Summary
Since the days of the “GAME OVER” screen, death has been an unfortunate reality in video games. For any fans of classic action and adventure games, the tricky gameplay can result in hundreds of “Press Start To Continue” moments that leave even the hardiest fans wincing. Some developers use these expectations and the hard reset that fans expect to come from losing a life to add strange mechanics and weird new ideas into the narrative of a game.
These are some of the most creative death mechanics in video games that use the fact of the player’s defeat to drive home the theme, contribute to the lore, or instill a challenge.
FromSoftware’s games can be punishing and brutal for new players, with one death setting fans back a decent amount as well as robbing them of their currency. Souls can be spent on upgrades to weapons, items or to level up and grow more powerful.Demon’s Soulstakes things a step further by making suffering death a gameplay mechanic that can be used as a strategy. Players are forced into “soul form” when they die for the first time and will continue playing as a ghostly, ethereal being. In this form, the hero only has half of their regular health but the amount of damage that they deal is increased.
Characters can only reclaim their humanity and return to their original form by defeating a demonic boss. This results in players falling into one of two strategies based on whether they have died or not. When they are in their true physical form they will play defensively, conserving their huge health bar while struggling to deal decent damage. When they are in “soul form” they will play a more risky game,going for rewarding hitsbecause any hit could end the run.
NieR: Automatais the story of a few androids who fight in a pointless war against mindless robots across a destroyed Earth. The setting and story are rich with themes of struggle and theconstant killing of robots, who sometimes act childlike and innocent, can be uncomfortable. Even more disturbing is the process of recovering experience and equipment after a death. As 2B and 9S are advanced robots that can be rebuilt by machinery across the open world, they are simply recreated and sent back into the fray when they die. To reclaim any lost property, players must track down the spot of their death and collect their equipment from off the back of their fresh corpse.
While looting their own body can be strange, it also serves to back up the game’s assertion that the life of these emotionless robots is meaningless. With a series of deaths that can occur by experimenting too much with their robotics, the androids can end the game by removing their operating system chips or by eating a mackerel. Life for the robots is never-ending and not attached to their physical form, but also never allowed to break outside of programming.
Sifulets fans of martial arts movies live the epic combat from onscreen. The hero has to dodge, parry, block, and punch their way through piles of enemies who will use everything at their disposal to win. The protagonist ofSifugoes through a series of levels to face off against every person who was there for the killing of the titular Sifu. The fighter gains experience for every successful combat, but this can only be spent when they are knocked out. New techniques are learned, and then the player wakes up, growing older with each death.
This captures the idea of a lifelong quest for revenge and redemption perfectly, with players doing more damage as theybecome old masterswhile their maximum health gets lower and lower due to their age. Upgrades are only made permanent when they have been unlocked in five different lifetimes, and the challenge becomes making it through the whole collection of bosses before the player character gets to his 70s and dies permanently, facing the game over screen.
Although also developed by FromSoftware,Sekiro: Shadows Die Twicedeviates from the Soulslike formula that most of the developer’s games fall into. A much faster game that focuses on breaking the guard of an enemy rather than hacking them to pieces as they attack,Sekirodoes its best to put players into therole of a classic cinema Samuraiwith all the mysticality that comes along with that. Death does not mean the end for the protagonist. Players can use orbs that recharge by landing deathblows on enemies to jump back up and into the fray or slink into the shadows and retreat.
Jumping back into combat means that fans must land some more killing blows to be able to use their life orb again. Letting the player decide whether to use their respawn makes every death feel like there is a tactical element to the next decision. Choosing to die means losing currency and XP points, but it also starts to spread a sickness - slowly at first - across the world that will stop any friendly NPC characters from giving quests or advice. When death slowly results in the player becoming isolated it means so much more to succumb to enemies.
The PlayStation exclusiveUntil Dawnlets players take control of a horror movie one scene at a time. Flipping between different point of view characters to tell the story, audiences are first lulled into a ghost story with a group of friends revisiting the place their friend died a year before. This quickly shifts into aslasher film plotwith a murderous psycho chasing the group and then evolves into a nightmarish creature feature that asks players to sprint through mines and woods in the middle of nowhere.
Players control how the characters interact, and new relationships between the old friends can blossom or be extinguished by the behavior of the characters. But death acts surprisingly in the planned and plotted narrative. If a player fails to succeed at a quick-time event that can be sprung on them suddenly, the character that they are controlling can be hit or trip and be caught in any number of unfortunate deaths. The story continues without them, sometimes meaning they aren’t there to save the day in their big moment, and, eventually,players are shown how many deaths they are responsible for. The stakes are high inUntil Dawn.
A title that was released as an exclusive for the Wii U and utilizes the second screen on that console’s gamepad,ZombiUlets fans of the survival horror genre loose in the city of London. Survivors are released from a safehouse to collect supplies and will have to fend off attacks fromhordes of the undeadwhile managing their inventory. The inventory management, as well as lockpicking, takes place on the second screen and forces the player to look between the two devices quickly while they are vulnerable to attack.
Dying to fall damage, explosions, or anything that isn’t one of the infected will leave the player’s body where it fell, and the player will be given a new randomly generated survivor to control. Any skill points or equipment are left on the corpse and must be collected. However, if an infected kills the protagonist, then they will rise again as a zombie and will have to be defeated to regain equipment and to continue while losing as little progress as possible. An interesting quirk added to an already experimental game.
The developer Arkane Studios, most well known for the exceptionalDishonoredgames, created a strange relationship with death in the aptly titledDeathloop.With a premise that will be familiar to any fans of Bill Murray’s 1993 film, players are caught in a loop that they must end by killing eight “Visionaries.” A corrupt research organization is using the time abnormalities of the location to stay trapped in eternal life forever and only by killing all the leaders can the player character, Colt, be free of the loop.
Arkane Studios’familiar stealth and action gameplay is on full display as Colt hunts each of the targets past large numbers of enemies. Time passes, however, and if midnight comes withouteverytarget being taken care of, Colt will repeat the day. Dying at any point will again cause Colt to wake up at the start of the game. Players have to tackle the whole challenge in a single loop, using any skills and knowledge that they gain to help in each loop after the first.
A somewhat traditional sidescrolling game with some hack-and-slash elements and tricky platforming,Rogue Legacyis elevated by its death mechanic to a modern classic. On the first excursion into the cursed castle,players will almost certainly die. They will then have to choose a descendant of the previous visitor to be the next to brave the haunted halls. These chosen descendants can suffer from any of a huge list of quirks, but they come with benefits too. Maybe they hit harder, have assassin experience but also are completely colorblind.
All of these extra things add up to making a character that plays differently and has a different way of making it through the adventure. Players will still die, but that is when gold can be spent and upgrades purchased. Sometimes, players may even realize how much money they have accumulated and decide to perish to get to the stage where they upgrade. The relationship with death thatRoguefosters is an unhealthy one, that mirrors the unhealthy obsession with defeating the castle at any cost that has passed down to the poor family in the story.
