There are plenty of games that run on the logic that you should avoid death at all costs, that dying is a failure on your part, and you’ll just have to load from the last checkpoint to try again and get through the last mission. However, others use death as a sort of innovation, where you’re expected to die and the game has a way of explaining your death in-world or is just crafted around you dying over and over again.
We will avoid games that are just very difficult and focus more on others where dying is an integral part of the experience. Here are a few games where if you fail, you must die and die again.
7Twelve Minutes
You Have Twelve Minutes To Save You And Your Wife Or Die Trying
Although its story can leave much to be desired,Twelve Minutesstill runs on an interesting premise in which you play as a husband coming back home from work to his wife, when suddenly an intruder interrupts your evening. They tie you and your wife up and threaten your life unless your wife tells him where an expensive watch is. But before you may do anything, the intruder kills you, and then… you wake up, back at home, and you’ve just come back from work.
The game is set around a time loop of twelve minutes and has your character forced to die over and over again, trying to change things in the time loop so that you can find out more information about the intruder, this watch, and your wife’s past. Overall, the game has a great premise which will leave you dying for more.
6Hades
Play As The Son Of The Underworld And Die Trying To Escape
A common genre of video games where you die again and again is roguelite, andHadesembraces this fully. You play as Zagreus, son of Hades, and your one goal is toescape from the underworldby defeating your father’s minions and anyone else who gets in your way.
Every time Zagreus dies he returns to the lowest level of the Underworld with his father waiting and ready to mock his efforts. But each time you die, you will encounter characters again, learn more about the Underworld, and get closer to finally escaping and discovering the truth about where Zagreus' mother went.
5Deathloop
You’re An Assassin Stuck In A Time Loop That Resets Each Time You Die
We love a good time loop andDeathloopseems to be a mix of John Wick and a Doctor Who episode. Deathloop sees you playing as a hitman who has to take down numerous targets in a set amount of time or else you’ll get sent back to the beginning of the time loop.
It’s a fascinating first-person shooter with an interesting premise and gameplay that is designed to have you die and get sent back to the time loop so you may try new methods of hitting all your targets and delving further into the story.
4Outer Wilds
Death By Supernova Isn’t A Fun Fate
Outer Wilds is a game in which you explore a mysterious solar system, with questions only you’re able to find the answer to by navigating through these different planets.
But here’s the catch. You will die every 20 minutes. Due to a supernova, you are fated to die. However, whenever you die, your life flashes before your eyes and you awake once again, having realised that you’re not only exploring this solar system, but you’re doing so whilst in a time loop. Outer Wilds is a great and difficult game that will have you pouring hours into a well-crafted world.
3Returnal
Stranded On A Planet In Deep Space, Returnal Puts You In A Time Loop
We’ve heard of time loops, but what about when the world changes when you die? In Returnal, you play as a lost cosmonaut stranded on an ancient derelict planet where you have to fight and scrounge to survive. But the catch is that each time you die, you come back and the planet changes.
There’s a lot of mystery and space horror when it comes to Returnal and the shifting levels will have you questioning what is going on and more importantly, just how you’re going to make sure you don’t die this time.
2Superhot
Stuck In A Video Game Where You Control Time
Superhotsees you play a game of the same title with futuristic VR technology where you are sent into the body of an avatar that controls time via movement. The more you move, the more time flows. Although time plays a big part in the gameplay, there is no actual time loop. When you die, the program just resets, and youmust try the level again.
We won’t give away any spoilers for the actual story of the game, but the gameplay is addictive, and it’s a clever way of incorporating death through the use of a game over since the window dressing is you’re playing a suspiciously engaging VR game.
1The Stanley Parable
Like Working In An Office Every Day, Right?
The viral game made in the Source engine known asThe Stanley Parablerequires you to die to experience the full game. You are Stanley, someone working at an office when one day, you hear a voice in your head and find that the workplace is completely empty.
From there, you have to either obey or disobey the narrator at certain points of the story, explore the office and sometimes die before you spawn again at the start of the day and go through different routes.
