Nobody Wants to Die

While the game itself is gorgeous (though quite resource-intensive), it has those lame "mash the button" QTEs with no accessibility setting to remove them. Be warned, those non-accessible QTEs are mandatory to get any ending other than the bad one.

3.5 stars but since that's not allowed, I actually feel like having to round down for once. Great story, but you could just watch a Let's Play! Like, cool concept and all. If this was an even shorter thing, as like a demo or something for an more open-world-ish type of thing with an overarching story, i'd buy that. but as a standalone? I cant really recommend it to most people. Play it for the story but expect that you don't have to think about anything gameplay-wise. Don't get me wrong, i love the atmosphere and story. I do not mind more of walking-sim with a bit of gameplay. I like story focused games. But they should be marketed as such. I've read reviews, that the game would be holding my hand regarding "investigations": okay fine, sure. It's supposed to be just a little relaxing fun after work, i can live with that. But: the "gameplay" could have been not there at all. It would be a better "game", well, story experience. This game does not "hold your hand", it let's you watch how it moves your hand. Crime-scene exploration and connecting clues? nah, every damn little thing has an indicator and tells you which tool to use (why bother even with tutorial pop-ups and an "mechanic" to select each tool when right-clicking at the highlighted point does the exact same thing?) Addiotionally, you need to do things in the exact order the game wants you to do or you could get stuck. I love the setting, i find the story intriguing and it's actually well done regarding the different endings and framing of performing the same actions but reaching different conclusions. Just... It's not a game. It's a movie but instead of watching it and choosing the direction things are gonna go, you have to basically make the movie yourself following a script (not in a good way). I enjoy the shorter run-time (first playthrough was like 6hrs; i did a second to see the "good" (intended?) ending and mostly because of unskippile cutscenes that took 3-ish hrs).

The visuals and atmosphere will pull you in, that's for sure! That is if you get past the first reconstruction. I kept wanting to explore on my own, but the game is *very* on rails, and wants you to do things in a certain order. The in-story reason is that you don't have enough data, and you are able to reconstruct more as you put the pieces together. But the execution falls behind.. I guess it all came to pieces when I could not even use the flashlight, because the part of the story where I had to use it was over, and the devs just decided to disable it. Think of the braindances from Cyberpunk, but instead of complete freedom with the time and tools, you are restricted to use a specific tool only at a specific time, and the timepieces are unlocked sequentially. You get used to it, but it's been done better and I was disappointed after the first reconstruction. Still I kept going because of the art style, the atmosphere, the intrigue. The ending is underwhelming I am guessing the game was rushed to release. It's a shame really since the parts that are good, are really good.

The game is a bit short and has a somewhat depressing tone. However, if you enjoy cyberpunk, “Altered Carbon” (both the movie and the book), Raymond Chandler themes, and detective stories, and you are comfortable with English (Polish translation is okay, but the English voiceover is excellent), it is highly recommended. Expect a few hours of an excellent show and a captivating story. Buy it!

The art style, environments, story line, visuals and the soundtrack are all excellent. This would make a great movie, but as a game it felt short, rushed and the detective bits were quite tedious in places. That being said, I did enjoy the game, and it even ran alright on my i7 7700K with 1070Ti.