The actual reason for why all of this is happening and why a character literally says “press X to not die” is as stupid as you’re imagining it, and the game doesn’t take it seriously at all. Things quickly pick up there, as you’re given various choices and have to survive random lunatics trying to kill you as you meet up with your girlfriend and try to get out of the town. The premise is that your character gets a knock on his door from his best friend, who tells him everybody is killing everybody else, and that you need to “press X to not die.” Cue crazy woman coming at you with a knife and a QTE prompt coming on on screen telling you to press X to not die.
It’s like a bad B-movie comedy about video games, with the twist being that you also have to play it as the character you control “plays” it. Press X To Not Die aims itself to be a return to the age of Dragon’s Lair in mechanics, while its humor is incredibly self-referential and purposefully ridiculous. From the VHS styled A Trip to Yugoslavia to the much more ambitiously filmed The Bunker (not to mention one game coming from Chuck Tingle, of all people), there’s plenty of variety popping up in the field. With the rise of digital video, the revival of the FMV game is well under way, both large and small.