One of the most appealing features of gaming in general, at least in my eyes, is the distinct lack of consequence that the whole thing incurs. Whereas performing an action, or not doing so, in the real world has very tangible consequences, (most of which are usually negative in my experience) in video games you are free from that struggle by way of metaphysical detachment. Even the most dedicated 'your choices matter' video game doesn't have any bearing on your actual life because at the end of the day you can just scrap everything and go back to the beginning, a boon that we don't share as boring mortals.
There are those games, however, that do not abide by the general wistful rules of gaming and seek to impart the cold permanence of mortality upon our one receptacle of relief. (Gee, thanks guys.) These are the sorts of games that I find myself coming back to time and time again, as they come to tear you up about what could have been. Or, they make death a lot more meaningful by requiring players to restart everything should they die. (I thought we transcend those kinds of games ever since 'The Legend of Zelda' and saving.) Today I want to look at the appeal of these types of games and why it is a gimmick that I don't see dying out anytime soon. (See what I did there? It was unintentional too!)
One of the most famous examples of the 'one life' genre of games would be the 2010 browser based pixel game known as 'One Chance'. Chances are that if you spent anytime consuming Internet culture around this time then you'll have heard of this little indie gem, partially due to the fact that it is readily available for anyone to play on flash hosting sites like 'Newgrounds'. But just to recap, 'One Chance' tells the story of a man who is a month away from the end of the world and has one chance to stop it. It is a highly narrative driven experience showing the breakdown of this individuals life as the world start to crumble and giving the player's a little ounce of choice along the way. Once players reach their conclusion, however, they'll have cottoned onto the fact that the title is double-edged. The protagonist has one chance to save the world and the player only has one chance to play the game. Whatever ending you finish with is yours forever and there is no 'do-overs' or second chances ever. (Unless you clear your cookie history, but let's not break the illusion of permanence.)
Minecraft and Terraria are two games built around an incredibly simple premise, you are alive in a hostile world and must do your best to survive and thrive. Minecraft very much takes this in a direction whereupon players will end up going on great builds and carving themselves out a home and Terraria more has player's amassing weaponry to battle various deadly and terrifying foes. What both these games have going for them is the fact that, despite being very long-form experiences, they both have a 'hardcore' tag when creating the world. What this little option means is that the second your avatar kicks the bucket, their world is immediately deleted and all your progress is wiped. Obviously, this has the effect of making player's a lot more careful in how they play the game, however, in an endless adventure like Minecraft and Terraria, it's more an act of delaying the inevitable. Some fans like the extra layer of tension that this piles on top of the gameplay, but few would suggest this sort of experience for the casual player.
Speaking of 'Hardcore modes', how about we take a look at the franchise that is often credited with coining the phrase, the Diablo games and it's ilk. These endless dungeon crawlers are built around the cyclical gameplay loop of fighting hoards of ever more powerful monsters and amassing ever more powerful loot sets and abilities. This perpetual grind is often intersected by droplets of story and big, climatic boss battles, but the main draw of this genre comes from the balance between the predictable acting in unpredictable ways. In this manner it isn't too often to find oneself being slayed by enemies that you know well because you failed to pay attention when you needed to, and if you turn on the 'hardcore mode' that practically all of these games have, then that will be the end of your journey. For a series as 'dark' as Diablo and it's imitators, this concept actually fits in rather nicely to their world of heresy, violence and death. I suppose then, the only question is whether or not the player is brave enough to put themselves through that trial.
Bethesda have dedicated a portion of their efforts to reviving some of the long dead games of yesteryear, most prominently the 'Wolfenstein' and 'Doom' Games. Both of their titles earned stellar new revivals in the modern age and reintroduced current FPS fans to games back when they were still largely hard as nails. With that it mind, it shouldn't be surprising that both games feature their very own 'one life mode' in 'Mein Leben' and 'Ultra Nightmare' respectively. Both of these difficulties are like the crème de la crème of hardcore challenges, as they encourage people to slog through a heavily narrative-driven story and set pieces both without dying once or even quitting out. That's right, there's not even any checkpoints in either gamemode to exploit, that's real hardcore!
As a life long glutton you'd think that a concept like this would be right up my street, but honestly 'hardcore modes' might just be that bit too much even for me. I really do cherish the ability to go back and fix a mistake, depriving me of that opportunity does have the knock on effect of sucking a lot of fun out of games as they just become tense stressful nightmares. Even modes which overly restrict gaming, like Fallout 4's survival mode, grates at my fragile sensibilities. That being said, I do understand the appeal, as much as any outsider can, and hope more big name games accommodate for those sorts of playstyles in the future.
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