Death In Videogames, Should There Be More?

[SPOILER WARNING: The following article directly references major plot elements of Chrono Trigger, Half Life 2: Episode Two, Bioshock and Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.]

On the surface videogames are full of death. Whether it’s losing a life in Mario or slaying aliens in Halo almost every game has some element of death. But, how many games actually include meaningful deaths? Killing a character can be an extremely effective element of narrative yet few games seem to realise its potential.

In most cases, death is reserved for punishing the player, implementing limitations upon the gameplay and adding a level of challenge. Failure to meet the game’s requirements results in the death of the player but this simply means that the failed section of game has to be replayed until it’s completed successfully. In the end this has very little emotive impact, creating a sense of frustration at most.

Another common use of death is to remove enemies. As a regular feature of most games, they act as an obstacle for the player. Killing them allows the player to progress through the game but they rarely have a strong impact on the game’s narrative, or elicit an emotional response from the player (with the exception of some ‘˜boss’ characters).

Whilst these types of death are commonplace, ‘˜real’ death is rarely featured. There are few examples of games where characters are permanently removed from the storyline, and the majority of the instances I could think of were from RPGs. The fact that RPGs tend to focus more on story than other games though is likely to have impacted on the number of deaths found within the genre.

For RPGs, character deaths can be dated back to 1989 with Phantasy Star II. Nei’s death within the game is possibly the earliest example of a playable character being permanently removed from a game. However, one of the most effective character deaths I have experienced from an RPG is Crono’s from Chrono Trigger.

For me, the death of Crono not only radically altered the plot of the game but also evoked a strong emotional response. Part of this can be linked to the fact that Crono is the character that you have constantly had control of from the start of the game, he can’t be moved from the head of the party and is the overall protagonist. To suddenly have him completely removed from the game comes as a great shock and from a practical viewpoint, you have lost a strong character from battle along with all his equipment.

Although the game does provide the opportunity to resurrect Crono, it is more of a side quest and it is possible to beat the game without reviving him. By allowing the player freedom to decide whether or not Crono should return to the party, it allows you to become much more involved with the game’s story. Without Crono’s death, Chrono Trigger would be simply another generic JRPG. Having him killed results in a less linear gameplay experience for the remainder of the game, ultimately giving the player more freedom of choice and control over the ending.

Although character deaths are more easily identifiable within the RPG genre (with other notable cases found in Final Fantasy VII, most strategy RPGs and, more recently, Mass Effect) effective character deaths are present in other genres. Whilst it is arguably easier to implement character death into RPGs, thanks to the player’s access to a number of characters and the genre’s focus on story, there are cases of emotive deaths elsewhere.

For example, the end of Half Life 2: Episode Two uses the death of a character to completely change the tone of the game. After beating the game you are left with a relieved and jubilant mood until just before the credits begin. As Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance are about to leave they are ambushed and immobilised along with Alyx’s father Eli Vance.

As the scene ends, Eli is killed but Alyx and Gordon are rescued. However, by this point the sense of achievement and relief felt after completing the final mission are totally replaced by shock and outrage. Considering that Eli only appears for short periods throughout the game, I believe that this somehow intensified the reaction to his death. Although he can be considered a main character, his sporadic involvement with the game’s main narrative, and distance from most combat, does not make him an obvious candidate to be killed. It is this perceived invulnerability and the presumption of safety and a ‘˜happy ending’ that make his death so effective. I find it unlikely that people could have predicted his death, and without it, HL2E2′s ending would ultimately have been much more generic and forgettable than it actually was.

Another FPS to include the effective death of a character was Bioshock with Andrew Ryan. Unlike most deaths I have mentioned, Andrew Ryan is portrayed as the enemy. It also differs in that he orders you, the player, to kill him, effectively committing suicide. In doing so a major part of Bioshock’s plot is revealed. The revelations gained from killing Ryan are greatly intensified through his death, leaving the player feeling used and helpless. Although it would have been possible to convey these elements of the plot without murdering Ryan, by ensuring that the player is responsible for his death, the information that is revealed has a deeper emotional impact as well as grounding it within the reality of the game.

As these games have shown, character death can have a vast impact within the realms of videogame narrative. Some of my most memorable moments of gaming have resulted out of these deaths but as a narrative device, death is still somewhat unused in games. For the death to actually have an impact though, a game needs to have a strong focus on story, as shown by the higher number of deaths in the RPG genre. Obviously, this means that any genre could potentially have a meaningful death providing that the story was strong enough. For example, death in a Zelda game could be very interesting. Given the slightly darker nature of Twilight Princess, there were plenty of opportunities for a character to be removed from the game. Killing Ilia, rather than kidnapping her for instance, would have had a much greater emotional impact, especially if it remained at the same point in the game’s plot.

With the current lack of ‘˜real’ deaths in games when a character is killed it is generally unexpected and shocking. I only hope that as videogame narrative continues to evolve that death does not become yet another cliché.