Life Goes On: Done to Death Review

<p>Prepare to die&period; A lot&period; On purpose&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Infinite Monkeys Entertainment initially released <em>Life Goes On<&sol;em> in April of 2014 on Steam after developing the game&&num;8217&semi;s concept at a 2012 Global Game Jam&period; Now&comma; <em>Life Goes On&colon; Done to Death<&sol;em> has come to PS4 and PC with improved and expanded features&period; Unless you&&num;8217&semi;re brand new to the magical world of video games&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ve probably come across a game similar to <em>Life Goes On&colon; Done to Death<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; A small-level puzzle platformer with some sort of hook or novelty factor&period; Start at one point of the level and figure out how to get to the door or the flag or the big green tube at the end&period; Straightforward enough&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"line-height&colon; 1&period;6em&semi;">But here&&num;8217&semi;s the potential problem with the puzzle platformer&colon; <&sol;span><span style&equals;"line-height&colon; 1&period;6em&semi;">In 2016&comma; the indie game development scene is booming&period; Engines such as Unity&comma; Game Maker&comma; and even Unreal Engine 4 have made video game development an exponentially more accessible venture than ever before&comma; and this is evident in the sheer number of indie games released each month&period; Steam is a veritable black hole of short&comma; cheap&comma; and often shallow indie games&period; The consoles continue to limit the number of indie games that make it to their players&&num;8217&semi; digital stores&comma; though the numbers are increasing&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;106435" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-106435" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-106435 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;05&sol;03172709&sol;SkyworldCapture&period;png" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-106435" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Life Goes On&colon; Done to Death<&sol;em>&comma; Infinite Monkeys Entertainment&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>So how does a game like <em>Life Goes On&colon; Done to Death<&sol;em> differentiate itself from the steady stream of indie games&comma; many of which are designed with a similar puzzle platformer heritage in mind&quest; The hook&period; <em>Life Goes On<&sol;em> is built around one puzzle-solving concept&colon; kill your own player characters to get to the cup&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Allow me to explain&comma; though there&&num;8217&semi;s not much of a story here&period; A king has decided that death sounds pretty crappy&comma; so he enlists an endless supply of knights to help him find the Cup of Life&period; The player takes control of one knight at a time&comma; moving across small platforming levels to reach the cup at the end of the level&comma; though none of these are THE cup&period; If something blocks your way and can only be moved by holding down a switch&comma; why not sacrifice yourself by jumping into a large bladesaw so that the dead body falls on the switch&quest; Then you can take control of another faceless knight and make your way to your prize&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>And that&&num;8217&semi;s the game in a nutshell&period; Need to cross a bed of spikes&quest; Just throw a bunch of knights on it and cross over their dead bodies&period; Need to cross a seesaw-like bridge&quest; Attach a dead body to the body of it to weigh it down&period; Can&&num;8217&semi;t quite reach a ledge&quest; Climb on top of a pile of dead bodies to get that extra height&excl; It&&num;8217&semi;s a creepy&comma; almost sadistic concept&comma; and it&&num;8217&semi;s only made worse by the tiny cries of pain and suffering that come out of your PS4 controller&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;106436" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-106436" style&equals;"width&colon; 1259px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-106436 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;05&sol;03172642&sol;Lava&lowbar;Jump&period;png" width&equals;"1259" height&equals;"708" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-106436" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Life Goes On&colon; Done to Death<&sol;em>&comma; Infinite Monkeys Entertainment&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The game goes a long way in making sure the experience is a jovial one&comma; however&period; The art design is cute and accessible&comma; if a bit underwhelming&period; The sound design and music are light-hearted&comma; though they lack some variation&period; The highlight of the game is the sweet and silly sense of humor and attitude that the game exudes&period; All of the faceless knights are given funny names before they&&num;8217&semi;re crossed off of a scroll upon their deaths&comma; and each &&num;8220&semi;victory&&num;8221&semi; screen features some funny&comma; self-aware text&comma; such as &&num;8220&semi;Victory&excl; Like a participation trophy&comma; but shinier&excl;&&num;8221&semi;&period; Each level even plays host to a tiny gray blob with a face named Jeff who wants to eat you&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>So it&&num;8217&semi;s a cute game with a sadistic core concept&comma; but how&&num;8217&semi;s the actual gameplay&sol;level design&quest; The answer is&&num;8230&semi;it&&num;8217&semi;s alright&period; Many of these small-level puzzle platformers start off with poor&comma; repetitive level design and end up even worse&period; <em>Life Goes On&colon; Done to Death<&sol;em> manages to keep things fresh longer than its contemporaries&comma; varying up levels with novelties such as cannons&comma; ice cubes&comma; lava&comma; and even turning your dead knights into zombies to solve puzzles&period; None of the puzzles are particularly challenging&comma; though the game will probably succeed at scratching a puzzle itch&comma; if you need a fix&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;106438" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-106438" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-106438 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;05&sol;03172616&sol;Towers&period;png" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-106438" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Life Goes On&colon; Done to Death<&sol;em>&comma; Infinite Monkeys Entertainment&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Completing certain challenges &lpar;such as finishing levels within a time limit or killing a limited number of knights&rpar; will allow you to unlock various weapons and brightly colored hats for your knights&period; These are cute and come with comical descriptions&comma; but they&&num;8217&semi;re virtually worthless in regards to gameplay&period; At most&comma; they add a flash of color to the level&comma; though the character will rarely last long enough to appreciate it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This game may not reinvent the wheel when it comes to the puzzle platformer genre&comma; but <em>Life Goes On&colon; Done to Death<&sol;em> is better than a majority of the genre&&num;8217&semi;s indie releases&period; The sadistic concept still bothers me on some level&comma; but the developers have worked to make the game comical and endearing all the same&comma; and the game mixes things up to keep gameplay somewhat fresh&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s not a must-own&comma; but if you&&num;8217&semi;re looking for a puzzle and a laugh&comma; you can definitely do worse than spending your time dying for the king&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>A PS4 review code was provided by Infinite Monkeys Entertainment Ltd&period; for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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