The dead speak! CD Projekt RED poked its head back above the parapet this week after months of silence, touting the long-awaited next-gen version of Cyberpunk 2077 and a hefty new patch. Will you be jumping back into Night City anytime soon, or are you saving your energy for Horizon Forbidden West on Friday? Hold that thought for just one minute, while we tell you what we’ve been playing this week.
Tom – Lead Writer
Nobody Saves The World
- Playing on Xbox Game Pass
As a newly minted Game Pass enthusiast and a huge fan of the Guacamelee! series, Nobody Saves The World is right up my street. In this new top-down RPG from Drinkbox Studios, you play as a white blob of a character named Nobody and tasks you with saving the kingdom from a malevolent force. Armed with a magic wand, you can transform into multiple different forms: a rat, a Knight, a horse, a bodybuilder, and many more. Each form has different attacks and abilities, meaning that you’ll be switching between them regularly as you crawl through dungeons and battle enemies.
The game constantly throws new quests at you, ranging from full story missions to grind quests like gnawing 25 baddies to death as a rat. This means that you’re almost always being rewarded in some way whenever you play, which I’ve got to say is pretty addictive. Your different forms can be customised even further by mixing and matching abilities between them, leading to fun combinations like a horse that can shoot arrows or a magician who can chuck slime like a slug. Add in a healthy dose of Drinkbox’s signature self-reflexive humour and you’ve got a seriously compelling package.
Nobody Saves The World is worth consideration even if you don’t have Game Pass, but if you do, it’s a must-try.
Joe – Editor & Lead Writer
The Long Dark
- Playing on Xbox Game Pass
I’ve got a real soft spot for survival games. I’m not sure why. I’m definitely not the outdoors type so I’m pretty sure I’d be hopeless in a real life-or-death situation. But there’s something comforting – cosy, even – in warming yourself by the fire you just made as a storm rages outside your crudely built shelter.
The Long Dark is a thoughtful, introspective survival game that, so far, is ticking all my boxes.
After your plane crashes in a geomagnetic storm, you set off into the frozen wilderness of the Canadian Tundra in search of your missing friend. Like with most survival games, you have a handful of constantly decreasing meters to contend with: Hunger, thirst, stamina and temperature. To begin with, resources are scarce, so you’ll have to scavenge wood from the crash to build a fire and melt snow in a tin can for water. But as you progress through the ghost town of Milton, you’ll learn how to build rabbit traps and craft a fungi-based tea to heal afflictions.
It’s these small victories over death that make The Long Dark so satisfying to play. Not to mention its compelling central story and beautifully stark art design. For those new to the genre or wanting to focus more on the narrative, the game offers a selection of difficulty levels that can also be customised to suit your style.
If you fancy checking it out, The Long Dark is available to play now on Game Pass.