Death in Video Games

[Cerrax]

We see death portrayed so many different ways in video games. Many feature death as an instructional/motivational mechanic (make this jump or die, learn this new skill or die, etc.) Many video game plots use death in a more traditional sense to shock the audience or twist the plot. Some games even use death as a transition to a new level (scripted death of the player character that sends them to Heaven/Hell/hospital/whatever) or from one game mode to another (dying in a zombie-themed multiplayer sometimes turns you into a zombie to hunt and kill other players).

What ways do video games effectively use death, both as a subject and/or as a gameplay mechanic?

[PixelPanic]

Fire Emblem and various other tactics games that follow the "you're dead, sorry" rules are some of my favorites in regards to dealing with death. Essentially, if a unit dies, you don't get him back at the end of the battle. He/she is dead.

[Chernabogue]

And sometimes, Death is even a character!

[Arrow]

Herc's Adventures uses this in a neat way. You get 5 lives, but each time you die, instead of immediately respawning in the level you died in, you wake up in the underworld and have to fight your way back out to get back to the level you were at. If you die in the underworld, instant Game Over. Each time you die, you wake up deeper in there and have to fight further to make your way back out. It's really effective for the plot too, when you make it to the underworld physically during the final level and have to storm your way in from the other direction to take out Hades.

[ocre]

ZombiU and Fire Emblem both jump to mind.

In ZombiU's Survival Mode, when your character dies, it's a Game Over. And in Normal Mode, when your character dies from zombie infection, you start again as another character and have to hunt down your zombified previous character to get your supplies back.

Speaking of Conker's Bad Fur Day, I love how they explain the lives system through this cutscene.

Edited March 2, 2013 by ocre

[Esperado]

soul reaver 1 has an interesting take on death if you ask me. To boot, the main character has technically died twice. From there, anytime you "die" in the "physical" realm, you are booted into a spirit realm where you cannot interact with objects for the most part. You have to consume souls to have the strength to will yourself into the physical world using portals. This works nicely for the puzzle aspect of the game, but can be a huge pain in the ass during certain parts. such as the water areas (the boss of the water area in particular). if you die in the spirit realm you get spawned back to the elder god room which while annoying, isnt really that detrimental. You have to be particularly bad at the game for that to happen, as there are almost no difficult enemies in the spirit realm, and health regenerates.

[Doulifée]

Speaking of Conker's Bad Fur Day, I love how they explain the lives system through this cutscene.

i'm greg the grim reaper...don't laugh!

[DarkeSword]

Prince of Persia 2008 completely eliminated the idea of "death" from the narrative as a gameplay mechanic. This caused a lot of ruckus when the game came out about how there was "no challenge" because you "couldn't die," but honestly the game was a lot better for it.

The idea was this: in the narrative of the game, the Prince wouldn't ever actually die anyway, so why bother with "killing" him every time he missed a jump or fell from a cliff? So they had Princess Elika use her magic to basically "airlift" him back to a safe starting point. Mechanically this was essentially the same as the Prince "dying" and being reset back to an earlier checkpoint, except it cut out all the silliness that surrounds a video game death (the character model ragdolling, the companion character screaming "NOOOO!", the screen fading to black or grey and asking "Continue?", the game actually having to reload the environment back to the checkpoint state, etc.), and essentially streamlined the failure/recovery process to minimize frustration.

I felt it worked really well and didn't really affect the challenge of the game at all. There were many traversal sequences that were very long, and failure a would always send me back to the start of the sequence, but I never really got angry about having to do it again, because I simply "fell" rather than "died," and I could immediately pick back up and try it again, rather than waiting the game to waste time reloading.

[The Derrit]

Prince of Persia 2008 completely eliminated the idea of "death" from the narrative as a gameplay mechanic. This caused a lot of ruckus when the game came out about how there was "no challenge" because you "couldn't die," but honestly the game was a lot better for it.

The idea was this: in the narrative of the game, the Prince wouldn't ever actually die anyway, so why bother with "killing" him every time he missed a jump or fell from a cliff? So they had Princess Elika use her magic to basically "airlift" him back to a safe starting point. Mechanically this was essentially the same as the Prince "dying" and being reset back to an earlier checkpoint, except it cut out all the silliness that surrounds a video game death (the character model ragdolling, the companion character screaming "NOOOO!", the screen fading to black or grey and asking "Continue?", the game actually having to reload the environment back to the checkpoint state, etc.), and essentially streamlined the failure/recovery process to minimize frustration.

I felt it worked really well and didn't really affect the challenge of the game at all. There were many traversal sequences that were very long, and failure a would always send me back to the start of the sequence, but I never really got angry about having to do it again, because I simply "fell" rather than "died," and I could immediately pick back up and try it again, rather than waiting the game to waste time reloading.

yep pretty much.

yet the 'fanbase' was like SCREW YOU GIVE US THE REAL PRINCE BACK, got nearly the exact same game in forgotten sands + crowd combat plus dying, and said it was the best game ever.

[AngelCityOutlaw]

Only problem I had with Prince of Persia 2008 was the lack of characters. Yeah, I know that the dialogue between the prince and Elika was supposed to make up for that, but it still felt empty somehow.

Still, they need to bring that version of prince of persia back. I loved the ending to that game.

[Brushfire]

Call of Duty 4 saw the player experiencing the last few minutes of life of a soldier after a nuclear blast. A very hard hitting moment for me.

[Dexie]

Fire Emblem and various other tactics games that follow the "you're dead, sorry" rules are some of my favorites in regards to dealing with death. Essentially, if a unit dies, you don't get him back at the end of the battle. He/she is dead.

I always liked how Final Fantasy Tactics did it. When a unit dies, you have three rounds to try and revive them, otherwise you lose them forever.

Seeing a unit fall in the middle of a heated, tough fight really made things more tense, changing your priorities from 'okay, let's take down this boss and try to keep our health up at the same time' to 'OH SHIT THE NINJA IS DOWN GET HIM BACK UP CRAP CRAP CRAP'.

As far as actual plot death goes, I always thought Suikoden II handled the death of one of it's major characters really, really well. Then again, just about everything about Suikoden II was done really, really well, so.

[ocre]

Call of Duty 4 saw the player experiencing the last few minutes of life of a soldier after a nuclear blast. A very hard hitting moment for me.

I'm not in any branch of military but this was a memorable inclusion for sure.

[Fishy]

Call of Duty 4 saw the player experiencing the last few minutes of life of a soldier after a nuclear blast. A very hard hitting moment for me.

I still remember sitting playing this by myself in the dark just after christmas, one of the most awesome (in the true sense of the word) moments of modern games.

Shame the series jumped the shark after their best work.

[EC2151]

After that, the series more or less tried to "shock" you each time (with something even MORE cuh-razy or deplorable), so the effect eventually wore off.

[ectogemia]

I loved the "here's how much you suck" simultaneous level attempts which Super Meat Boy played upon the completion of each level. Seriously entertaining, and it really hit home how much effort you put into some of those levels after seeing all dat meat splatter.

[Garrett Williamson]

Death in Super Smash Bros. It's like you never know how far down the person is falling and then this big sparkle thing pops up and you get this vibration and it looks like they exploded into an orb of light that I always thought was like an indication of going to heaven or fairies or something. I would purposely kill myself for that.

I need to go to bed.

[Cecilff2]

What is death?

[Argle]

Planescape Torment is the one game I can think of where death is more than a game over screen.

Death in the Fire Emblem games is pretty brutal and has made me rage quit a large number of times. It's part of the reason I love (and murderously hate) the series. You better be god damned careful before you commit to any move.

[nOkbient]

Same with Demon's Souls. I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to break my controller playing that game.

[Dissidia]

Death in hardcore modes such as Diablo or Path of Exile. As long as the death is fair and not a bug or a dc then it's a fun concept.

[Annie Felis]

This:

When your party is wiped out in Chrono Trigger, you're reminded that the fate of the world is hinged on the actions of Crono and company, and that if they die then the world is boned. Sure, the death isn't final and you can easily reload an old save, but it's still a little unnerving to see Lavos destroy the world as a result of your failure.

[ectogemia]

Death in hardcore modes such as Diablo or Path of Exile. As long as the death is fair and not a bug or a dc then it's a fun concept.

You should play roguelikes. They'll redefine "fair death".

[Unstable Hamster]

Metal Gear Solid 3 does a pretty good job of screwing with peoples assumptions of death in video games when fighting the sorrow.

Also killing Revolver Ocelot at a certain point causes a game over.

Metal Gear Solid has some interesting stuff with video game death.

[EC2151]

The numerous, numerous fun ways to cause other peoples' deaths in Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 give the games an endlessly enjoyable atmosphere. =)