Nirvana Noir

I never played Genesis Noir, but when the developers at Feral Cat Den told me the detective game sequel, Nirvana Noir, had found a way to exist in both of its divergent endings and play with that narratively, I was immediately intrigued to go back and see a game I’d only experienced through osmosis. Nirvana Noir is experimenting with what most branching narratives are too scared to touch. So many choice-based games either try to find ways to erase the impact of a player’s decisions when they get a sequel, or make a hard decision to follow a certain path. Nirvana Noir has found a third option, in which it’s using what others would consider an insurmountable obstacle and using it to its advantage. Genesis Noir was already pretty well-loved when it launched, so I’ve had it in the back of my mind. Knowing that its sequel has such an intriguing concept means it just shot up near the top of my backlog. I gotta see if Feral Cat Den pulls it off when Nirvana Noir launches on Steam. — Kenneth Shepard