The beauty with gaming as it stands now is that there are so many games out there and now more than ever indie game studios have a light shining on them like never before.
Drinkbox Studios is one of those studios that I’m referring to, and they made a game that I stumbled upon that’s so much fun that I had to write a review about it. That game is Nobody Saves the World.
WHAT IS THIS GAME ABOUT?
Story wise, this game is about the chaos that ensues when monsters and a mysterious fungus began to take over the world and the world’s greatest and most powerful wizard, Nostramagus has disappeared. Your character, Nobody, from which the title suggests finds Nostramagus’ wand and it’s from here that the game begins.
Randy the Rad who is Nostramagus’ annoying apprentice is who you’ll encounter as soon as you begin your journey to “save the world” and he is going to do everything he can throughout the game to thwart you as he wants to glory of saving the world all to himself. You’ll be dealing with him quite a bit throughout the game but it won’t stop your progress, he’ll just be a thorn in your side
At its core, Nobody Saves the World is essentially a dungeon crawler. You go to this dungeon and go to that dungeon, collect a few things as you go all while the challenges and specific checklist for completion changes. Where NSTW is different is the very entertaining story and the character building and leveling system it uses so you can get the most out of your character. No, it’s not like Zelda, at least to me it isn’t. This game has a different charm to it.
IT’S ALL ABOUT YOUR FORM
Evolution is what this game is all about. It’s how you’re going to be able to navigate the dungeons. There are enemies that are shielded in a certain way and require a certain form to defeat them. Some enemies you must defeat at range, and so on and so forth. As you play the game you have acquire stars to open doors and it’s in your best interest to try and unlock as many forms and their unique abilities as possible.
The world of NSTW is pretty big and there will be a ton of things to do thus the need for so many forms and customization with those forms. It’s not open world but it doesn’t need to be but the area availability makes it so that you can level up pretty easily by traversing the terrain and just killing enemies and giving yourself a chance at being a bit overpowered going to into the tougher dungeons.
The combat in the game is pretty straightforward in terms of it’s action but the challenge comes in as you gain levels, more forms and the dungeons get more complexed. It can be a bit daunting having to formulate a strategy in how you approach dungeons no matter how big or small but that is what keeps you entrenched in this game. There’s plenty to do. Sidequests are aplenty in this game some of them are pretty fun and to a degree necessary depending on the forms you like to play with and some of them are hollow and totally pointless but if you’re a completionist then do em all. You won’t be lacking in fun either way.
Nobody Saves the World also has 2-player co-op mode which is cool. How it works is, one player acts as the host for the session and the other is basically a participant. It works well and it does take a strain off of your playthrough as those dungeons get really difficult. The game will adjust difficulty however to accommodate for the additional player, yes, that means it gets a bit harder but having that extra man is clutch. The drawbacks to co-op? Anything the host does will be experienced by the other player, for example, if the host goes AFK and pauses the game, it’s paused for the other player as well so they’d be at the mercy of the host until they get back.
There is an estimated total of 15 hours or so in total gameplay but of course this will be totally up to you. It took me about 21 hours to complete the game and I’m going to play it again with New Game + mode and challenge myself. So finishing the game comes with incentive and replay value.
NOBODY SAVES THE WORLD IS A SLEEPER GOTY CANDIDATE
Nobody Saves the World is a game that probably wasn’t on most peoples’ radar and it’s a shame that this game wasn’t talked about enough. This is a game that shows you why smaller developers should be supported more and more. Microsoft knew it. Snatched up this game for it’s lineup. Death’s Door was that sleeper hit game last year. Nobody Saves the World is the 2022 sleeper hit of the year and I’ll stand on that. I don’t think we’ll see another game like it this year. This game is colorful, well paced, not too long and most importantly fun. I don’t think you have to like dungeon crawler style games to appreciate this game. The GSG team has been so busy with an influx of game reviews that we had gotten a little sidetracked but we wanted to make sure to talk about this great game that we feel hasn’t been talked about enough thus the late review. This game should absolutely be played by more people. So, If you have any interest in this game, and you should, you can pick it up on Steam or if you have GamePass you can download it and play it there. Don’t miss out on this one.
