Speculation regarding the climax of Walter White's transfigurative journey in Breaking Bad has now ended, while Game of Thrones' 'The Rains of Castamere' episode from earlier this year left audiences reeling in shock. In both series, no character is ever truly safe, and death carried great emotional impact.
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The safety net offered by the ability to continue from a previous save or change the difficulty level is an affirmation for players that they always remain in control."
In video games, meanwhile, it’s rare for death to mean much. The safety net offered by the ability to continue from a previous save or change the difficulty level is an affirmation for players that they always remain in control, hindered only by repetition as they trundle on from a previous checkpoint. Most games offer power fantasies for the player with relatively few repercussions; in an apparent nod to Star Trek's ill-fated Redshirts, the Redcoats of Assassin's Creed III push disposable mookdom to the point of parody as Connor cuts his way through hordes of soldiers in busy streets. Although visceral and well-animated, any attempt to imply danger in these moments comes off as a facade, as the penalty for death itself is so fleeting.
There are exceptions to the rule, though, and recently, the concept of permanent death in games has seen something of a resurgence. Death with more serious repercussions is working its way into an increasing number of games, filtering through from indie roguelikes to the mainstream.
Rise of the Roguelike and Mainstream Acceptance
"You cannot be bad at watching a movie [and] you cannot be bad at listening to an album," opined comedian and longtime BAFTA Game Awards host Dara Ó Briain at a stand-up gig in 2010," but you can be bad at playing a video game and the video game will punish you and deny you access to the rest of the video game. No other art form does this."
Although this is a valid point, Ó Briain presupposes that losing a game must always be considered a punishment. Steam, XBLA and the PlayStation Store are currently home to a bevy of indie game makers creating interesting works inspired in spirit by 80s dungeon crawler Rogue, a game where permadeath was an important gameplay concept. The indie cult hit Dwarf Fortress, which does even allow the player to win in any traditional sense, has built an entire fanbase around its mantra of 'losing is fun'.
Space strategy FTL: Faster Than Light challenges you to prove yourself a master starfarer through sheer hard graft, as you manage the minutiae of a spaceship and encounter randomly generated perils. There’s also the procedurally generated platform adventures Spelunky, where most adventures don’t last long, and Rogue Legacy, in which each death begets another generation of a family of questers who must endeavour to usurp their predecessors. All are notable for their risky 'Roguelike' gameplay strategies. Death is never far away and you don’t always have control over when and whether it will happen.
These titles cater to players looking for a specific challenge, but they also allow for a form of storytelling unique to video games, allowing stories to spring from the player's imagination and experience.
Most mainstream games are understandably hesitant to employ this concept. Action RPG stalwarts such as the Diablo and Torchlight series do offer a hardcore option with only one life, but it is not their main selling point (at least not for most people). Online shooters also have modes where the player can not rejoin a round if killed, but this carries no more emotional resonance than a lost game of tag.
Cases of permadeath in games with more cinematic aspirations are rarer still. David Cage's Heavy Rain made a valiant attempt at integrating such features into its detailed, narrative-driven world, allowing players to continue the story should one or more of the game's several protagonists die, with the concession being that opportunities to die in the game are limited to handpicked QTE moments, a tactic which removes player agency.
Since the game also allows for multiple save files, it is not permadeath in the strictest sense; reloading a previous save allows for experimentation of outcomes, like a reader keeping their thumb held on the previous page of a Choose Your Own Adventure novel.
Zombies v Aliens: DayZ and XCOM
Permadeath works better in games that keep narrative to a minimum. Open worlds, survival games and strategy games lend themselves well to experimentation with this concept, and zombie games have found particular success in this regard.
DayZ drops players into an online wilderness where they must scavenge and survive for as long as possible in an unnamed Eastern European setting. The online element is what lends DayZ its palpable tension, as players never quite know how another player may react. Due to this online mechanic, it’s not just being killed that feels far more consequential than in other games, but killing others as well.
It is entirely possible to scavenge the game world under the cover of night, with the gamma turned up on the monitor, so as not to be spotted while carrying a torch. Such a fourth-wall breaking solution is encouraged in this game world, where its dog-eat-dog mechanics lead to desperate measures.
Subsequent games have incorporated a single-player extrapolation of DayZ’s formula. ZombiU sees you facing-off with your infected former self as you switch between characters following infection, while in State of Decay you switch to another survivor to carry on playing following a death in the group.
This use of permadeath mechanics for emergent storytelling opportunities is at the heart of XCOM: Enemy Unknown's appeal, too. The Unreal-sheen remake of turn-based 90s alien invasion classic UFO also tackles mortality in a compelling manner in its hardened Ironman difficulty mode, which eschews 'save-scumming' to prevent players from saving on separate files when skirmishes go wrong.
The fragility of the squad is at the heart of the game's tension. Losing a lettered squad member who has led the team over tens of missions can make you feel just as devastated as Game of Thrones. Although the international cast of XCOM communicate only in stock phrases delivered in a near-universal American twang, it still manages to create strong drama and tension without the need for long scripts and longer cutscenes.
The Pilot's Seat: Steel Battalion and Star Citizen
Back in the early ‘00s, Xbox mech game Steel Battalion made an effort to strive for absolute 'realism' in its portrayal of enormous battling robots by erasing your save data if you did not eject from your mech in time before it exploded. This forced players to take a careful and measured approach to combat at all times. It employed a first-person perspective, making the ejector seat mechanic even more believable.
Chris Roberts' in-development space simulator Star Citizen promises a similar ejector seat mechanic as a key component of its gameplay, although it will handle it differently from Steel Battalion. In Steel Battalion, ejecting in time was a binary life-or-death choice designed to increase tension during battles, but Roberts' intention for permadeath aims more to create texture and atmosphere in the game world.
“
the death mechanics that I have in mind keep a feeling of mortality and history without making it frustrating or killing (pun intended) the fun."
"If everyone can be cloned easily, it fundamentally changes the structure of the universe. You now have a universe of immortal gods that can’t be killed," he says on the game's website, "Death is just a financial and time inconvenience that has no further consequences."
The Wing Commander creator's ambition for Star Citizen is that the more injuries the player sustains through their journey, the more worn out their character's body will become, with scars and lost limbs visible to other players online. Since progression in the game is more closely linked to the character's ship than their avatar, these aesthetic effects mark out storied characters in the game's massive online world.
Eventually, when the body can no longer sustain itself, the character will die and the player will continue as their beneficiary, who starts the game as an attendant from the previous character's funeral. "While permadeath is realistic, it is not a lot of fun if the first time you’re on the wrong side of a dogfight you lose everything and have to start again... the death mechanics that I have in mind keep a feeling of mortality and history without making it frustrating or killing (pun intended) the fun," Roberts explains.
Once More, with Feeling
This drama is at the heart of what makes permanent death so compelling. It’s not necessarily about the added challenge or bragging rights when things go well, but the emotions that flare when they don’t. Compare the unexpected thrills of Thrones' Red Wedding or Walt White's actions to Star Trek's red-shirted security personnel, whose deaths in that show are so signposted that they have been parodied even within the parameters of their own franchise.
For audiences accustomed to safety in their storytelling, permadeath can prove a refreshing storytelling opportunity; we know when we watch The Expendables they will generally be anything but, while comic books can't seem to keep their flagship characters dead for much longer than Scratchy the Cat. It is not something that will appeal to all players, but permadeath in games when properly applied can transform the annoyance of losing into the simulation of loss.
Ewen Hosie really likes the word freelancer, as it makes him sound like a starfaring sci-fi hero. He hails from Parts Unknown, and by Parts Unknown we mean Scotland. He is known to skulk around on Twitter.
More...
“
The safety net offered by the ability to continue from a previous save or change the difficulty level is an affirmation for players that they always remain in control."
In video games, meanwhile, it’s rare for death to mean much. The safety net offered by the ability to continue from a previous save or change the difficulty level is an affirmation for players that they always remain in control, hindered only by repetition as they trundle on from a previous checkpoint. Most games offer power fantasies for the player with relatively few repercussions; in an apparent nod to Star Trek's ill-fated Redshirts, the Redcoats of Assassin's Creed III push disposable mookdom to the point of parody as Connor cuts his way through hordes of soldiers in busy streets. Although visceral and well-animated, any attempt to imply danger in these moments comes off as a facade, as the penalty for death itself is so fleeting.
There are exceptions to the rule, though, and recently, the concept of permanent death in games has seen something of a resurgence. Death with more serious repercussions is working its way into an increasing number of games, filtering through from indie roguelikes to the mainstream.
Rise of the Roguelike and Mainstream Acceptance
"You cannot be bad at watching a movie [and] you cannot be bad at listening to an album," opined comedian and longtime BAFTA Game Awards host Dara Ó Briain at a stand-up gig in 2010," but you can be bad at playing a video game and the video game will punish you and deny you access to the rest of the video game. No other art form does this."
Although this is a valid point, Ó Briain presupposes that losing a game must always be considered a punishment. Steam, XBLA and the PlayStation Store are currently home to a bevy of indie game makers creating interesting works inspired in spirit by 80s dungeon crawler Rogue, a game where permadeath was an important gameplay concept. The indie cult hit Dwarf Fortress, which does even allow the player to win in any traditional sense, has built an entire fanbase around its mantra of 'losing is fun'.
Space strategy FTL: Faster Than Light challenges you to prove yourself a master starfarer through sheer hard graft, as you manage the minutiae of a spaceship and encounter randomly generated perils. There’s also the procedurally generated platform adventures Spelunky, where most adventures don’t last long, and Rogue Legacy, in which each death begets another generation of a family of questers who must endeavour to usurp their predecessors. All are notable for their risky 'Roguelike' gameplay strategies. Death is never far away and you don’t always have control over when and whether it will happen.
These titles cater to players looking for a specific challenge, but they also allow for a form of storytelling unique to video games, allowing stories to spring from the player's imagination and experience.
Most mainstream games are understandably hesitant to employ this concept. Action RPG stalwarts such as the Diablo and Torchlight series do offer a hardcore option with only one life, but it is not their main selling point (at least not for most people). Online shooters also have modes where the player can not rejoin a round if killed, but this carries no more emotional resonance than a lost game of tag.
Cases of permadeath in games with more cinematic aspirations are rarer still. David Cage's Heavy Rain made a valiant attempt at integrating such features into its detailed, narrative-driven world, allowing players to continue the story should one or more of the game's several protagonists die, with the concession being that opportunities to die in the game are limited to handpicked QTE moments, a tactic which removes player agency.
Since the game also allows for multiple save files, it is not permadeath in the strictest sense; reloading a previous save allows for experimentation of outcomes, like a reader keeping their thumb held on the previous page of a Choose Your Own Adventure novel.
Zombies v Aliens: DayZ and XCOM
Permadeath works better in games that keep narrative to a minimum. Open worlds, survival games and strategy games lend themselves well to experimentation with this concept, and zombie games have found particular success in this regard.
DayZ drops players into an online wilderness where they must scavenge and survive for as long as possible in an unnamed Eastern European setting. The online element is what lends DayZ its palpable tension, as players never quite know how another player may react. Due to this online mechanic, it’s not just being killed that feels far more consequential than in other games, but killing others as well.
It is entirely possible to scavenge the game world under the cover of night, with the gamma turned up on the monitor, so as not to be spotted while carrying a torch. Such a fourth-wall breaking solution is encouraged in this game world, where its dog-eat-dog mechanics lead to desperate measures.
Subsequent games have incorporated a single-player extrapolation of DayZ’s formula. ZombiU sees you facing-off with your infected former self as you switch between characters following infection, while in State of Decay you switch to another survivor to carry on playing following a death in the group.
This use of permadeath mechanics for emergent storytelling opportunities is at the heart of XCOM: Enemy Unknown's appeal, too. The Unreal-sheen remake of turn-based 90s alien invasion classic UFO also tackles mortality in a compelling manner in its hardened Ironman difficulty mode, which eschews 'save-scumming' to prevent players from saving on separate files when skirmishes go wrong.
The fragility of the squad is at the heart of the game's tension. Losing a lettered squad member who has led the team over tens of missions can make you feel just as devastated as Game of Thrones. Although the international cast of XCOM communicate only in stock phrases delivered in a near-universal American twang, it still manages to create strong drama and tension without the need for long scripts and longer cutscenes.
The Pilot's Seat: Steel Battalion and Star Citizen
Back in the early ‘00s, Xbox mech game Steel Battalion made an effort to strive for absolute 'realism' in its portrayal of enormous battling robots by erasing your save data if you did not eject from your mech in time before it exploded. This forced players to take a careful and measured approach to combat at all times. It employed a first-person perspective, making the ejector seat mechanic even more believable.
Chris Roberts' in-development space simulator Star Citizen promises a similar ejector seat mechanic as a key component of its gameplay, although it will handle it differently from Steel Battalion. In Steel Battalion, ejecting in time was a binary life-or-death choice designed to increase tension during battles, but Roberts' intention for permadeath aims more to create texture and atmosphere in the game world.
“
the death mechanics that I have in mind keep a feeling of mortality and history without making it frustrating or killing (pun intended) the fun."
"If everyone can be cloned easily, it fundamentally changes the structure of the universe. You now have a universe of immortal gods that can’t be killed," he says on the game's website, "Death is just a financial and time inconvenience that has no further consequences."
The Wing Commander creator's ambition for Star Citizen is that the more injuries the player sustains through their journey, the more worn out their character's body will become, with scars and lost limbs visible to other players online. Since progression in the game is more closely linked to the character's ship than their avatar, these aesthetic effects mark out storied characters in the game's massive online world.
Eventually, when the body can no longer sustain itself, the character will die and the player will continue as their beneficiary, who starts the game as an attendant from the previous character's funeral. "While permadeath is realistic, it is not a lot of fun if the first time you’re on the wrong side of a dogfight you lose everything and have to start again... the death mechanics that I have in mind keep a feeling of mortality and history without making it frustrating or killing (pun intended) the fun," Roberts explains.
Once More, with Feeling
This drama is at the heart of what makes permanent death so compelling. It’s not necessarily about the added challenge or bragging rights when things go well, but the emotions that flare when they don’t. Compare the unexpected thrills of Thrones' Red Wedding or Walt White's actions to Star Trek's red-shirted security personnel, whose deaths in that show are so signposted that they have been parodied even within the parameters of their own franchise.
For audiences accustomed to safety in their storytelling, permadeath can prove a refreshing storytelling opportunity; we know when we watch The Expendables they will generally be anything but, while comic books can't seem to keep their flagship characters dead for much longer than Scratchy the Cat. It is not something that will appeal to all players, but permadeath in games when properly applied can transform the annoyance of losing into the simulation of loss.
Ewen Hosie really likes the word freelancer, as it makes him sound like a starfaring sci-fi hero. He hails from Parts Unknown, and by Parts Unknown we mean Scotland. He is known to skulk around on Twitter.
More...
