Alternative to death

SoakinKittens · 2002-05-12T00:20:55

There have been a few threads about perma-death and a recent thread about main characters dying. One comment in there was to the effect of "well, what if the character came back as a ghost?" This got me to thinking. Game play doesn''t end for the player when the character loses all health points. The player usually just reloads the last save point and continues. I was thinking that most games ( RPG / FPS ) could be structured a little differently to make this unneccessary. What if you were playing the UNATCO/MJ12 levels of Deus Ex, and when you were *killed* instead of dying, you lost consciousness and were captured. Then, when you awake, you are back in your cell, with limited or no inventory, and must play the level over. It wouldn''t be a complete replay, because you have killed many guards, but there are a few random reinforcements, you have used ammo and items already, but you just keep playing. It wouldn''t always be a *OOPS! Back to the cell with you, you bad boy!* but sometimes they tie you up in a corner ( near where you fell ) with a single guard ( as stupid overlords are often likely to do ) and you must use your NanoCool rope busting ability to break the bonds and subdue the guard. The actual implementation would vary from game to game and from level to level, but the overall point is that 1) you wouldn''t be punished as such for dying, just set back, and 2) gameplay for the character wouldn''t end. Perhaps each level or region would have one or more plot appropriate restart points, sometimes a jail, sometimes you would be tossed in the garbage pits as dead, and sometimes a brief romp through hell or maybe a small heck before rejoining the living. Half-Life and Deus Ex both had a *You Are Captured* sequence. Perhaps this could be integrated so it is a fundemental portion of the game play instead of a chapter 9 plot device.

Game Design and Theory Game Design

Started by SoakinKittens May 01, 2002 06:02 PM

21 comments, last by SoakinKittens 21 years, 11 months ago

BlueMonk

142

May 09, 2002 12:39 PM

Soul Reaver had an interesting idea. When you lose your vitality as a physical being you end up in some of plane of reality in which (interestingly) the environment is somewhat morphed and misshapen, but almost identical to where you were (you watch it morph). However you can lose life in this state also which sends you back to the beginning, but you really don''t lose much when this happens. I would generally use the nearby portal to get back where I was rather than re-loading, IIRC.

"All you need to do to learn circular logic is learn circular logic"

"All you need to do to learn circular logic is learn circular logic"

Ingenu

1,631

May 09, 2002 01:55 PM

I like the Soul Reaver way.
I''ve not thought too hard about this for my game, but I''ll.

I''m sick of spending my time hitting quick load and quick save keys, although maybe I do because the game is too hard/unpredictable.

-* So many things to do, so little time to spend. *-

-* So many things to do, so little time to spend. *-

deClavier

122

May 12, 2002 12:20 AM

The game "In Cold Blood" was based entirely on this premise. It was an adventure game, I think. Basically, you started out captured and had to tell your interrogators how you got there; everytime you "died" in the telling of the story, they would say "no, that''s not how it happened".

Also, in chess, any pawn reaching the other side of the board can become a fallen piece.

Alternative to death

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Alternative to death

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