Nobody Saves The World (NSTW) is the latest game from Drinkbox Studios, the Toronto-based developer most notable for their work on the Guacamelee franchise. The game recently got a free demo for Xbox consoles as part of the 2021 Game Awards, and I took some time to check out the demo for myself.
What I found was a remarkably innovative RPG with a strong sense of humor and the right balance of progression to keep me playing well past the end of the demo’s allotted story content. NSTW doesn’t take itself too seriously, and there’s an excellent gameplay loop here I’m excited to explore when the full game releases.
Gameplay
Nobody Saves The World’s central mechanic is the titular Nobody’s ability to transform into a variety of increasingly zany forms that each come with their own set of attacks and passive benefits. The joy of NSTW comes from how each of these forms works in combat, and switching between them on the fly can result in some wild combos.
Early on you get access to the Rat form, which has a killer bite that slowly builds up poison in an enemy’s body. Build up enough of it and that enemy will start taking damage over time. The Rat form also learns an ability that allows it to consume enemies entirely, adding a portion of the damage dealt back to Nobody’s health.
Each of the forms available in the demo has this kind of synergy, and they all have certain strengths that make them particularly useful in different situations. The Slug form can deal more damage to enemies suffering from status effects, while the Horse dishes out massive damage when knocking enemies into walls or each other.
NSTW also incentivizes creative play by locking upgrades behind bespoke quests that require the player to use each form’s full ability kit. It feels like a tutorial baked into the game’s DNA, and one that comes with tangible rewards. What’s more, none of the forms are strictly required to progress within the demo, so players can feel free to spend time with whichever form they enjoy the most.
One other cool surprise from the demo was that every dungeon in the game is procedurally generated, so every run offers an entirely different layout. This added a level of replayability to the game I wasn’t expecting and made grinding out additional quests with different forms less of a chore.
Expectations
I have a feeling that I’ll be spending a lot of time with Nobody Saves The World when the full game releases later this month. The gameplay loop is so satisfying that I spent extra time with the demo just to see how much more I could unlock for each of the available forms. There are several forms that the demo doesn’t give players access to that I’m eager to try out.
What the demo offers of the game’s story is interesting, and I appreciate the level of humor and wit that’s gone into the writing. I don’t expect NSTW to win any awards for its narrative development, but I do think I’ll have a good enough time with the story to see it through to the end. And maybe a little beyond that, just to max out every one of Nobody’s different forms.
Verdict
Nobody Saves The World looks like it has the potential to be Drinkbox’s strongest game yet. From the silliness of the game’s story to the deep, varied gameplay, Nobody Saves The World’s demo left a strong and incredibly positive impression on me. I can’t wait to see where the game goes next when it drops on January 18th, 2022 for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC via Steam, and Xbox Game Pass.
