Double Fine is involved in a noir murder mystery game in space. Let that sink in again. Last Life has been compared to Kentucky Route Zero, a game which I didn’t know existed until doing this news piece. In Last Life, you investigate your own murder. The protagonist’s name is Jack Parker, a private eye, and he lives in a world where you can upload your brain to a computer, so death isn’t a concept anymore, so much as it is an episode of “property damage” according to the developer.

The setting for the game is a “retro-futuristic” society on Mars. In game, humans also have colonies on The Moon and various other planets and moons, as Earth has been rendered uninhabitable. The graphics from the game’s trailer are, of course, unique and gorgeous, since Double Fine is behind it. Would you expect anything else? Everything has a basic blocky texture with gorgeous color choice and lighting to complement it. It’s simple, without being derivative. Double Fine seems to always know what they’re doing.

Last Life offers puzzles, since it’s a Double Fine game, and since the protagonist’s occupation in life was a detective. However, there is also a combat system in place in-game, and chase scenes were mentioned. (I’m thinking this is shaping up to be an artsy sort of L.A Noire, for those of you like myself who haven’t played Kentucky Route Zero.) Of course, Double Fine is only the publishing partner for the game, there for creative input and development. The soul behind Last Life is Sam Farmer, and in order to maintain creative control over his baby, he’s created a Kickstarter page like so many other developers have to raise money for his contributions. There’s nothing to fear about Farmer keeping creative control, however, he cites Twin Peaks and Blade Runner as his inspirations for Last Life. I think I might cry.

I’ll be keeping up to date on Last Life, and I think anybody who can appreciate a quality game, Blade Runner, or any other noir story (aka good story) should as well.