Does Perma Death make a game scarier?

[DavidS]

I think it really comes down to the game itself and how Death can even be a creatively used mechanic. Take Prey for instance, where you go to the afterlife and kill souls to get reborn...maybe not the best solution though, but how about Demon Souls? Continually dying changed the game and also fit in the paralell universe setting they also have in the sequel. Dying becomes an integral part of the game and yet you still are afraid of it because of the Bonfire/Nexus hub loading wich sets you back quite a bit and leaves you without any souls/xp. But since it relies much more on your actual skills to dodge and block than on some arbitrary numbers it always gives you the feeling that you have learned something.

That said, perma Death can work in a games favor, especially when it is looking to be more of a simulation like DayZ. Dying was horrible because surviving was the main incentive. It has no story except the ones you "play" yourself. In a strongly story driven setting this will only lead to frustration though. After all you are forced to go through everything again, wich pulls you out of the world and makes the game feel more like work than entertainment.

[Diz]

Does perma death make a game scarier for me?

Yes and no.

I think Frictional Games did the right choices with Amnesia. The way it throws you right back there, perhaps in a slightly different part of the area and a creature roaming elsewhere, it did feel randomized and scary, being thrown right back into the creepy atmosphere or terrifying situation after only a few seconds breathing room. The game relieves you of your thoughts on mechanics and saves, telling you to just focus on immersion. If you think or wonder if the game is going to be over once you die, I think that is going to have its effect on immersion and atmosphere. In Amnesia, it feels more like cheating death and coming to your senses elsewhere than it does "load back to previous area" or "try again", despite you can see yourself falling coldly to the ground.

Amnesia: Justine hints in the beginning that you will only have a single shot at the game, and after experiencing the main storymode, in addition to the DLC being really short, I believe that perma death fits really well. The player may be more aware of the mechanics of the game, yet he must be much more careful and fear for his life more than ever. I felt quite immersed in Justine, knowing that I would only have one life. While I was familiar with most of the mechanics, I knew I had to be much more careful if I wanted to beat the game, it sucked me in.

This is one of the very few cases where I enjoy the implementation of perma death.

[JawlessWarrior]

Perma death works sometimes. Like others have said, Justine works because it is short enough, and if you do die or need to quit, the puzzles are easy enough to redo and you'll be back to where you were fairly quickly.

For a full game, no. Not at all. The setup would have to be similar to Justine - you can't punish players too much for dying, so the game would have to be done in a way that allows you to go quickly through the puzzles such as in Justine. For a full length game, this would severely hurt replay value. I can go back and enjoy TDD. Justine was more of a one time thing. And to me, the idea of perma death is just frustrating. It doesn't make me more afraid of the monsters, it just makes me crawl through the game incredibly slowly, basically ensuring I don't make any mistakes and get an unexpected scare.

[phatdoggi]

No. Not really.

Not scary per se, but more heart pounding. The adrenaline gets pumpin' because you go MLG trying not to die.

[Ossie]

Nope, just more annoying and frustrating. I won't play games that have permadeath as I know I'll end up raging and hating the game.

[Hardarm]

Who said that you'd want to restart once again? Game is an experience, and in permadeath you experience it once. You die? you died. It'd be too annoying and boring to restart again

[Sarcophagus]

it would be more realistic so yea

[Artyom]

Perma death works sometimes. Like others have said, Justine works because it is short enough, and if you do die or need to quit, the puzzles are easy enough to redo and you'll be back to where you were fairly quickly.

For a full game, no. Not at all. The setup would have to be similar to Justine - you can't punish players too much for dying, so the game would have to be done in a way that allows you to go quickly through the puzzles such as in Justine. For a full length game, this would severely hurt replay value. I can go back and enjoy TDD. Justine was more of a one time thing. And to me, the idea of perma death is just frustrating. It doesn't make me more afraid of the monsters, it just makes me crawl through the game incredibly slowly, basically ensuring I don't make any mistakes and get an unexpected scare.

Are you saying you didn't crawl through TDD?!?
I spent my entire TDD experience crawling against the walls making sure no monsters were trying to sneak up on me... (I didn't die a single time [proud])

Although now whenever I encounter a monster I just sidestrafe my way past him (this is extremely difficult with the justine monsters though)

Anyhow I like permadeath, but I think there should be a few checkpoints to make sure the player doesnt't have to redo everything.

[Gharren]

For a short add-on just as Justine, perma death is perfectly fine. But on longer games it would just be plain annoying.

[JawlessWarrior]

Are you saying you didn't crawl through TDD?!?
I spent my entire TDD experience crawling against the walls making sure no monsters were trying to sneak up on me... (I didn't die a single time [proud])

Although now whenever I encounter a monster I just sidestrafe my way past him (this is extremely difficult with the justine monsters though)

Anyhow I like permadeath, but I think there should be a few checkpoints to make sure the player doesnt't have to redo everything.

I didn't sprint the whole thing by any means, but I didn't crawl either. The only place I used crouch the entire time was in the choir and after I saw my 3rd monster in the prison. The only time I died was in the sewers when I panicked and didn't open a door all the way before trying to run through it. (And hitting myself repeatedly with a brick trying to do the bridge puzzle in the [cistern?].)

Wouldn't checkpoints defeat the purpose of perma-death? I don't think it is permanent if there are checkpoints. TDD's death system was too easy though. We do need something a tad harder, but I don't think perma-death is it.