Death

[Niode]

Demon's Souls

As long as you don't get stuck in a stupid place death doesn't really cause many problems in Demon's Souls. Personally, I prefer being in soul form, the body doesn't really give you much advantages apart from an extra 25% of your health (with Cling Ring). Even dying at a boss isn't much of a problem since you can just run towards your bloodstain and get your souls back.

[Rurouni_Fencer]

I'm surprised nobody mentioned Heavy Rain.. While you don't "Game Over" per se, you're demise can affect the storylines..

Also, just had to include this:

[AmishSamurai]

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.

I never liked Nethack though. It's WAY too random for my tastes. Three or four times I've died instantly because a bunch of traps spawned in my starting square. Roguelikes in general are fun, but Nethack not as much for me.

[Hobie-wan]

Prey had the minigame when you died and Borderlands has the second wind. I think they're interesting ways to deal with it instead of just having you respawn or punish you too much. I know there are various zombie mods for FPS games where dying means you join the zombie team.

[Ack]

What about lesser known games like Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, where if you died Death would come for you, and you'd have the opportunity to battle for your life against him. If you could beat Death, you could get back up and continue fighting, but Death was no pushover.

[Anapan]

Ragnarok/Valhalla my favorite rougelike for dos. Death means death. Your character is saved as a zombie/ghost wherever you died. The only way to get all your stuff back is to grind for stats and abilities until you're strong enough to take on your zombie character still fully equipped (minus a few special items) and with all your abilities controlled by AI as an enemy. It's like a treasure chest that will kick your ass. There's about 10 of them wandering around the gods plane in my directory just to make the final battle between the gods that much more difficult.

[Hatta]

I never liked Nethack though. It's WAY too random for my tastes. Three or four times I've died instantly because a bunch of traps spawned in my starting square. Roguelikes in general are fun, but Nethack not as much for me.

That's part of the appeal though. Life is random. Sometimes it's even out to get you. You have to take this into account in Nethack, and life too. In this sense Nethack is the most realistic game I've ever played.

[d123456]

Most self respecting Light gun games have hostages coming in your cross hairs.
If you shoot you loose energy, which if you had little left would result in your death.
Uhm, no I actually don´t know what exactly you mean.
But hey, If you send me your console and 200 hundred bucks I can place a bomb inside, You will never get to see the game over, because that´s the moment it will blow up
Or do you mean that if it´s game over you should get an electrical shock from your controller?
nice topic.

[grittykitty]

This was pretty shocking when I was a kid

what game was this from?

[J T]

That's the game over screen from Friday the 13th on the NES.