Nobody Saves the World review – a shape-shifting treat
Nobody Saves The World might have the most accurate cats in any game ever. Imperious, judgey, capable of magic. I tend to kill them immediately when they appear -because of their area denial swipe storm attack – so I don’t get time to really study them, but this morning I found a trailer and paused it on a screen filled with Nobody’s cats: drawn up tall, ears nobly architectural with those straight lines and points, pupils contracted to the degree where they look like little nigella seeds standing on end. The cloak with its prog collar and elegant folds, the inevitable arcane medallion: ninety percent sure that if cats could dress, this is what they would choose to leave the house in.
Nobody Saves the World reviewPublisher: Drinkbox StudiosDeveloper: Drinkbox StudiosPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out now on PC and Xbox – including Game Pass
I love the cats. But honestly, that’s just the start of things I love about this game. It’s a high-wire proposition: an ARPG in which the character you play as, the person chosen to save a fantasy world from a great calamity – it’s literally called the Calamity I think – is nobody. And they look like nobody: pasty and sketched in, eyes like railway tunnels disappearing into some pale mountain, a face gently lined by cubicle living and cubicle fretting, a slouch.
But this is Drinkbox, a studio whose recent games reveal a mastery of colour and character and challenge and fun. So this sad, unbaked cookie, this Dilbert, is only the basic form of the hero. Granted a magic wand they can transform into other creatures – a rat early on, if I remember correctly, but also guards, archers, robots, dragons, and so much between. Unlockable hero forms each with their own attacks and perks and abilities, unlockable hero forms you can switch between on the fly. So when you want to move over water, maybe select a form like the ghost? When you want to sneak through gaps maybe select the skittering rat? When you want…hmmm. What might the egg form be good for?
Truly a high-wire proposition. Most people I suspect will know Drinkbox from Guacamelee, an intricate take on an intricate form – the beat-’em-up Metroidvania. Guacamelee was fun, but it was punishing fun. Those bosses! Those traversal challenges! A game for leaning forward, leaning into the screen, giving it your everything. An ARPG is a very different proposition. They have intricacies and theorycrafting and precision in their way, but I suspect a lot of people – I can’t be entirely alone here – play them leaning back in the chair, chewing through mobs and Pop-Tarts, kiting, cornering, playing by the map screen in the corner as much as the big screen where the particles are unfolding, turning geography and distance traveled almost directly into XP. Could Drinkbox handle such a different kind of fun?
