Games with respawning, esp SP

[FoxEye]

Does anyone else strongly dislike this? Talking about coop and SP games, not Quake/CS where respawning is normal.

When I die in a SP game, I expect to have to re-do the level/section, without the game making it easier for me.

Since BioShock, a number of games just respawn you now, but also they let you just carry on where you left off, so enemies you killed stay dead.

Just bugs the hell out of me. I tend to reload even if the game allows respawning. Otherwise it feels cheap and I get no satisfaction at all from completing the level. I honestly wish you could turn respawning off in the options.

I guess this way of thinking is just old-fashioned now. Like not having health regeneration.

Thing is, if you can never fail, you can never succeed either. Modern games totally fail to realise this. Or maybe it's modern audiences.

The MP coop games where death isn't punished tend to be mindless to the extreme. Instead of fostering good teamplay, people just run around mindlessly zerging things, and saying "LOL, I blewd myself up, kekekeke". It's totally sad.

 

[HangTime]

No, doesn't bother me that much. In most games you can just reload saves instead if you don't like it. I did find it a bit lame in Prey however, basically dying just meant some stupid mini-game shooting ghosts to let you respawn, I remember one boss fight basically just consisted of me constantly rushing it, dealing as much damage as I could before dying, rinse and repeat until it was dead. Whereas in 'normal' games I'd have had to beat it in a single life.

You can turn it off in the latest patch of Bioshock I think anyway.

 

[arc@css]

It depends on the overall balance of the game (can work well if applied in lightly / or in moderation). In some titles, I find it hard to get 'past it', such as Dark Souls (yes, I appreciate having no respawns with Souls would affect the game drastically) / EYE Divine Cybermancy. On the other hand, with Stalker, it usually works very well. All in all, I think it depends on other variables / frequency / other aspects of the game being weak or strong, and so on.

 

[Raumarik]

Very game dependent, Mafia II I didn't mind it, crickey it was the least of the games problems, but other games I do prefer to start from scratch if I die, at least on that same mission or level.

 

[Rroff]

Depends a lot on the game but I will often just reload a previous save even in SP games with respawning.

Coop isn't much fun without respawning IMO (mostly coz its rare to actually get that level of teamwork even in games that require it). Stuff like Left 4 Dead do manage quite well in that regard through.

 

[FoxEye]

I did find it a bit lame in Prey however, <snip> I remember one boss fight basically just consisted of me constantly rushing it, dealing as much damage as I could before dying, rinse and repeat until it was dead.

And that's another good point. Without respawns, game developers have to make sure the game is somewhat balanced.

With respawns, you can make horrible encounters that are basically impossible, but let players 'beat' them by respawning infinitely.