How Many Deaths Can You Take?

Oblong

Oblong

Day 1 Gamer - 1976
Cornerstone Member
Sep 11, 2013
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Ever had a game or two where your frustration got so high that you gave up on it entirely?

Yeah, part of gaming is dying. It would be an eye-opener if we all had our total lifetime "death count" statistic. Some games you actually expect to die often, like Trials HD or N+. I hear they are making some games now where if you die once then it really is game over. But short of extreme examples like that, how many times are you willing to repeat a scene before you say "screw it" and shelf the game completely? Or are you the type that will let nothing stop you and repeat a tough area for however long it takes

The experience of dying can be even worse if you have long reload times, are forced to watch a cut scene, or even worse stuck on a save where you are clinging onto a sliver of health and forced to deal with it.

Personally I can look over my collection and see more than a couple titles that I never made it to the end because the difficulty ramped up too much for me to enjoy myself. I've even got to where I would rather experience the game itself than be overly challenged so I may play on the "easy" mode. Surely I'm not the only one out there?
 
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I can die a few times, but that's my limit. Less than 3 or 4 deaths, and I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong. More than 3 or 4, and I'm getting pissed at the game. My limit is about 6. After that, I'll turn down the difficulty, if that is an option, just to get past that part, then turn it back up again afterwards. Some games have uneven difficulty levels, where it's easy for a long period, then you get a sharp spike in difficulty.
 
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Depends why I am dying.

If I am dying simply because a chapter or enemy is hard then I can go all day. If I am dying because of cheap A.I or mechanics then I tend to throw in the towel early.

Something like Dark Souls or the final boss in Tomb Raider 2 is a good example of the former. COD on the hardest difficulty is a good example of the latter.
 
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I don't ever turn down the difficulty, even when i set it too high. Unless it is a shooter. I don't like shooters. Having a difficult RPG makes you fear death, less you are Witcher 3 and have auto-saves everywhere.
 
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To be perfectly honest, dying has no impact on how long I play a game for. It was either Ken Lavine or David Jaffe who said they play games just long enough to see what the experience is offering. I tend to approach games the same way.

Games, today especially, are so well designed that I rarely, if ever, feel i am obstructed from seeing what they have to offer from dying repeatedly.
 
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Played Warhammer: Space Marine and something in a dark area kept destroying me with a one-hit kill. It seemed like a little creature carrying a bomb that would kamikaze me.

Tried about 6 times and quit. Fortunately, it was a rental.
 
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I love fighting games but usually stay away from fighting randoms online because the salt levels will rise. I've been destroyed by a few people on here in Mortal Kombat and it's bearable against someone I know for some reason. But against random a******s I want to spike the controller.
 
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A difficult game that is pushing you to be better is fine. What I hate is the "hand of doom" when you just feel the game shift against you.

EA Sports games are like this. The moment you go up on the CPU, suddenly there's some quirky score against you.
 
Beyond rage inducing multiplayer moments (I'm getting better, I am close to just shutting down all emotion, ALL THE TIME.) I've only ever been annoyed to this degree once, it was years ago playing kotor 1.

I wasn't very good at the swoop races. I don't quite know how I managed to suck so much back then when now I can beat every time in 1 run, but alas. I couldn't beat the time of the final tier, an ithorian you can actually give money to, to help him pay for bike upgrades. You had to sit through a cutscene that played after every single race with poorly scripted and slow playing animations and sounds from the audience. After so many poorly timed boos from poorly rendered cantina-goers, I quit.

.....until the next day. Summer vacation, I had nothing else to do.

Other than that, nothing comes to mind. Which is odd cuz I'm sure I've wanted to slice someones throat in retaliation for a failed jump or something.
 
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Most games I can deal with, but I HATE it when games make it that you need to fight an overpowered story boss to a certain point to have a forced lose.

Die before the scripted loss? Start again!

That's just a load of s***. I'm looking at you FF7...

Also in FF7, I was an hour into fighting ultima weapon, and my dog tripped over my controller cord yanking the console...

That dog is dead now.
 
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Kerosene31 said:
A difficult game that is pushing you to be better is fine. What I hate is the "hand of doom" when you just feel the game shift against you.

EA Sports games are like this. The moment you go up on the CPU, suddenly there's some quirky score against you.
Click to expand...
Or racing games other than Forza, lol. That was the first racer I found that (because of Drivatars) it seems like the other cars are actually racing each other, and not just there to race me.

For me, the death issue depends on the game. In Ori, for instance, I can handle dieing over and over because the challenge is so compelling. The controls are so good, and my deaths are just due to my poor timing. There are a couple instances in that game- namely timed-limited sections that make me want to quit. Chase scenes where the correct direction to go is not clear make me want to rage.
 
I don't die in video games. Not in Super Mario Bros. and not in Halo or Uncharted. I'm like the wind baby. :wink:

But yeah, it happens. It's just a game. I'm not going to let a death or a few deaths ruin a game for me.
 
LOL TD. You made me think of my kids showing me the speed runs they were showing on Twitch this past weekend for charity. Watched a guy beat Metal Gear Solid 2 in like 30 minutes...absolutely amazing stuff. Back in the day I had some of the Ms. Pacman mazes memorized and could go right through the game without dying and eating all the ghosts every time.

You guys will see, I'm over 50 now and the old reflexes ain't what they used to be. I've learned to accept deaths, but with time running out on me I've gotten like Andy and after about 10 retries on the same scene I've had enough of just about any game.
 
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NES Ninja Gaiden. Game had lots of purposely placed enemies at the edge of the screen which combined with needing to jump to platforms = lots of deaths.
 
When I was 16, my sister Primrose Everdeen was chosen for the reaping. I volunteered, and a boy, Peta and I were sent into the arena to fight 22 other kids to the death.

The deaths I witnessed really effected me, especially one girl Rue.
 
Ugggg, I think I'm a glutton for punishment. I remember the final boss battle of Baldur's Gate (pc) that gave me a headache. I think in one night, my entire party would get wiped out like over 20 times.
The next day, I spent my day at work trying to figure out how to better approach the battle, to only go home and keep getting my butt kicked. I think it literally took me like 3-4 days to get through that madness. (In my defense, I was a DnD rules noob, so I probably didn't build up my party as well as I should have).
 
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Do not recall if any games I have quit only because dying, but there are some that I stopped playing and then forgotten about as new games did come along.
 
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Someone posted this on my FB feed today, too funny!
 
Just installed Mortal Kombat X on my PC and got flame spammed by Corrupted Shinnok. I gave up after 5 tries. Guess I have to get better in Practice or doing Tower Fights.

Still fun doing Brutalities lol.
 
1 death, preferably quick and painless...
 
Oblong said:
Ever had a game or two where your frustration got so high that you gave up on it entirely?

Personally I can look over my collection and see more than a couple titles that I never made it to the end because the difficulty ramped up too much for me to enjoy myself. I've even got to where I would rather experience the game itself than be overly challenged so I may play on the "easy" mode. Surely I'm not the only one out there?
Click to expand...
Ori and Batman are the latest on my list of "i fu%*ing give up.

thankfully the Ori dev has said that the upcoming definitive edition will be made easier when i asked about the water in the tree level, so there is hope i may get past that.

with Batman i've met an impasse at two points in the game.
the 1st was the final riddler mission where you go up a ramp turn left onto the wall and have to drive around an obstacle. of the numerous times i've tried. i always fall into the water because for me the driving is the worst i've ever had to endure in a game.

the 2nd is when trying to stop the Knight down in the underground and you have to get him to drive his drill machine through explosives. admittedly, i never gave it as many goes as i possibly could. but when a game becomes annoying and not fun. that is my time to give up.
 
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