With a recent surge of permadeath-with-meta-progression games I caught myself wondering when was the last time I dreaded dying in a video game. I mean those indieshits not only don't punish you for dying, they actually encourage it with permanent upgrades and collectible resources that even incentivise dying so you can restart stronger and have easier time.
Even in games like Dark Souls that sell themselves as SO HARCORE dying is not a big deal, since save spots are geographically close to each other and those souls or other currency you lose is easy to replenish, unless you deliberately wasn't spending it for hours. You don't really lose anything meaningful in it as well. Only time I feared death was my first visit to blight town in Dark Souls 1 because not only I didn't know the area, but my weapon also was broken somewhere in the middle of it and I had no means of repairing it. So even when I got to the bonfire in the middle of it and rested at it without thinking I realized just how fucked I am. That was a single episode in an entire game though, the rest felt safe as shit at all times.
So what was is the kind of game where you are like "oh shit I'd rather tear my ass down but not die, because that will fuck up everything". Back in the day arcade and home console games were kinda like that because you had limited amount of retries, and if you got as far as to the end of the game dying to the last boss would mean hours of time and real progress lost. Are there any recent/decent games like this? Do you miss dying being meaningful and dreadful gameplay mechanic? Mind I'm not talking about overall difficulty there, but about something being the heaviest punishment game can inflict on you for playing poorly.
Logan Adams
Try real life. Take the jew hunting quest.
Evan Hall
I've seen my Steam friends playing two games: Hollow Knight and Dead Cells.
The former actually looks tolerable, the latter was a roguelike with PERMANENT UPGRADES
Wow. Lucky.
Liam Bell
Most of death meaning something translates to reload the game, and the rest is generally there to artificially pad the content with grind. The real problem isn't the lack of punishment if you fail but rather the lack of effort required to succeed.
Parker Fisher
I don't understand.
I don't think Hollow Knight has permadeath though.
Anthony Hughes
Lives system was the best. Lose all of them - start from the very beginning without anything.
Jace Bennett
Grimdawn, diablo ect all have that feel You lose EXP when you die In the later levels it fucks you over Also GrimDawn dungeons are fucking painful unless your one of the OP builds like fucking retaliation its fucking dreadful being a glass cannon in maps that are basically filled with shit on the ground that kills in a few seconds and its everywhere
Austin Carter
STALKER: Call of Chernobyl mod has a permadeath option. When you die, it deletes all saves for that character.
I can't play it any other way now. It adds tension, requires planning and careful assessment and it is a huge relief when you escape from a dicey situation. Progressing to better suits and gear is meaningful and rewarding. It is the most engaging game I have played in years.
The underground sections might give you PTSD though.
Robert Sullivan
I'm honestly surprised that it's not Sweden.
Hunter Morgan
Path of exile on hardcore. You don't have an option to play on super safe bitch mode (unless you build your character around that in which case you'll be slow as fuck and take forever to clear even low tier maps), and will eventually be forced to push yourself into dangerous bullshit to get anywhere. Granted you will eventually get to a point where you character can't go any further and you've farmed enough stuff to make a better character, but that just makes dying even more of a risk because all of the time you spent farming could go to waste in an instant if you fuck up.
