Press X to Not Die
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Website
Check out the official Press X Not To Die Website
Discussion
Give the developers feedback on the Steam Discussion Page
Purchase
Buy your Early Access copy on the Steam Store page
Combining quick time events with nothing more than full motion videos sound like a recipe for disaster and yet Press X To Not Die is way more fun than it has any right to be. Designed to be a throwback to the “interactive movie” titles of the early 90s, the game throws you headfirst into what seems to be a zombie apocalypse. The whole town is in chaos, people are viciously attacking each other and the only advice you got from a friend before he is murdered is to “press X to not die.”
From there your goal is to survive, find your girlfriend and get the hell out of town without being killed. The branching storyline is told via about 30 minutes of high definition footage that was filmed with a GoPro camera. The acting and story is extremely cheesy, but since the game is packed with humor, we are assuming that this was intentional. If not, it still works in the game’s favor as there are plenty of laugh out loud moments.
Apart from selecting from different dialogue options you will be spending your time in the game mashing buttons to run and scale obstacles or pressing the correct button combinations to survive. The game features multiple difficulty levels and at higher levels the amount of buttons you need to press is increased to up the challenge. Thankfully the cross button combinations, which made pressing the right buttons almost impossible was removed in a recent patch. Although short, making it through the adventure unscathed is very tricky, but the dynamic dialogue system actually adapts according to your actions and performance. This means that if you die ten times on your way to rescuing your girlfriend, she will actually mention it in a conversation which is pretty neat.
Press X To Not Die is not a very long experience, but the price tag is also low enough to make it an impulse purchase. The branching storyline and Steam Leaderboards add to the replay value and there is even a “1994” mode that renders the visuals to look just like the 90s interactive movies. The game is currently in early access and the full version is set to include about six more minutes of footage, more Steam achievements, subtitles, behind the scenes special features and more additions. The game is a port of the Xbox 360 version, but can be played to completion using a keyboard and mouse setup.
Since the Early Access version is priced 20% lower than the full release and is already in perfectly playable shape we can definitely recommend it to players looking for a laugh. However, check out the Demo for the game first to make sure that you appreciate its brand of humor.
