Life Goes On: Done to Death

Life Goes On for is a platformer game with logic elements for PC and PS4. The title is supersaturated with dark humor and death being the main means of achieving a goal. It was developed by Infinite Monkeys, a debuting Canadian studio. The game’s prototype was first developed for Global Game Jam 2012. The initial commercial version, simply entitled Life Goes On, came out for PC in April 2014. Slightly over a year later, an enhanced edition called Life Goes On: Done to Death launched both on PC and PlayStation 4.

Plot

The plot of Life Goes On revolves around a king whose desire is to live forever. This is why he sends his loyal knights to seek the mythical Cup of Life which makes his owner immortal. The problem is that the path requires boundless sacrifices, including life.

Mechanics

While playing, we assume control over subsequent knights whose task is to wade through dozens of varied levels that are set in four different worlds: mines, mountains, a castle, and ruins, and are increasingly difficult. In the initial version, there were just 30 of them but the Done to Death edition expands the number to 65. The path to the Cup that awaits at the end of each level is filled with various obstacles, starting from trapping pits and chasms to stream of fire and gusts of icy air that turn adventurers into an ice cube. We will also have to face a powerful boss.

Alas, our knights have little capabilities in manipulating environment, and the only way to overcome many traps is to sacrifice one or several warriors so that the remaining ones may pass. To do so, we can, for example, stick a knight on protruding spikes to create a safe passage or freeze him to climb higher over him. We can also shoot him from a cannon into a button placed in an inaccessible place. In the game, there is no time limit and so the number of knights is infinite, which allows us to throw their lives away as much as we want to. However, the developers though of some challenges involving beating a level as fast as possible or killing as few knights as we can.

Despite quite the gruesome mechanics that forces players to sacrifice human lives, every knight has his own name and can acquire new elements of clothing with our progress, letting us personalize him.

Technical aspects

Life Goes On for PC and PS4 is another example of using two-dimensional backgrounds and three-dimensional character and environment models, which is a solution commonly seen in modern platformer productions. The developers at Infinite Monkeys put a significant emphasis on humorous aspects. The relaxed atmosphere of the title goes hand in hand with colorful, almost fabulous graphics.

Last updated on 13 June 2016