2024 might be the straight-up weirdest year for gaming yet. Literal thousands of layoffs almost every week, multi-million dollar projects dying the day they’re finally shown off – somewhere amongst the chaos is the idea of just playing a video game, experiencing an awesome story, discovering a cool, innovative gameplay mechanic, or perhaps all three.
It’s because the industry is so painfully in flux; at any one time chasing live service models, subscription fees, third-party acquisitions and everything else, that you occasionally need a reminder to just sit back and enjoy the output of some of the most talented artists on Earth.
Running the gamut of overlooked triple-A to indie, phoenix-from-the-ashes resurrection-projects that took years to come together and everything in between, if you’re struggling for recommendations amongst the sludge, look no further.
2024 remains a reminder that a gaming industry with one foot in the tech space and the other in interactive creativity will forever be fascinating to watch develop in real time, but don’t miss the highlights of the journey because you’re worried about the destination.
If there’s one thing we’re seeing a ton of in the modern gaming industry, it’s fully-fledged, sometimes graphically rich and all-round decently produced titles, with zero marketing. This leads to layoffs and closures across the board – looking at you, Alone in the Dark reboot – as it’s safe to say that many games’ time to prove themselves is a few months, at best.
Nobody Wants to Die is the debut Blade Runner-style cyber-noir thriller from Critical Hit, an absolutely stunning, Unreal 5-backed detective game that’s essentially the Batman: Arkham titles’ crime scene gadgets, mixed with the mind-maps and conclusions of a Frogwares Sherlock game, plus L.A. Noire’s sleazy, 1940s crime caper soundtrack.
It absolutely slaps from moment one, firing out the gates with one of the coolest displays of modern graphical tech seen this generation, a potential one-trick pony approach that feeds directly into completely absorbing you in its world. Art direction, voice acting, plot drive and all-round immersion are the reason to play Nobody Wants to Die.
Story-wise it’s a meaty framing of what life is like in a city that actively lets people live forever, trading consciousnesses into increasingly younger bodies, but it’s also about having detective James Karra pull out a hip flask as he sits on a neon sign, drinking in the endless steel structures that make up this futuristic New York City.
The VERY end and how the story goes has proven a bit divisive amongst fans, but in terms of executing on a vision and taking you on a journey, there are few more confident stories and art directions this year.