Game Review: Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

The clock is ticking down. Ten seconds remain before it all goes to hell. A bead of sweat drips down your forehead.

“Which wire do I cut?!” you ask in a panic. If you pick the right one, you’re home free. If not… well suddenly, this bomb isn’t really your problem anymore.

Your question is answered by a confused and anxious vocalization from your partner. You hear them frantically flipping through the pages of the bomb defusal manual. You don’t have time to wait for them to find the right page. You go to cut the red wire—no, the blue. You cut the blue wire.

Boom.

“You were supposed to cut the red wire…” your partner remarks.

“Yeah, I figured that out.”

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Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is an innovative co-op bomb defusal game first released for Windows and VR by Steel Crate Games in 2015, and subsequently re-released for consoles in 2018. Conceptually, the game is quite straightforward: making use of the classic "high-pressure bomb defusal" trope from action/spy movies, the players are tasked with defusing a bomb before the large digital timer counts down to zero. The bomb is composed of multiple “modules,” each of which has a task that must be completed to defuse the bomb. Some of these tasks further build on action movie tropes (such as cutting colored wires or typing cryptic passwords), while others utilize familiar concepts (like Morse Code) and mechanics of other games (such as a pattern memory module that bears a striking resemblance to the Hasbro game Simon). Bringing these unique modules together in different configurations for each bomb, the game produces a fresh, unpredictable challenge each time you play it.

The game’s real innovation, however, is derived from how it unconventionally structures cooperative play: only one person is permitted to see the screen (and therefore the bomb) per round of gameplay. This player takes on the role of the “Defuser,” who is actually responsible for cutting wires, pressing buttons, and doing whatever is necessary to defuse the bomb. Everyone else is assigned the role of the “Experts”: returning to the action movie trope, they’re the ones on the other side of the bomb Defuser’s headset, asking questions about what the Defuser sees, deciphering diagrams and solving puzzles in order to determine the steps the Defuser must take to succeed. The experts utilize the “Bomb Defusal Manual,” a dense, 23-page guide (provided by Steel Crate as a printable PDF) with a technical overview of the defusal process, instructions for how to defuse each of the modules, crude drawings of each module, diagrams identifying types of batteries and external ports that could on the bomb (that may or may not factor into the defusal process), and more. It’s worth reiterating that the Experts cannot see the actual bomb, and the Defuser cannot see the manual; therefore, the crux of the game is the ability of players to clearly and effectively communicate their privileged information to each other… while making sure the timer doesn’t run out and lose the game for everyone.

A page from the Bomb Defusal Manual.

Mechanically, the game is not challenging. The Defuser has the ability to rotate the bomb using a mouse or control stick; press a button to focus on an individual module or its elements (or unfocus and return to the whole bomb); and press or hold a button to “interact” with the various elements of each module (such as “cut a wire”, “press/hold a button”, “flip a switch”, etc.). The Experts have the ability to do whatever you can do with 23 pages of paper (or a 23-page PDF). Given the mechanical simplicity of the game, Keep Talking’s difficulty is derived almost entirely from the challenge of exchanging information back and forth between parties. In parallel to the game, the “mechanics” of communication are simple: use words to form sentences; but while the typical group of players is unlikely to consider “talking” difficult, several rounds of gameplay will quickly reveal that “communication,” at least in the context of this game, is much more complicated.

A sample bomb with 5 modules and a timer. (Top Row, L to R: "Horizontal Wires" Module, "Who's on First" Module, "Memory" Module; Bottom Row, L to R: Countdown Timer, "Keypad" Module, "The Button" Module)

It’s this challenge of communication under pressure that makes the game interesting and engaging. Though the importance communication is not a foreign concept to most co-op gamers, few games explicitly put it to the test in the same way Keep Talking does. For instance, how would you describe the symbols on the Keypad module (bottom middle) in the screencap above? Is that the number three with bunny ears and a tail? Is that the letters U and I overlaid, the Greek letter Psi (what if your partner doesn’t know the Greek alphabet?), or a flattened pitchfork? By completely isolating the knowledge bases of each player role, the game forces the Defuser to be extremely specific and lucid in their descriptions, while simultaneously requiring the Experts to keep an open mind when parsing the Defuser’s descriptions, and to ask precise clarifying questions to ensure both parties are on the same page.

Over time, this task of communication becomes easier. As the Defuser sees more bombs, they can begin to approximate the information in the manual; and if the Defuser and Expert should ever switch roles, the challenge resulting from isolated knowledge bases rapidly crumbles away. The need for intensive descriptions can be reduced by phrases like “that smiley face symbol from last game” or shared terms like “The Memory Module”. On the one hand, this makes it easier for players to defuse more complicated bombs or complete the objective in less time, opening the door for Speed Run-style behavior. But on the other hand, this also threatens to eliminate the game’s key challenge. For most, the puzzles and tasks themselves are not inherently satisfying, nor do they attempt to be: deciphering Morse code is frustrating and repeatedly solving logic puzzles can quickly become boring to the Expert; and the Defuser likely derives little joy from waiting around and clicking buttons. For a group of new players, the tedium of these tasks is eclipsed by the engaging communication challenges, but a team of seasoned pros can easily become jaded and lose interest.

However, this is not necessarily a failure of the game; in fact, it might be the game’s greatest accomplishment. The sheer amount of information in the 23-page manual to a first-time player can be understandably overwhelming; to a new player, the hands-on role of the Defuser is probably a much easier place to start. An experienced player, on the other hand, would have a better understanding of how the bombs work, making the manual (and the role of the Expert) more accessible to them. In such a Defuser/Expert pairing, the communication challenges show themselves once again, as this new duo must learn how to understand each other and communicate effectively. The seasoned pro can enjoy wielding the knowledge they have to aid the newbie, and the newbie can excitedly learn all the tricks of the trade. Then, when the student becomes the master, this shift can occur again as they invite another friend to join in the game. Similar to how long-time D&D players often “ascend” to the role of Dungeon Master to bring more friends into the fold, Keep Talking provides a clear, enjoyable way to invite new players to engage with the game, propagating itself in a cycle that can repeat ad infinitum.