Permadeath, where once your character dies in the game they can't be brought back, is nothing new. You just make a new character and move on with your life.
But perma-permadeath? That's something else entirely, and it's the the core concept behind an upcoming first person shooter currently on Steam Greenlight appropriately titeld One Life. Die even once in this game, and you'll be locked out of it forever.
"If you die in this game, you can never play again," says the game's Steam page. "Every move you make can be your last one. Enemy bullet, Infected's bite, starvation, friend's betrayal - danger lurks around every corner. Are you ready to face the most intense and authentic experience in your life?"
Yes, if you buy this game and die in the first 10 minutes, you've just thrown your money down the toilet, unable to ever play again. It's a multiplayer survival shooter not so different from the multiplayer zombie survival game Day Z, aside from the whole "lock your Steam account out of the game" deal. Players can team up to gather supplies and fight off the infected, but just as in other survival titles, the real danger is other players.
Since players can loot anything and everything off the corpses of others, player vs. player combat will be an inevitability. Why try to gather all those supplies yourself when you can simply kill somebody and take theirs?
But not all players are interested in loot. Some just like to watch others squirm. You'll be able to imprison and even degrade prisoners (an early trailer for the game shows one player peeing on another). Since the game features perma-permadeath, players who want to avoid losing access to their game might be willing to do or endure just about anything, even being humiliated by another player and kept in cage. Customizable trucks will serve as mobile bases for players and come complete with crafting tools.
It all sounds...interesting. The folks over at Kotaku talked with some of the developers, who say that even though they won't be able to prevent players from making new Steam accounts and buying the game again in order to play once they've died, starting over won't be easy.
"Creating another account won't be the easiest thing as the player will feel the loss of the character and the ability to play One Life again on the emotional level," the developer says.
Since the game isn't officially available to purchase on Steam yet, it will be fascinating to see how many people decide to purchase the game knowing they may lose access to it a mere five minutes after starting the game. You can currently pre-order the game for $9.99 through the official One Life site. Steam's refund policy states a game can be returned before a player spends two hours with it. If that stays the same, it's probably safe to assume more than a few players of One Life will be asking for their money back.
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