Life Goes On: Done to Death
Score: 80% ESRB: Everyone 10+ Publisher: Infinite Monkeys Entertainment Ltd. Developer: Infinite Monkeys Entertainment Ltd. Media: Download/1 Players: 1 Genre: Puzzle/ Platformer (2D)
Graphics & Sound: A knight stands at the edge of a sizable crevasse. Between the precipice and his destination are several spikes, sharp and waiting. There's no turning back. The Cup of Life gleams seductively in the distance, beckoning, daring him to jump. So he musters up a bit of courage, backs up a bit, and takes a sprinting leap of faith. His faith and effort are rewarded by impalement. He is dead. A second later, another knight shows up. She sizes up the lay of the land and then casually uses her former comrade-in-arms as a stepping stone. This is but one of many morbid scenarios featured in Life Goes On: Done to Death, a puzzle platformer with a devilishly clever premise. Life Goes On: Done to Death might have some darkly comic subject matter, but it doesn't take the obvious route in terms of visuals. For a game that forces you to kill yourself in as many ways as this one does, it isn't a very violent one. Instead, it's cartoonish and bloodless. There are no flying limbs or geysers of blood accompanying each fatal encounter (intentional or otherwise). It's clearly played for laughs and therefore comes across as a family-friendly game. Load times are quick and painless, and the physics model works extremely well for all that it entails. The medieval aesthetic is used to great effect, with humorous banners and text accompanying the equally impressive level design. Less impressive is Life Goes On: Done to Death's sound design. It isn't bad by any stretch, but neither is it particularly good. The soundtrack is rife with trumpets and fanfares, but when you're actually navigating each deathtrap-laden environment, it's almost uncharacteristically subdued. Granted, it is a puzzle game, but perhaps that's simply what happens when gameplay clashes with theming. Sound effects fare better, with all the machinery and traps. Even better are the laments of your lemming-like heroes issuing from the DualShock 4's speaker.
Gameplay: Knights go after golden chalices. That's a known thing. Knights also die. That's also a known thing. Life Goes On: Done to Death is a puzzle platformer that has as its primary mechanic something that isn't only dreaded by gamers, but humanity as a whole. Yes, I'm talking about kicking the bucket, snuffing it, biting the dust, shuffling off the mortal coil, buying the farm. Dying. When I say it's a mechanic, I mean that you literally cannot progress in the game without it. It is a central pillar to the gameplay. You must die, and often, in order to succeed. It is not only the last enemy that shall be destroyed: it is the only one. Life Goes On is made up of a handful of themed worlds containing several small levels. In each level, there's a starting point, the Cup of Life at the end, a series of instant-kill traps littered about in between, and perhaps a few extras. These levels are not navigable as they are. You must exert a bit of influence over certain points of each one. Usually, that involves dying. Knights normally don't disappear upon death; their corpses generally become part of the environment at whatever point they breathed their last.
Difficulty: Obviously, dying isn't a terribly big deal in Life Goes On: Done to Death. That being said, it's a challenging game. It boasts a gentle learning curve, slowly but surely introducing the player to the mechanics of the puzzles, as well as the mechanics of death. Your first time through each level is a fairly predictable disaster; it's pure trial-and-error as you combine your powers of observation with prior knowledge and even a bit of blind experimentation. But it's definitely the kind of puzzle game that has you feeling like a mad genius when you succeed. If you want to hit the par scores in terms of time and deaths, Life Goes On can be tricky; while most levels are quick enough to memorize how each sequence is meant to be played out, its platforming isn't consistently precise enough to the point where every mistake feels like it's entirely your own fault.
Game Mechanics: Life Goes On: Done to Death is a puzzle platformer. The armored individuals who march bravely and stupidly to an invariably grisly doom might look imposing in their own ways, but they aren't fighters. They run, they jump, and they die. That's it. You won't be hacking and slashing your way through legions of enemy troops. Instead, you will be sacrificing them by the legion to make the way a bit less fraught with mortal peril. Some will become the aforementioned platforms amid large beds of spikes, while others will serve as dead weight to keep pressure plates activated. Some will be fired from a cannon into a pendulum platform for the sole purpose of helping the next knight move on to the next area and meet his/her own ignominious fate. There are lots and lots of ways to kill off your knights in service to finally getting that Cup of Life at the end, and they should be experienced spoiler-free. A fuzzy creature named Jeff is hidden in most levels. Feed one of your knights to him, and he'll reward you with a cosmetic item with a humorous description, but no practical value. He is the only incentive to thoroughly explore each level, as most of them are designed with the obstacles and puzzles at the forefront. And while the level design is extremely clever, it can become repetitive after too long. This, combined with the occasionally imprecise platforming, makes it a game that is best played in bursts of moderate length. Life Goes On: Done to Death mostly makes good on its novel approach to platforming, and despite a few shortcomings, deserves a place in the library of anyone looking for something unique and intelligent.
-FenixDown, GameVortex Communications AKA Jon Carlos
Related Links: Official Website of Life Goes On: Done to Death PlayStation Illustrated's Review of Lemmings on the PSP
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