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Back in 2014, I reviewed a game called Life Goes On. It was one of the best puzzle platformers I have ever played, and is one of the best indie games among the oversaturated market that is the indie scene. It had creative puzzle platforming, had a morbid sense of humor, and was fun to play. Recently, the developer sent me an email and asked if I wanted a review code to play the new revamped edition of Life Goes On, Life Goes On: Done to Death. It was going to be a free update for those who had it on Steam, and was coming out on PlayStation 4. They even said to me that my earlier review helped them with the improvements they made to the game. I found the overall email a very humbling experience, and I got the code for the PlayStation 4 version, which is the one I will be reviewing today. So, how do these improvements work out for the game? Well, let’s find out!
The simple plot of the game is that you are a king sending your unlimited number of knights toward the goal of finding the Holy Grail. Now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk about the gameplay.
Life Goes On: Done to Death is a puzzle-centric platformer where you must use the bodies of your endless supply of knights to solve puzzles in order to get to the end of each level. You will traverse your way through ice, fire, lava, gravity, and more to get the shiny cup at the end of each stage. Now then, what does Done to Death improve upon? Well, it adds a few new gimmicks, lengthens the levels and reorganizes them. The new gimmicks include the likes of a portal machine that will take you to a lit checkpoint, and you will have to watch out for zombie knights that will be crawling around the later levels. The game feels fresh with all these improvements and additions, and the puzzles are even more brain-twisting than the previous version. The game will still take you a few hours to beat, and maybe even more if you plan on 100%ing all that the game offers.
Graphically, the game looks solid with cartoony knights and plenty of colorful levels to traverse. The music is also catchy, as I found myself humming a few of the tunes by the talented Kevin Greenlee. It also got me in the mood to play CastleStorm again, but that’s for another time. Overall, the game ran smoothly, and I love the morbid sense of humor that gives the game its personality.
Now, what did I not like about the game? Well, the new variety of levels is nice, and there is definitely a lot to do with main and side levels, but I guess I wish there was still a boss you had to beat or something every five to ten levels. It could have even been just a boss fight where you launch knight after knight at a monster chasing you and making sure you hit its weak spots or something. Like, maybe a hungry monster is chasing after you, and you have to keep using the cannon to launch knights into the hungry monster, or you have to climb this giant by impaling the knights onto the spikes to wall-climb up the giant to get to the button on the top of its head to kill it. I also wish some of the newer gimmicks made were more available in the earlier levels, but at the same time, I understand why they kept them until later on.
In general though, Life Goes On: Done to Death is a fantastic puzzle game. It was fun back in 2014 when I played it, and it’s still fun now. You can get this game on your PC and PlayStation 4, and I highly recommend it. I know there is this kind of “controversy” revolving around if indie games get more of a free pass than big budget games, but for me, when it’s good, I’m going to say it’s good, and trust me, Life Goes On: Done to Death is one of the best.
This game gets a 9 out of 10
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