Death in Video Games

[Argle]

That reminds me, all of the numerous ways for Leon to die in Resident Evil 4. My fav is definitely decapitation with the chainsaw, although getting impaled in the face by that Wolverine guy has its appeal too.

[Dissidia]

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

I've played The Binding of Isaac but it's not my cup of tea.

[alrubedo]

Personally I felt that Suikoden I and II utilized death in the story line as a mechanic for character development. One of the stronger points was in Suikoden when Tir's caretaker and friend Gremio sacrificed himself so the group would live, and then when you're presented whether or not to kill the man responsible it puts a perspective on the shoulders of the game and the character, forging a type of emotional tie between gamer and protagonist.

And Suikoden II continues this tradition by having pivotal story line characters either die, get wounded, fail their mission, etc, and really drives the story of unity home where others have to try harder when another one fails. Especially so depending on what ending you achieve.

I feel that games that use death as a mechanic are often hit and miss, pending on the title. Games that utterly coddle you when you die don't seem stress that you need any sort of skill to succeed, but it does help create less frustrating moments of gameplay where game could honestly hand you your backside on a gold platter.

Then there are games that give you some of the most degrading 'game over' screens, and one of the biggest ones, to me, has to be one of the simplest - Red Dead Redemption's "You Died".

Really? No, I couldn't figure that out, ya know, with John sprawling out all ragdolled on his back.

Now, if death as a mechanic helped enhance the game play or story, that's probably one of the better ways to utilize it. Like someone pointed in Herc's Adventure - I've never played it but that sounds like a neat way to make sure you do well.

And someone mentioned MGS3 - The one 'boss fight' where the dead soldiers and bosses you've killed haunt you on your way down the river was a nice way to represent death.

But usually for me, I find story line driven death is the best. As long as the story calls for it to really drive the point home.

[alrubedo]

Later Fallouts, especially the DLC for Fallout 3, had glitches that made the deaths even funnier. Killed a man in a mansion and his body ragdolled all over the mansion and then distorted until I could barely make out it was a human.

Fallout and Skyrim have interesting ways to kill people - such as with the various ways to kill someone in Skyrim depending on weapon and skill with either one-handed or two-handed weaponry.

And in the Fallout cannon, I found it quite enjoyable in the later installments such as 3 and New Vegas when you'd get 'sonic' weapons that'd...well...blow off the heads of your enemy, leaving the body intact.

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