Support NeoGAF

[alr1ght]

watch a movie

 

[Finalow]

Demons Souls sounds right up your alley.

i agree, lol.

 

[enzo_gt]

watch a movie

But you can die in MGS4, no?

 

[Jeff Albertson]

A bit off from what the op wanted but Endless Ocean is a good 'adventure' type game where you can't die.

Great relaxing game

 

[consoul]

noby noby boy

We're talking about games.

How about racing games? No dying in those. Now there's an idea for next-gen racing games: driver damage.

 

[Karish]

Barney's Hide n Seek.

I tried running him off a cliff, but the asshole holds up a stop sign. Jerk (Holy crap it shows it in the 4th screenshot on the cover)

YES. Totally got this game for my 4th birthday!

 

[Leon S. Kennedy]

POP 2008 platforming is so linear and simple that even someone that is brain dead can complete it. Its more linear than every 2d platformer I have tried. If this is the type of game you like, then I suggest pong although pong is much more complicated than POP 2008.

 

[Spwn]

Sorry to bring it to you, but the games have been about surviving to reach the next level since Pac-Man era and without dying there would be no survival element. I know what you're looking for, but I don't think complaining about games that were designed to have said element is justified.

But I too recommend Stacking. I think you couldn't die in Costume Quest either, but my memory may fail me.

 

[Platy]

I didn't got hat OP said or this thread became "We troll games for being too easy" ?


99% of the Point and Click games, Kirby Epic Yarn, Braid, Pokemon Snap and Endless Ocean (and its sequel) are the only good games that I can think of .... if you want bad games, any educational like Mario is Missing (or was it Mario's Time Machine ? probably both =P) work

 

[Helmholtz]

Super Meat Boy

 

[grenadeguru]

 

[Desi]

Also, check out Demon's Souls. It doesn't meet all your OP criteria, but you still don't die, game over, and load a save when you "die."

i know you weren't the first but if people can bring up Demon's Souls you can also mention Breath of Fire V. Dying is somewhat a sweet release since with limited saves and a significant new game+ which dying opens up more story events. Only problem is you have to be willing to replay the game from the beginning (unless you want to lose tons of shit) with your beefed up characters.

 

[BloodySinner]

Ninja Gaiden 2.

Because I'm so fucking good at it.

 

[faceless007]

I know what the OP is getting at. Sometimes you just want to explore and be immersed in a fantastic environment.

Like others have said, the point-and-click adventure genre might be for you. The Myst series works, although there are "bad" endings.

 

[SmallCaveGames]

Stacking is a good and current one. And yes anything Myst-like. "Dark" is another XBLIG that offers exploration as the main motivation. I never played "Flower" but that seems like one where you might be free of death.

And then there are lots of games where failure is possible, but not death per say.

I think the OP raises a valid point. There's no requirement that a video game has to have, or should have, a death condition. And when not done well, death/failure is just a frustration point.

Of course most games inherently have a winner and loser which is similar to failure/death. Not all though.

 

[ZAK]

The Myst series, although you might actually kill yourself.

 

[NEOPARADIGM]

I know what the OP is getting at. Sometimes you just want to explore and be immersed in a fantastic environment.

+1

Playing Dead Space 2 recently, for instance, nothing breaks immersion quite like having to replay a section four or five times. I like to play with the volume cranked and all that, and that becomes impossible if you're playing the same section for 20 minutes.

Not to mention, for the vast majority of these story- and cutscene-driven games, dying doesn't even make any contextual sense. (Isn't there some kind of joke about that? "You didn't die, you just went back in time.")

I don't know what the solution is, but bottom line is that dying breaks immersion and isn't fun. Broken immersion and non-fun isn't something I tend to desire in my games.

 

[Forkball]

Wind Waker amirite

Wario Land 2 and 3 - although the final boss in the latter can kill you.

This, especially because in Wario Land 3 it becomes a major gameplay mechanic. You NEED enemies to attack you sometimes to progress through the level and get to secret areas. For example, if you get stung by a bee, Wario becomes all puffy and he can float up to high places. Some paths have blocks that can only be destroyed with fire, so you have to set Wario on fire in order to get past there. It's a very interesting mechanic and it's pulled off well. Wario Land 3 is a very underrated platformer. Wario Land 4 got rid of this gameplay aspect, and was much worse.

 

[quinntendopower]

any prince of persia of assassins creed game, the timing windows for any counter or jump is so wide you'd have to be asleep to die.

you'd also have to like really bad games to bother with them.

 

[g.r.e.]

Fable 2&3.

 

[Booshka]

Just play games with better checkpoint systems and quicker loading so dying isn't frustrating, like 2D Oddworld.

 

[DUFFMCWALIN]

Pokemon doesn't really have any death, if all your Pokemon faint you white out and lose half your money and go back to the pokemon center or somthing but thats pretty lenient I think, you keep all your experience and don't lose hours of progress.

Dragon Quest series does the same thing, at least in 8 and 9 it did.

Ya, the first thing I thought of was Pokemon. Hell its the only game that fits the requirements that I could think of.

 

[Sethos]

I played (tried to play) Uncharted 2 the other week. It got Game of the Year everywhere a few years back and I expected fun. What I got was alright platforming and terrible shooting sections that ruined the game for me. I appreciate that some of you like terrible shooting sections, but they're not for me! So I stopped really early on, because I couldn't be bothered to go through all these stupid gunfights to get to the alright platforming bits. If the game was just platforming, I'd have enjoyed it so much more.

Christ almighty, someone that shares the same view as me on Uncharted?! That game had so much shooting and the shooting, the gunplay overall including the sounds were so piss-poor I just couldn't be bothered.

 

[disappeared]

Braid.

 

[Szu]

Devil May Cry 2.

You really have to be extra special to die in that game.

 

[N4Us]

You can't lose at all in The Maw. You can "lose" in the final stage but it doesn't really affect your progress.

 

[wrowa]

If you're referring to me, you are mistaken about my motives.

So you are just someone who has to insult other people needlessly. That sounds even worse.

 

[TheExodu5]

MS Paint

 

[plagiarize]

POP 2008 platforming is so linear and simple that even someone that is brain dead can complete it. Its more linear than every 2d platformer I have tried. If this is the type of game you like, then I suggest pong although pong is much more complicated than POP 2008.

PoP 2008 is a lot of things, but it isn't linear.

Forgotten Sands is linear. 2008 is not.

 

[Cyborg]

Prince of Persia

 

[-PXG-]

So you want reward without the risk?

 

[SpacLock]

Neverhood.

 

[plagiarize]

Silent Hill Shattered Memories is a good one... you can't really 'die' in the traditional sense. you go through these nightmare sections that you can 'fail' but if you fail them a handful of times, you still wake from them.

 

[Rafaelcsa]

Uncharted doesn't have the industry's best shooting mechanics by any means, but it's at least competent. I was irked by his statement that it was "terrible" when it was so obvious that he felt that way because he couldn't perform adequately, not because of flaws in the design. Combat is not a "crutch" in Uncharted. It's the game. Uncharted is a very beautiful, linear third person shooter wrapped in an adventure narrative.

If OP really meant that he wanted to talk about other ways to challenge the player besides combat and death conditions, he should have emphasized that point.

I haven't played Uncharted 2 yet, but his points do perfectly apply to the first Uncharted. Combat is terrible there. Repetitive and drawn-out combat scenarios. I only forced myself to finish the game because I bought it and wanted to get at least some of my money's worth. If I had rented or borrowed it I'd have stopped probably not even midway through the game. Supposedly the second one is much better at shooting, I hope that to be the case. I'd also much rather play a platforming game with some combat to break it up the platforming than play Gears of War trapped in an Indiana Jones setting.

The OP should look for point-and-click adventure games. All old Lucasarts ones are awesome. My personal favorite is Full Throttle.

If you have a Wii and are in Europe/or willing to install Homebrew, do get Another Code R. Actually, if you have a DS, play the first one before ACR. The DS game is okay, but the Wii one is great. There's also Hotel Dusk and its sequel on the DS (and more well known stuff like Professor Layton).

If you are really looking for action games where you can't die... I can only think of Wario Land: Shake It and Kirby's Epic Yarn, both on Wii. WLSI especially is an awesome game.

EDIT: Oh yeah, poster above me talked about Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. One of my favorite games ever! You don't die there and there's great exploration!

 

[Kuramu]

Pitfall II,
though it does have checkpoints so not dying is more of a technicality.

 

[bishopcruz]

Amnesia: The Dark Descent on PC.

It has no combat whatsoever, and though you can die if you cannot escape the mosters there is no real penalty for it, and you don't lose your items or anything like that. It shows that Survival horror can still be tense without being overly difficult, combat based, or frustrating.

 

[Dr Zhivago]

So you want reward without the risk?

Other forms of media have managed without risk, why not games?

The whole 'Game Over' concept is just a holdover from arcade games, we shouldn't be limited by it.

 

[Mako_Drug]

I haven't played Uncharted 2 yet, but his points do perfectly apply to the first Uncharted. Combat is terrible there. Repetitive and drawn-out combat scenarios. I only forced myself to finish the game because I bought it and wanted to get at least some of my money's worth. If I had rented or borrowed it I'd have stopped probably not even midway through the game. Supposedly the second one is much better at shooting, I hope that to be the case. I'd also much rather play a platforming game with some combat to break it up the platforming than play Gears of War trapped in an Indiana Jones setting.

That's not a gameplay (combat) issue. It's a level design issue.

 

[Zeliard]

Planescape: Torment is one of the few games where death (and subsequent rebirth) is an actual part of both the plot and the gameplay. A huge part, too. And if you want to avoid combat, well, the game is right up your ally.

 

[webrunner]

So you want reward without the risk?

Why does the risk have to be weighed against the same non-canonical time travel system?

There are other penalties for failure other than "back to last save, none of that actually happened" that could be used.

PoP 2008 wasn't easy because you couldn't die, it was easy because the actual platforming was forgiving and the "checkpoints" were too generous.

 

[Azure Dream]

I think the original Donkey Kong Jungle Beat for Gamecube let you take infinite damage, you just lost bananas that applied toward your level grade.

Unfortunately, the Wii version made some significant changes, including adding in a health meter to a game not designed for it.

 

[jessecuster]

 

[Chavelo]

OP. give back your gamer card. You don't deserve it.

ಠ.ಠ

 

[fernoca]

After all those awesome Xbox Indie thread toythatkills..
Hating Uncharted 2 and liking Prince of Persia 2008, more?.


In any case ,I really like how it was handled in Prey.
The moment you "die" you continue playing, in another realm and depending and what you shoot at, the amount of life you return varies too.

World of Warcraft is cool too. You get killed, you walk around in the same world, but as a ghost and you have to find your body to continue.

 

[Melchiah]

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver.

If your energy depletes to nothing on the Material Plane, you will be
forced to shift to the Spectral Plane. Here, your energy will slowly
recover. You can hasten its restoration by devouring lost souls of
the underworld and the souls of spectral enemies.

If you lose all your energy on the Spectral plane, you return to the
Elder's chamber.

 

[Starwolf_UK]

Do games with ulimited lives and instant respwn count as not being able to die. In that case the LEGO *movie franchise* games.

Kind of like Kirby there is consequence (similar one too).