on how to solve it.

And that’s where things start to slip.

The whole experience is extremely hand-holdey, and it starts to wear on you pretty quickly. There’s almost no room to experiment, miss something, or approach a scene differently. Even dialogue choices feel more cosmetic than meaningful, aside from a couple of moments that carry far more gravity than the setup really earns.

It ends up playing out less like detective work and more like acting out a script.

The story itself? Compelling, but messy.

It throws the kitchen sink at you (big ideas, shifting motivations, multiple threads), and instead of weaving them together, it kind of piles them on. You’re constantly being fed new information, but not always given the space or clarity to process it. By the end, it’s less “aha!” and more “wait… what exactly just happened?”

That said, it’s not all negative.

There’s something genuinely intriguing about the world and its themes. The concept of body ownership, identity, and immortality is strong enough to carry things, even when the execution stumbles. And when everything clicks (visuals, music, voice work), it’s easy to get pulled in like a lasso.

Just… don’t expect to play your way through it.

This is very much a one-sitting kind of experience. Step away for too long, and you’ll come back wondering who half these people are and why anything matters. It demands your attention, but doesn’t always reward it in equal measure.

It’s also worth noting that this is the first game from the Polish studio behind it, Critical Hit Games. And for a debut, there’s real talent here. Even with its shortcomings, I’m curious to see what they do next.

👍 POSITIVES

• Eye-candy visuals with solid atmosphere
• Excellent voice acting
• Unique technoir premise with interesting themes

🤏 MIXED

• Narrative is intriguing but often overcomplicated
• Plays more like an interactive movie than a traditional game

👎 NEGATIVES

• Extremely on-rails gameplay
• Little room for actual deduction or experimentation
• Dialogue choices rarely matter
• Can be confusing despite constant exposition