Nobody Saves The World Is Bursting With Variety
Experimentation is the name of the game, despite the grind
There’s a familiar pattern that many players go through when playing a hack-and-slash action RPG of the Diablo vein. You pick from a range of classes (which are usually a play on the standards such as warrior, mage, rogue, etc) and you pick one that you like. You try out new abilities and gear as you get them. Once you find an ideal build — it’s min-max time. Focus on those relevant stats as you cut down everything on your path as you grind away and watch the lovely numbers go up.
Now, don’t mistake me for being glib — I do like myself some hack ’n’ slash ’n’ watch numbers go up. However, with the latest instalment of Blizzard’s Diablo still a ways off, there’s room for competitors to come in and shake up the space. This is where Drinkbox Studios, the Canadian developer behind the excellent Guacamelee series, comes in. Their latest game, Nobody Saves The World (out now on PC and Xbox, including Game Pass) has its own unique spin on the hack and slash formula that subverts how players are used to progressing in these games.
You are Nobody (that’s the character’s name, I’m sure you’re doing great) — an indistinct, eyeless little guy that comes across a magic wand in a time of proper noun Calamity threatening to take over the land. The wand allows you to shape-shift many different forms. The all-powerful resident wizard has gone missing so it’s up to you to find the five MacGuffins gem shards and save the world. It’s not the most inspiring set-up, but thankfully there’s more than enough creativity packed into all the other aspects of the game.
How are you saving this surprisingly big world? You have up to 18 forms to switch between — from RPG standards such as ranger, rogue and necromancer, animals like a rat and horse, and more outlandish forms such as the creepy mermaid and top-heavy bodybuilder. Each form can be ranked up, unlocking new active abilities, which are mapped to the face buttons, and passive abilities. Ranking up also contributes to the form unlock tree and gives XP for levelling up Nobody, which raises the base stats for everyone. To add to this, abilities can be mixed and matched across all forms, and you will need to be familiar with them all to get those gem shards.
The game is fairly open-ended, with the main goal being to unlock and complete the five big dungeons that each house a gem shard. You unlock these dungeons by gathering the requisite number of star charges for your wand, which you get by completing quests. This is where it gets interesting — you can get these star charges by completing side-quests or clearing dungeons but your main source will be via the quests linked to the different forms you can take. You will unlock more quests as you level up more and progress through the game. This means that instead of the main goal being to build up and optimise your one character, you have to even out your playtime with each form to get enough star charges. As you rank up a form, you’ll get quests relating to the new abilities you unlock as well as abilities from other forms, so you’ll need to keep mixing and matching throughout. For example, for the melee-focused horse, you might get quests asking you to kill enemies with ranged attacks or with poison. It’s a very moreish gameplay loop that gives you plenty of variety and constant surprises as you find new combos to down enemy hordes.
One way that Nobody Saves The World doesn’t stray from the hack-and-slash formula is that it is a grindy game. You usually get just the one star charge per quest and two for clearing a dungeon, and you’ll need dozens to unlock all the big dungeons. Oh, but what a grind it is. Being forced to frequently change your strategy, either through quests or dungeons with specific rules, keeps things fun throughout. I’m 13 hours in with two big dungeons to go and the game still well and truly has its ever-changing hooks in me. It’s a day one release on Game Pass for PC and Xbox, and also has online co-op to boot, so if you’re a subscriber I highly recommend diving into the dungeons of Nobody Saves The World and see if it’s the right grind for you (and maybe a friend).
