Re. death: in the context of a complex, adult game (not Resident Evil 4 or Metal Gear Solid, even tho I love 'em both
), I think it's a really silly to either A) get rid of death, like KotOR; or B) turn reloading into a calculated meta-gaming process like RE (finding the typewriter ribbons, as mentioned above). I'm perfectly fine with the standard die/reload system, because it leaves abuse purely in the player's hands; I can choose to be a dumbass munchkin or a dedicated role-player. There are real consequences to failure, even if I'm able to circumvent them.
It also leaves meta-gaming outside of the game, which is important.
Look at it this way: there are no consequences
anywhere, in
any game, that can't be circumvented simply by reloading, or changing your character, or starting over, or whatnot. We're talking about computer games, for chrissakes; they're an abstraction of reality (or alternate reality) existing entirely in software which can even be turned off or deleted.
In this discussion about death, the proper question that Mr. Gaider and others should be asking isn't "Aren't players just going to reload?" Rather, the two important questions in my view are
1. "How do we make combat sophisticated and fun and tense, and let death be a consequence of poor decisions rather than bum luck?"
2. "What does it say about our gameworld if we get rid of death as a consequence,
even if it can be circumvented by the player reloading?"
The gameworld should be consistent and logical.
Anything the player does outside of the game is just that - outside of the game. And that includes reloading; making the gameworld stupid is not a solution. The die/reload system only needs to be changed if you think that players need to have less freedom, or that the integrity of the gameworld matters less than the convenience of the players - and I disagree with both of those suggestions.
Incidentally, by far my favorite implementation of death is in ToEE, faithfully implementing D&D's "death's door" rule. I can't count how many times my (point-buy, non-powergamed) characters fell below 0 HP, and that
dramatically increased the tension of some battles for me (like the moathouse). Sure, I reloaded if characters actually died, but I only had to reload a few times in the entire game - whereas I had plenty of opportunity to bandage a dying character at -8 or -9 HP. That was awesome, and I've never played another game that offered that kind of experience.
