Trenchcoat tunes

With the exception of a few biological anomalies, nobody really wants to die. But the fact that we all eventually have to is a law of nature - at least these days. In the world of 2329, which we experience in Nobody Wants to Die, the recently released debut from Polish developer Critical Hit Games, humanity has been able to leave such trivialities as death behind thanks to digital memory banks.

In the interactive story, we slip into the role of detective James Karra, who has to deal with a murder case in classic noir style. In addition to the expected future gadgets, one of his tools is time manipulation. This should make his investigations much easier, but is only of limited use in terms of gameplay ... and in the end, of course, there is much more to the supposed suicide of a New York celebrity. Meanwhile, with 78 points on Metacritic the game comes off quite well. To see whether this also applies to the soundtrack, I went to take a look.

The score

The 35-track OST was composed by Mikołaj Stroiński, who was also involved in the music for The Witcher 3 and its addon Blood and Wine as well as the card game spin-offs Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales and GWENT: The Witcher Card Game . These were all absolutely praiseworthy scores, although they also leaned heavily towards fantasy. However, Stroiński is also responsible for the music of Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 and The Vanashing of Ethan Carter , whose more 'realistic' approaches were less appealing to me.

The music of Nobody Wants to Die does not fit into either of these tendencies, but goes its own way. This path leads through dark, steamy alleyways in which flickering neon lights draw harsh contrasts in the black and white and trumpets, strings and lonely saxophones intonate the film noir of the 40s and 50s. Connoisseurs of such movies or games like L.A. Noire will immediately feel at home with the sound of the stereotypical backdrop, even if Stroiński captures the flair more successfully in my opinion than the Hale brothers in the aforementioned 2011 Rockstar game.

The composer remains true to this style for more than half of the score; the expected sci-fi/cyberpunk influences are completely absent up to this point. In fact, the sounds of the big band at the beginning could easily be placed under a screen appearance by Humphrey Bogart and the like and it would fit. Even little creepy interludes and musing piano strumming are served up with pieces such as Hello, This Is the Killer SpeakingMikołaj Stroiński4 / Deadly GripMikołaj Stroiński4 and Letting GoMikołaj Stroiński4 / RachelMikołaj Stroiński3 serviert.

In the second half and as the tension in the game increases, modern influences begin to creep into the composition. Pieces such as The Ikarus MurderMikołaj Stroiński4, One More Clue Before the ExplosionMikołaj Stroiński4 or When the Body CollapsesMikołaj Stroiński4 sound more like Mission Impossible / The Incredibles. Bei Central Parks Riots kommt durch die Synthies und den Beat dann tatsächlich auch etwas Cyberpunk-Atmosphäre auf.

Although it seems obvious, this doesn't come across as a disjointed element. On the contrary, the generally quite short duration of the songs ensures that neither monotony nor chaos are created. The composition strikes a very good balance between classical background music and entertaining melodic accents. I like this much better than, for example, the horror twist in the 2024 remake of the genre cousin Alone in the Dark - well, that's primarily about scaring you.

Nobody Wants to Die leaves nothing to be desired, at least acoustically, and delivers an absolutely solid musical experience that is a clear recommendation for both genre fans and those interested in the genre. And I say that as someone who can't really do much with the jazzy whine of a tortured saxophone. Here it just fits.