A great video game sandbox gives players an interactive world and allows the game mechanics and systems to speak for themselves. As players experiment, the best sandboxes provide a seemingly endless string of activities and tasks to seek out or complete. With the trend of tongue-in-cheek "simulator" games like Goat Simulator gaining popularity, many of these titles deliver freeform gameplay with a heap of hilarious hijinks on the side.
As video games become more and more massive, it becomes harder and harder to genuinely surprise gamers with something truly unique. However, there are still titles that can grab player's attention, particularly in the world on indie games. Some titles demand to be recognized for truly bizarre setups alone. One new sandbox adventure is doing just that; Just Die Already is a third-person sandbox adventure that puts players in the shoes of mischievous old people who cannot keep themselves from getting into trouble.
Just Die Already bills itself as "An Old People Mayhem Sandbox," and that description couldn't be a better description of the hijinks players can get into throughout the game's massive environments. The game was made by DoubleMoose and publisher Curve Digital, the designers who created the equally hilarious sandbox experience Goat Simulator -- and the similarities between the two games are clear.
Here, the aforementioned goat is replaced by a human character, as players take on the role of an angry senior citizen who has been kicked out of their "Discount" Retirement Home. The game's near-future world is one where people have stopped having children. With no one to pay into Social Security and pension funds, the residents are kicked out of their retirement homes and forced to do dangerous challenges to receive retirement tickets that will pay for their care. Despite its rather dark and dystopian setup, Just Die Already presents its gameplay and narrative in a lighthearted satirical tone.
Like many other great sandbox-style games, Just Die Already doesn't need a complicated setup, as it is focused squarely on gameplay above all else. Players are given the challenge book, filled with various activities that need to be completed to earn retirement tickets, but they don't have to pursue these goals. The game's world is full of dangerous hazards just itching to demolish characters, and there are dozens of ways to get into deadly and hilarious situations.
The bizarre mix of cartoonish gore and a lighthearted tone ensures that players can act out all manner of ridiculous encounters such as firing an old man out of a cannon, playing in traffic, getting accosted by a team of burly security guards or simply ripping off a character's head and bashing others with it. Players can literally dismember and explode the protagonists, then run around as only a pair of legs, still bothering the NPCs dotted throughout the levels.
Just Die Already is equal parts cartoonishly gruesome and hilarious, and it succeeds in making players feel like there is an endless procession of mishaps and misadventures available to get into for surprising and blood-soaked results. The game provides tons of freedom to create hilarious outcomes, and it all works so well.
Visually, Just Die Already delivers colorful, if blood-soaked, environments full of ridiculous design. The stylized and cartoonish character and level designs look like they jumped out of a Pixar film, and these are made all the more bizarre when the blood starts flying. Although the violence remains lighthearted, the amount of blood and guts flying everywhere is hilariously juxtaposed against the otherwise funny character designs. A game with this concept could have easily come across as tasteless, but it strikes the proper balance between its tone, its premise and its colorful style, which makes the player feel at ease despite the ridiculous level of damage being done.
Ultimately, Just Die Already is another great entry into the growing sub-genre of hilarious and strange sandbox games like Goat Simulator, Human: Fall Flat and Gang Beasts. By combining bizarre and hilarious gameplay with a lighthearted tone, Just Die Already creates a ridiculous experience that's sure to inspire many a livestream or living room party. Just Die Already is available now on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and Steam.