GamesRadar writes: "You can start believing. It’s true. Oh God, it’s true. XCOM (known as UFO: Enemy Unknown in the UK), the 1994 sci-fi strategy/action/roleplaying hybrid that is often considered the PC’s finest hour, is back. But it’s no longer a turn-based squad game set in the near future (and no longer PC-only). You don’t fly airplanes, you don’t seek out new threats underwater. Nor do you order 12 little pixellated men into the dark recesses of a crashed alien spaceship. No".
Dying or losing in video games is part and parcel of the experience and accepted as an occupational hazard. But some games take it way too far.
Lizard Lounge's Trevor Coelho writes:
"You’d be hard pressed to find an X-COM soldier more badass than Frida ‘Nitro’ Weber. On Day 1, after her first mission against Advent, she decided she wanted to be a grenadier. She thought of herself as a creator of sorts.
Yep, she really liked to make things. Like holes in walls – she loved to make those. Dead Advent? She enjoyed making them, too. She liked making dust and pulp, essentially, from things that were once solid and properly formed. It was her calling, she said."
Gamerant
Permadeath gaming has seen a huge resurgence over recent years. Giving players a single life or character with which to complete the game, games with permanent death as a mechanic are notoriously difficult, tasking players with keeping upmost concentration throughout their playthrough. More often than not, attempts may end in tears – but that won’t stop players from trying their hand once more.
At least they don't try to render the predecessors obsolete.