Genesis Noir follow-up Nirvana Noir spirits you off to a reality where the Big Bang never happened
Cosmic detective puzzling and all that jazz
Feral Cat Den and Fellow Traveller have announced Nirvana Noir, a follow-up to cosmic philosophical jazz-me-whatsit Genesis Noir. Revealed as part of yesterday's Day of the Devs showcase, the game continues the adventures of spacey watchmaker No Man, who must solve mysteries that span two parallel realities, Black Rapture and Constant Testament. In Black Rapture, the Big Bang never happened. I feel 'universe in which the universe never began' is an... unpromising choice for a setting, but I am not an astrophysician, nor very much of a magic-realist, and I know eff-all about jazz. Here's the trailer.
In Black Rapture, No Man must fix up an intricate clocktower while contending with a series of arson attacks across the surrounding city. In Constant Testament, you're coerced by the police to investigate a dangerous new drug... which might involve getting back in touch with an old flame. Yep, this is still a noir story, and still a series of gorgeous puzzle vignettes.
According to the press release, players "will find themselves performing a range of tasks from mounting a legal defence to reconstructing a demolished building and even (literally) finding skeletons in closets." As Katharine wrote in yesterday's Day of the Devs round-up, it looks like there's more of a dialogue-based detective element this time. Many of the puzzles are woven into the game's sound and music, with a tracklist contributed by London-based composers and sound designers Skillbard, who work across film, TV and advertising.
According to one, apparently debunked hypothetical scenario, the Big Bang was preceded by the Big Crunch - no, not the death march to release of a triple-A open world game, but the contraction of a previous incarnation of the universe to a point of absolute density, before it exploded outward again. That's not the route Nirvana Noir is taking, but I think it would be cool to play a game set during the Big Crunch. It'd be the ultimate shrinking battle royale map, basically.
I was mixed on Genesis Noir, as was Nate - I admired its florid visual and sonic direction and the confident way it handled its metaphors, but for some reason, I stopped playing after the first couple of vignettes, and never looked back. How did you find it? Here's the Nirvana Noir Steam page.