Death

[AmishSamurai]

In Cannon Fodder, a point-and-click war game, you go around commanding a squardon of a few soldiers around a battlefield. But, instead of a numerical "lives" system, you actually see a line of new recruited soldiers before each mission, that go into battle if someone of your team dies. But, the interesting thing is that each of the soldiers have names, appearances, etc. to make each one unique. It's actually quite depressing when one of them dies, since after every level where this does happen, you get a "lost in combat" screen where you see their graves. It really makes you think, huh?

Yes, I love that game! It's great fun to play even today. I have it on my Amiga. I want the CD32 (and a CD32 to play it on) version though with the full theme song with lyrics.

Have it for my GBC. War has never been so much fun!

[Gamerforlife]

I don't think we've mentioned strategy rpgs, where death is very real. Games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Valkyria Chronicles and probably others I'm less familiar with

Great thread by the way, this is something that doesn't get talked about enough in video games.

Slightly off topic, but a personal pet peeve of mine is games that like to rub it in your face when you die. You know those annoying game over screens with the bad guys mocking you, or the annoying, "Snaaaaaaaaaaake" game over screen in Meta Gear Solid. When I'm thoroughly pissed off by a particularly annoying stage or boss, having the devlopers laugh at me makes me want to punch someone....usually the developers

[supericeboy]

Oregon Trail took death pretty seriously. When a party member died you got to type a headstone for them. If everyone in your party died then you had to start over.

[SpaceBooger]

What about the old Sierra Adventure games. Death was cheap and often frustrating.

My favorite point-n-click death(s) was from Leisure Suit Larry because of how entertaining they were:
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Not only were his death's entertaining, so was the resurrection:

Larry's journey is filled with other fairly humorous moments, some cruel, some not. There aren't quite as many random deaths as other Sierra games, as long as you don't flush the toilet in the bar, anyway. In the beginning of the stages of the game, if you somehow manage to perish, a compartment will open up beneath Larry's body and take him to Sierra's laboratory, where Sierra heroes are repaired and reassembled. (These are the invisible scenes that occur when you hit the "restart" button, the game tells you.) In the EGA version, you can find King Graham from King's Quest undergoing treatment, as well as a robot from Space Quest. In the VGA version, Larry is tossed into a blender, where his remains are carried through a tube and reformed into his body. These fourth wall gags became increasingly common throughout the series, as well as other Sierra games.

Info from Hardcore Gaming 101

[MrPopo]

I don't think we've mentioned strategy rpgs, where death is very real. Games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Valkyria Chronicles and probably others I'm less familiar with

Fire Emblem's the big one. FFT and VC both have that period where someone is down but not out. With FE as soon as HP hits 0 the character is gone. Certain characters who are story essential will "retreat" and are "hurt" for the rest of the game, but most of them die and never come back, which affects things such as recruitment possibilities. Heck, in Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu if you let party members die you end up losing out on their children in the second half, instead getting shoddy replacements.

[hashiriya1]

Demon's Souls

[Hatta]

No one mentioned Nethack yet. You're dropped into a deep dark dungeon, filled with monsters. You have a few items, but the only thing you can truly rely on is your wits. You might find spells, scrolls, rings, or wands around, but you'll have to figure out on your own what they do. Even weapons or armor might have special properties, or they might be cursed. To top it off, if you should die, all your knowledge about the properties and effects of these items is lost. Descriptions are randomized and you start back at the top of the dungeon.

And death is everywhere. You have to find your own food in the dungeon. Hunt the wrong monster and you die. *touch* the wrong monster, and you die. If you don't feed it regularly, you could even be killed by your own dog! There's too many ways to die to list actually, enough that there's an acronym for it Y(et) A(nother) S(tupid) D(eath).

There is however, an Amulet of Life Saving. So there are some second chances, sometimes, if you're lucky. Other times you may escape impending doom by praying to your god, but don't do it too often or you'll face his wrath.

[Octopod]

Pretty much any Rogue-like really, I would think?

[MrPopo]

Pretty much any Rogue-like really, I would think?

Any PC Rogue-like would be a better descriptor. The console ones tend to have features that let you persist something between runs. Izuna persists any items with the cheap rune that sends them to storage. Baroque frequently lets you send items to storage for future runs and you can brand items (with a rare-ish item) to reappear the next run through the dungeon. Shiren also has a mechanic for not losing your pimped out sword. Both Shiren and Baroque reset your level but Izuna maintains it (which means you can eventually grind to 99 and do decently even with nothing equipped).

[DaGamingMonkey]

Diablo 2 hardcore mode... oh my was that intense. Lag spikes have never been so heart stopping. I loved it though


I liked Conker's Bad Fur Day

First time you die you meet death and like most of that game it's filled with laughs.