Nobody Wants to Die

Nobody Wants to Die is an incredible experience. Engaging detective gameplay, an incredible soundtrack, and a fascinating noir-yarn come together to create one of my favorite games in a long time.

79%Game Brain Score

story, gameplay

optimization, replayability

82% User Score Based on 3,626 reviews

Critic Score 76%Based on 24 reviews

Platforms

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About

Nobody Wants to Die is a single player role playing game with mystery, thriller and science fiction themes. It was developed by Critical Hit Games and was released on July 17, 2024. It received mostly positive reviews from critics and positive reviews from players.

Lose yourself in the dystopian world of New York, 2329; immortality comes at a price that someone has to pay. In this interactive noir story, lead the investigation using advanced technology, as Detective James Karra who risks it all in pursuit of a serial killer targeting the city’s elite.

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82%Audience ScoreBased on 3,626 reviews

story1.3k positive mentions

replayability11 negative mentions

Stunning visuals and art direction creating an immersive cyberpunk noir atmosphere
Engaging detective narrative with unique time-rewind mechanics for crime scene reconstruction
Strong voice acting and music enhance the storytelling and mood

Gameplay is extremely linear and hand-holding with very little player agency or puzzle challenge
Story becomes convoluted and confusing toward the end with unsatisfying and ambiguous conclusions
Lack of chapter select or manual save forces full replays to see multiple endings

story
3,185 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
55%
5%
The story of this game offers a compelling cyberpunk noir detective narrative set in a richly detailed dystopian future, blending atmospheric world-building with themes of immortality and corruption. While many praise its engaging characters, excellent voice acting, and immersive mood, the plot becomes convoluted and rushed toward the end, with limited player agency and multiple endings that often feel unsatisfying or confusing. Overall, it’s a strong narrative experience best appreciated as a linear interactive story rather than a traditional detective game, with replay value mainly for exploring different dialogue choices and endings.
- “The story is captivating and the investigations are really unique.”
- “"Nobody wants to die" is an excellent story-driven game with a gripping narrative that kept me hooked from start to finish.”
- “The story follows a typical noir detective narrative with a cyberpunk twist, featuring a dark, dystopian New York where body swapping and immortality are common; it's well written, immersive, and keeps you engaged through intriguing mysteries and plot twists.”
- “The story really hooked me and the dystopian world looks just amazing. The acting was fine but the story lost me about halfway through and the ending felt rushed, confusing, and unsatisfying.”
- “The story falls flat near the end and with its in-your-face themes of "rich people bad" and "cops bad", the message feels like that of a Twitter user. It became convoluted and dependent on replaying the story for other resolutions that don't really matter.”
- “All this combined just makes you check out of the story, not even a real game in my opinion; it's just a walking simulator with a pinch of detective work. The story is incoherent and aimless, with excessive hand-holding making investigation sections feel like cutscenes.”
gameplay
1,381 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
24%
65%
11%
The gameplay in "Nobody Wants to Die" is largely minimalist and heavily guided, resembling a walking simulator with limited player agency and simple puzzle elements centered on crime scene reconstruction and evidence analysis. While the unique time-rewind mechanic and detective tools offer some engaging moments, the overall experience is repetitive, linear, and lacks depth or meaningful player-driven investigation. The game shines more for its narrative, atmosphere, and visuals, making it suitable primarily for players seeking a story-focused, cinematic noir adventure rather than a gameplay-rich detective experience.
- “Gameplay revolves around exploration of crime scenes and putting evidence together, which was really cool and was very well done in its presentation.”
- “The reconstruction mechanic itself is presented extremely well, among the best I’ve seen.”
- “Gameplay & mechanics: The core gameplay revolves around detailed crime scene investigations, where players use advanced tools like UV lights, X-rays, and time manipulation to piece together clues. These mechanics feel fresh and rewarding, offering a level of interactivity that goes beyond typical point-and-click adventures.”
- “The actual gameplay is very weak to non-existent; the story is very cool at the beginning but becomes like a chore with the non-existent gameplay... lots of crawling and times where you do nothing but watch or wait.”
- “The actual gameplay detecting stuff really is way too much hand holding, it made me feel like a child who has to color by numbers but also you get handed your crayons and your hand is guided.”
- “Gameplay is pretty basic, linear and too guided with very little freedom — it’s mostly walking around crime scenes, clicking on what the game tells you, with almost no detective challenge or meaningful player agency.”
graphics
1,206 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
32%
1%
The game's graphics receive widespread acclaim for their stunning, photorealistic quality, blending retro-futuristic 1920s-1950s noir aesthetics with cyberpunk elements reminiscent of titles like Blade Runner and Bioshock, creating a deeply immersive and atmospheric world. Visuals are described as one of the strongest aspects, with detailed environments, impressive lighting, and meticulous art direction that powerfully evoke a dystopian, noir-inspired future. However, some users note performance and optimization issues, occasional graphical glitches, and that the high visual fidelity demands powerful hardware, while a few critiques mention the graphics feeling more like a tech demo supporting limited gameplay and narrative depth.
- “The graphics and the overall cyberpunk noir vibe are absolutely top-tier.”
- “The graphics are stunning, and almost AAA level.”
- “The visuals and the graphics on this game are simply stunning.”
- “Graphics look pretty bad while moving thanks to forced TAA, and many cutscenes have decals that spawn in visibly, subtracting from the immersion.”
- “The game has surprisingly mediocre graphics; the screenshots made me expect more.”
- “Just too bad that the graphics are also bogged down with bugs that clashed with my Nvidia driver so much that I had to bring down the settings from epic, as else the game would be unplayable.”
atmosphere
546 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
62%
37%
1%
"Nobody Wants to Die" is widely praised for its exceptional atmosphere, masterfully blending cyberpunk and noir aesthetics reminiscent of classics like Blade Runner and Altered Carbon. The game's moody visuals, detailed world-building, and fitting soundtrack create an immersive, stylish, and often oppressive setting that strongly supports its narrative and detective themes. While gameplay and story depth receive mixed reviews, the atmosphere consistently stands out as the game's most compelling and memorable aspect.
- “The atmosphere here is absolutely incredible, and I honestly think it can compete with Cyberpunk 2077.”
- “Nobody wants to die features exceptional storytelling, a meticulously crafted dystopian-noir atmosphere, stunning visuals, outstanding sound and music design, detective mechanics flawlessly implemented, a compelling plot, and well-profiled and developed characters.”
- “The atmosphere, the narrative, the visuals—they all come together in such a powerful way, it more than makes up for the repetition.”
- “Add a spoonful of pure madness and total writer’s paralysis in the second part, and the whole atmosphere just caves in.”
- “Sara talks nonstop for literally the entire 6-hour session of this game and she's incredibly annoying, just ruining any atmosphere built up.”
- “The voice acting is B and C tier, the audio is not mixed well, and the music fails to meaningfully create an atmosphere.”
music
260 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
55%
43%
2%
The game's music consistently receives praise for its stylish, jazzy, and noir-inspired soundtrack that effectively enhances the immersive cyberpunk and dystopian atmosphere. Composed by Mikolai Stroinski, the soundtrack is often described as haunting, melancholic, and fitting perfectly with the game's tone and visuals, though some note it can be repetitive or occasionally mismatched with certain scenes. Overall, the music is regarded as a major strength, contributing significantly to the mood and identity of the game despite occasional critiques of volume balance and underuse of silence.
- “Nwtd features an absolutely killer noir-inspired soundtrack that sets the tone perfectly from the moment you boot it up. There's a surprising amount of variety in the music too, but it all feels incredibly cohesive and appropriate to each scene you're in. Whether you're mid-investigation or just taking in the atmosphere between story beats, the soundtrack knows exactly how to pull you in.”
- “The music fits that atmosphere perfectly, subtle but memorable, often doing more emotional work than dialogue ever could.”
- “The amazing soundtrack by Mikolai Stroinski was just superb and added greatly to the noir vibe!”
- “The music is also pretentious, as the use of a film orchestra gives the impression of a grandiose film score, but in fact it contains very little compositional material and after a short time you hear the same three motifs over and over again.”
- “The sound is not mixed well in general, I had to turn the music way down to even understand most of the conversations.”
- “The music... too much jazz.”
optimization
176 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
23%
54%
23%
The game’s optimization is widely criticized, showing poor performance even on high-end hardware, with frequent stuttering, frame drops, and high system demands typical of UE5 titles. While some note it runs well with upscaling technologies like DLSS or FSR enabled, many players experience inconsistent and often frustrating performance issues, including an inability to disable upscaling or adjust key graphic options. Overall, despite strong visuals and performances, the technical optimization significantly hampers the experience and requires improvement.
- “Performance-wise, on my 4060 (with DLSS on balanced) and AMD 3700X, the game ran pretty smoothly on high settings.”
- “The game is optimized well, runs great on Linux with Proton, looks amazing, the writing is some of the best futuristic noir I've experienced in the last few years, and the overall execution of the game is top-tier in my opinion.”
- “Thankfully, all kinds of modern upscaling solutions from NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel are implemented to help with performance while maintaining visual fidelity.”
- “Buy it only on a huge sale, expect a terribly unsatisfying ending, and brace yourself for motherboard-melting levels of poor optimization if you're running an AMD chipset.”
- “Technically a mess (you literally cannot save or turn off DLSS and also optimization apparently doesn't exist), the story is very mid and the endings are incredibly bad.”
- “First game I legitimately can't run, even for UE5 this is rough, even with all low settings and upscaler at ultra performance I barely had 50 fps with a 6700xt/5700x3d, I'm used to playing poorly optimized games this gen but this takes the cake.”
replayability
76 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
12%
74%
14%
The game offers minimal replayability, largely limited to experiencing its two main endings and a few dialogue variations, with many players finding the overall content too linear and short to justify multiple playthroughs. The lack of chapter selection or save points further hinders attempts to explore alternate outcomes, making it primarily a one-time narrative experience with some added value for achievement hunting. While the setting and story are praised, replay value is generally rated low across reviews.
- “While the puzzles are generally straightforward, achieving a complete understanding of the story and unlocking all the trophies requires at least two playthroughs, adding to the replayability (you can make a few different choices and explore different endings).”
- “Immersive gameplay: choices truly feel impactful, leading to various endings that encourage replayability.”
- “You end up with alternate or multiple endings which gives a reason for replayability with multiple playthroughs if desired!”
- “The game does itself a big disservice by not having any kind of savepoint or chapter system and file archives; it really hinders the replayability because if you want to try out something different after seeing the ending, you have to go through the whole game again, including linear investigation parts which don't bring anything new anymore.”
- “Zero replayability: the game's rigid linearity makes it a 'one-and-done' experience.”
- “The replay value is low as many choices don't really matter.”
grinding
56 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
12%
88%
Grinding and core gameplay mechanics in the game are widely described as tedious, repetitive, and linear, with many players feeling constrained by hand-holding and a lack of player agency. While the story and visual presentation receive praise, the investigative puzzles, minigames, and rewind mechanics often become monotonous, detracting from the overall experience. Additionally, the absence of convenient features like chapter selection makes replaying for alternate endings feel especially tedious.
- “The gameplay becomes a bit tedious in the second half of the game, but since it's short, you won't get too bored.”
- “Unfortunately, the core gameplay is incredibly shallow, with excessive hand-holding and linear investigations that involve tedious clicking punctuated by painful dialogue.”
- “It was a fun loop and didn't overstay its welcome or become tedious.”
emotional
54 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game delivers a compelling, emotionally charged detective noir narrative with strong atmosphere, well-developed characters, and a haunting soundtrack that enriches key moments. While many players felt deeply engaged and moved—some even tearful—others found the emotional impact uneven due to pacing issues, voice acting inconsistencies, and a lack of narrative payoff. Overall, it’s praised for its mood and emotional depth but criticized by some for not fully realizing its emotional potential.
- “The story is a tech-noir detective one; everything is grim, and the protagonist is suitably gruff and down on his luck with all sorts of emotional baggage.”
- “Sara is your handler and she feels like a solid emotional counterbalance to Karra's gung-ho nature. She's a good influence on him and you can easily see why Karra would start to see her as a friend as the story unfolds.”
- “Nobody Wants to Die is an emotional rollercoaster that masterfully combines narrative depth with a dark, compelling atmosphere.”
stability
34 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
15%
6%
79%
User experiences with the game's stability are mixed, with some reporting frequent bugs, crashes, freezes, and graphical glitches that impact immersion, while others find it well-optimized and running smoothly with only minor issues. Performance and stability appear to vary significantly across different systems, with some players enjoying a polished, glitch-free experience and others facing frustrating technical problems.
- “The game is optimized well, runs great on Linux with Proton, looks amazing, the writing is some of the best futuristic noir I've experienced in the last few years, and the overall execution of the game is top-tier in my opinion.”
- “Technically polished, beautiful graphics, no glitches, freezes, or bugs encountered during my playtime.”
- “It runs great with virtually no stuttering.”
- “And to add to all of that, the terrible technical state, with constant crashes and freezes.”
- “The game has a lot of bugs, glitches, and overall poor optimization that shouldn't even have been there, since other more advanced games of the same category (such as Detroit: Become Human or Beyond Two Souls) don't have them.”
- “After restarting the game I can no longer finish the loading screen because the game freezes up.”
humor
22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
95%
5%
The humor in the game is a mix of dark, noir-inspired wit and lighthearted banter that adds levity without undermining the serious narrative. While many appreciate the clever, occasional funny moments and humorous dialogue, some find the comedic attempts—particularly certain voice acting choices—either unintentionally hilarious or detracting from immersion. Overall, the humor is seen as an engaging complement that balances the game's darker themes.
- “It’s unintentionally hilarious, deeply earnest, and somehow perfectly on brand for a game where immortality exists but describing snacks is the real challenge.”
- “And I just loved that, unlike too many noir things, they didn't just make it pure dark but rather had a fitting amount of humor and lighthearted banter in it.”
- “The conversations don't feel forced, the humor is light but convincing, and the ambiance is perfect (sitting on the neon sign smoking a cigar was a great moment).”
character development
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
42%
25%
Character development in the game receives mixed feedback, praised for its depth, storytelling, and integration with the narrative and world-building, creating meaningful and purposeful character moments. However, some find it shallow or slow-paced, lacking excitement or complexity, which may not appeal to players seeking more dynamic or action-driven growth. Overall, the development is appreciated by those valuing subtlety and narrative richness, but less so by those expecting more dramatic or fast-paced progression.
- “Excellent character development and performances.”
- “The game excels in storytelling, character development, and atmospheric design, with intuitive and unique gameplay mechanics that blend exploration and investigation.”
- “The game takes you through some genuinely interesting story-building and lore-building, doing detective work on a series of related incidents, while also doing a lot of character development for the protagonists.”
- “The narrative felt a little dry, and there was a lack of character development that made the stakes feel low.”
- “The character development is skin deep and really on the nose.”
- “Here's the thing though - and this is important - if you're the type who needs explosions every thirty seconds and thinks 'character development' is when your avatar gets bigger muscles, this game will bore you to tears.”
monetization
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
18%
82%
The monetization primarily involves microtransactions and in-game purchases, but these are briefly mentioned and not heavily emphasized in the user feedback. Overall, users focus more on the game's atmospheric elements and narrative style than on its monetization approach.
- “Microtransactions - in-game purchases.”
- “Microtransactions - in-game purchases.”
- “Every advertisement is about it, every movie is about it, every conversation is about it, and no characters have anything to say about themselves or the world that isn't only about it.”

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76%Critics’ scoreBased on 24 critic reviews

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6h Median play time

6h Average play time

5-7h Spent by most gamers

*Based on 27 analyzed playthroughs

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Frequently Asked Questions

Nobody Wants to Die is a role playing game with mystery, thriller and science fiction themes.

Nobody Wants to Die is available on Xbox Series X|S, PC, PlayStation 5, Windows and others.

On average players spend around 6 hours playing Nobody Wants to Die.

Nobody Wants to Die was released on July 17, 2024.

Nobody Wants to Die was developed by Critical Hit Games.

Nobody Wants to Die has received mostly positive reviews from players and mostly positive reviews from critics. Most players liked Nobody Wants to Die for its story but disliked it for its optimization.

Nobody Wants to Die is a single player game.

Similar games include Lacuna, The Invincible, State of Mind, Tails Noir, Backbone and others.

Nobody Wants to Die

Platforms

story

gameplay

graphics

atmosphere

music

optimization

replayability

grinding

emotional

stability

humor

character development

monetization