Life Goes On – A lesson in sacrifice

Life Goes On is an inventive and hilariously gruesome puzzle game that is disturbingly enjoyable. I saw it at PAX Prime 2013 and have been salivating for its release ever since. Infinite Monkeys have done a superb job getting it together and making what is possibly one of the best puzzle games I’ve played in years. It’s not a particularly nuanced game or terribly deep in terms of plot, but it does a very good job of making a game full of necessary sacrifices for the greater good. (All together now) The greater good…..

So the basic premise of Life Goes On is that you play a knight that really wants to get to a golden chalice. If you’re the first knight, it ain’t happening. Go ahead and try, but success in this game is built on the mountain of corpses that have come before. You literally use the bodies of less fortunate knights as stepping stones and ladders to help you reach your goal. Knights get impaled, frozen, burned, sawed, and fired out of cannons for the sake of getting the next guy one step closer to that sweet floating cup.

Sometimes your purpose in life is to serve as a stepping stone for others.

My favorite part of the whole setup is that each knight gets his own name. It’s right there on screen while I pilot my hapless hero toward his doom. And then it gets scratched off of the scroll and the next name gets added. Did I mention that they scream as they die? They do. I shouldn’t enjoy it as much as I do, but it’s nonetheless a fun and rewarding way to get through a game. Even more fun is trying to find the furry little guy that will eat a knight in every level. Achievements… I must have them.

Okay, so this is where I would normally say something negative about the game and try to appear “balanced” in my reviews, but fuck it! I don’t dislike anything about Life Goes On. If you don’t care for problem solving, it probably won’t be your jam. If, however, you like figuring out how to get from point A to point B in inventive and morbid ways, you’re gonna have several hours worth of fun going through the more than 50 deathtrap filled levels of craziness.

If you’re curious about what this magic piece of digital bliss is like, you can head over to Steam or the official website and grab the demo and pre-order. It’s absolutely worthwhile, though they still won’t tell you why in the world each knight has a sword. If you’re fully convinced and can be patient (what’s wrong with you?) the full version of Life Goes On will be available for Mac, PC, and Linux on April 17th for $12.99. To borrow from the official website, “[i]n Life Goes On, death is not a setback—it is the only means to success.”