World Must Die Review – Being Space Emperor Was Never This Small – WGB

From the minds of God’s watch bed again He’s a cheater comes a brand new sci-fi game full of British humor, at least one strange sex experience, and enough puzzles to make you question why you even bothered getting out of bed this morning.

Usually, I don’t mean price when I talk about games, but about The World Must Die the asking price of £12 will probably do more to sway you than any of my poorly chosen words, so let’s get it out of the way. That price gets you about a four- to six-hour adventure game full of great puzzles and some quick-witted jokes, wrapped up in great graphics.

Available On: PC
Updated On: PC
Developed By: Five Games Games
Posted by: No More Robots

The opening scene sets the sci-fi stage well: VValak Lizardtongue is the third generation Emperor of a great space empire, and certainly not the favorite of the three. His big, brave, heroic brothers are in line to enter the throne, except that a simple rebellion allows VValak the opportunity … The young smart-assery, quickly followed by his father with an explosive iron blade on his spine, paves the way for VValak to take the throne and rule.

Fast forward a bit and things are going pretty well. Except the kingdom is running out of certain minerals needed to make everything work, so VValak makes a call to scan the space sector his father blocked. Why? It turns out that the bloody thing has Humans in it, and as soon as the Humans see VValak’s kingdom knocking, they come rushing. With big donkey ships. And lasers in space. And usually just people. Now, VValak has a bit of a problem.

VValak continues the point-and-click tradition of featuring protagonists who are arseholes. He doesn’t give a damn about his subjects or their suffering, and the throwaway line about his refusal to carry anything is a funny way to let the developers design a puzzle game without a list of words. VValak is crude, crass, offensive and arrogant. Perfect point and click fodder, really.

In fact, irreverence and insanity define much of the play’s humor. The World Must Die really likes its sex comics, which is why it has a warning on the Steam store page that this game includes an orgy alien. Not that you can see anything interesting. Trust me. I looked. Nearby. There is also a distinctly British vibe to the comics, which I enjoyed. That makes sense, as The World Must Die it’s a British-made title, featuring a wealth of British accents as well. In fact, the layout is surprising considering the likely small development budget. Like, Benn Starr, of Expedition 33 fame? Good. Performance is solid across the board, delivering every line with gusto and that sarcastic voice that’s our Brits’ default setting.

Looking at the gameplay, it’s exactly what you’d expect from an adventure game like this, but with one or two minor tweaks. The controls are slightly different in that you move using WASD instead of just clicking. More importantly, VValak’s reluctance to touch anything means he doesn’t have an inventory, which means you don’t spend as much time putting things together as trying to force them to shoot porn. The solution to most puzzles is usually within the screen you’re standing on, or nearby. He also likes to order people around, including his trusty robot Milky – a nursing bot from when he was a toddler, and now his only friend.

And speaking of Milky, he likes to keep a running “Milkapedia” of everything he finds and knows, which is often a valuable source of information. Yes, there is more to learn The World Must Die than you would expect.

Puzzles and story are key in a game like this, so how were the puzzles overall? Strong. Adventure games like this have a problem these days when it feels like they’ve hit a wall in terms of game development and puzzle design. I’ve discussed this before and I won’t argue anymore because, honestly, I don’t know where the brand can go from here. There were a few standout moments, mostly centered around VValak going through situations using speech, while the rest were solid, classic examples of point-and-click adventure design.

However, the ending felt unexpected. Also, it’s a problem with this type of game, as it can be a struggle to create a crescendo of gameplay that fits well with the story, meaning the endings can feel anti-climactic. The way this one ends could be a love-it-or-hate-it situation – personally, I thought it made perfect sense given everything that happened leading up to it.

There is nothing concrete here The World Must Die back, but it never goes beyond being a fun adventure game into the realm of the best the genre has to offer.

The World Must Die. Besides being a statement of fact at this point (do any of us still enjoy entertainment?), it’s also a pretty good point-and-click adventure. It’s not quite the funniest thing, but it manages to keep a permanent smile on your face, and that sense of humor is backed up by fun, well-crafted puzzles.