Edge of Mordor; Live, die, repeat.

I don’t have any deep analytical insight or anything. Just some observations on dying.

In video games you usually have more than one life. Or some way of you to not be eliminated from playing. You do something, you fail and die. Then you lose a life and repeat the process.

We’re used to dying in video games. Mario have always had more than 1 life even before his name was Mario.

In Middle-Earth – Shadow of Mordor (SoM) you are already dead.

You play as Talion a dead ranger bound to the spirit of a long dead elf. Talion will not be able to die and pass on before this bond is broken.

In the game that means when you die you are teleported to one of your unlocked spawn point (some elven ghost towers). Some in game time passes and you’re free to return to whatever goal you were pursuing.

You in effect have infinite lives and all of them “counts” and all happened to the same Talion in the same world.

The mechanic of checkpoints and extra lives are linked to the narrative.

SoM Isn’t the first game to do this of course. Connecting dying as a mechanic and a part of the story. In Prince of Persia – sands of time (SoT). You don’t die. If you fail something that would kill you, time is reversed to a checkpoint. Both gameplay wise and story wise.  So it never happened and that is justified in the story.

In Bioshock infinite. The Booker that dies is just one of infinite Bookers from one of the infinite alternative universes. That is way more meta and abstract than SoT and SoM but you get the point.

I think game developers do this to keep the players immersed in the game as much as possible. Loading screens and menus disrupts the flow of the game. And in more story driven games the developers wants the player to feel part of the story. In books and movies the protagonist doesn't usually die and come back multiple times.

With no real basis in research I think that’s why checkpoints and autosaves is more common than the extra lives approach of classics like Mario and Pac-man.

But sometimes linking mechanics and narrative this closely can have unintended consequences. They can grind together and work against each other. That’s going to take you out of the game instead of immerse you.

Here is an example and the reason I’m writing this.

I’m in a cave in Mordor running towards the exit being chased by ghouls. I have to get out before the cave collapses and kills me. I’ve had to repeat this process a couple of times because I failed. Now Talion burst from the cave breathing hard and looks back, relieved.

I am too.

But wait a minute.

Why is he relieved? Well it’s probably scary and very uncomfortable to be crushed by rocks. But Talion is a ghost so there is no reason for him to care. Dying is annoying and takes time out of a busy ork killing schedule but not much else.

Escaping the cave would be easier by dying and being spirited away. But the game doesn’t allow that suddenly.

So in SoM there is a couple of story mission where the mechanics change.

I have been condition by the game to lose and die in a certain way. And actually linked it to the narrative. So the mechanics and narrative supports each other.

But sometimes they change the rules and defy their own logic.

When you notice it can bring you out of the game. That is not what was intended.

ludography:

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor ; Monolith. 2014

BioShock Infinite ; Irrational Games 2013

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time ; Ubisoft Montreal 2003