Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.

Overwhelmingly PositiveOverwhelmingly Positive · 97%2015

The verdict

A brilliant asymmetric co-op party game where one player defuses a bomb and others read the manual. Skip it if you have no one to play with, or if you hate Morse code and pressure.

Great for

Friends, couples and families who enjoy yelling instructions at each other, including non-gamers

Main risk

You have no one to play with, or the Morse code and password modules ruin it for your group

What players love

Builds communication and teamwork

Mentioned in ~1 in 14 positive reviews

“can turn complete strangers into a functioning team, expose hidden personality traits, and cause hysterical laughter through catastrophic failure”
Steam review · 134.7 h played ↗

“Quickly teaches the importance of concise communication.”
Steam review · 40.1 h played ↗

“buy this game instead of taking a college course on communication”
Steam review · 96.7 h played ↗

Hilarious, stressful chaos with friends

Mentioned in ~1 in 15 positive reviews

“"ARE THERE NO YELLOW WIRES??" "NO" "CUT THE FIRST WIRE" *explodes* 10/10 experience”
Steam review · 9.3 h played ↗

“there's nothing quite like screaming at your friend to cut the red wire while they insist there are three red wires”
Steam review · 17.8 h played ↗

“maximum laughs and minimum correct answers”
Steam review · translated · 9.4 h played ↗

Mods add huge variety and replayability

Mentioned in ~1 in 21 positive reviews

“the wonderfully diverse modding community. From vanilla+ modules that give the game near infinite variety”
Steam review · 187.2 h played ↗

“Mods add a lot of replayability and/or difficulty.”
Steam review · 11.2 h played ↗

Unique concept, great in person or VR

Mentioned in ~1 in 21 positive reviews

“Incredible game, and there are still no games like that.”
Steam review · 15.8 h played ↗

“in-person, it's a blast.”
Steam review · 3.5 h played ↗

Accessible to non-gamers

Mentioned in ~1 in 25 positive reviews

“My girlfriend (who has never played any video games except solitaire online) LOVES this game.”
Steam review · 15.6 h played ↗

“I played it with people that don't play computer games and they also liked it.”
Steam review · 4.1 h played ↗

Only one player needs to own it

Mentioned in ~1 in 30 positive reviews

“ONLY 1 PERSON NEEDS THE GAME”
Steam review · 18.2 h played ↗

“both players dont even have to own the game. If you have the game then you can play with anyone.”
Steam review · 4.7 h played ↗

What players complain about

Manual issues: external, mismatched, translations

Mentioned in ~1 in 8 negative reviews

“why wouldn't you include the manual in the game ? thats F*cking dumb.”
Steam review · 3.6 h played ↗

“the manual has instructions for 9 wires and it doesn't match the game”
Steam review · translated · 2.7 h played ↗

“it keeps giving me challenges in german. I do not speak german.”
Steam review · 0.2 h played ↗

Morse code module is too hard

Mentioned in ~1 in 9 negative reviews

“The morse code module completely breaks the game for everyone I play with.”
Steam review · 4.8 h played ↗

“This could be fixed by like the player being able to start the morse code sequence instead of it looping forever.”
Steam review · 1.4 h played ↗

“Morse needs an activation button so you can restart the signal sequence.”
Steam review · translated · 4.5 h played ↗

Gets repetitive and boring quickly

Mentioned in ~1 in 11 negative reviews

“Each puzzle ("module") is interesting exactly once, mostly because it's new. Then it becomes a grind.”
Steam review · 0.1 h played ↗

“By the time you finish the game you'll basically commit the manual to memory.”
Steam review · 10.1 h played ↗

“after that all interest in the game disappears”
Steam review · translated · 0.8 h played ↗

No online multiplayer; needs a friend

Mentioned in ~1 in 11 negative reviews

“It offers no way to connect or find others in any type of serverlists or matchmaking service.”
Steam review · 0.1 h played ↗

“you must have a friend to be able to play the game. i have none rip”
Steam review · 0.4 h played ↗

Too hard and stressful in later levels

Mentioned in ~1 in 14 negative reviews

“when you have on average 32 seconds per module”
Steam review · translated · 11.8 h played ↗

“this is a HARD game and apart from the button and simple wires puzzles everything else is impossible to figure out on the first try”
Steam review · 1.1 h played ↗

VR controller problems and bugs

Mentioned in ~1 in 15 negative reviews

“Broken as ♥♥♥♥ on HTC Vive/GTX 1080. Vive controller doesn't work.”
Steam review · 0.3 h played ↗

“the game freezes completely when alt-tabbing”
Steam review · translated · 1.9 h played ↗

System requirements

From the Steam store page

Steam Deck: Verified

Minimum

OSWindows 7 or higher

Processor1.5 Ghz

Memory2 GB RAM

Graphics256MB DirectX 9 or higher

Storage1 GB available space

OSWindows 7 or higher

Processor1.5 Ghz

Memory2 GB RAM

Graphics256MB DirectX 9 or higher

Storage1 GB available space

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