If life was a game what would you give it out of 10?
If life was a game what would you give it out of 10?

A reader imagines how life itself would be reviewed if it was a video games, as he considers its high price tag and variable difficulty.

Life: The Game is an MMO that has been in development from between 6,000 and 4.5 billion years, depending on who you ask. The publisher is notably coy about this so didn’t push it.

The first thing that you notice about this game is the tutorial: it’s very long, mandatory, and the cut scenes are unskipable. When I say long, I’m talking at least 16 years, with additional DLC to add on a further two years, or a seasons pass for a further three to five years. Now I can’t grumble about the initial DLC as it’s free, and lets you take what you’ve learnt from the previous 16 years and really hone your skills. Or just run around the map for another two years messing about, up to you.

The seasons pass on the other hand, cannot be described as value for money. Yes, this can be some of the most interesting and rewarding parts of the title (before you get into the game ‘proper’), that introduces you to some colourful non-player characters, interesting interactions, and multiple quest lines. But at £30,000 a pop (at least), you could be paying for this even when the end credits roll.

The main game is really something to behold though, and without sounding clichéd (but I will), you really do get out of it what you’re prepared to put in. The role you play, how you go about your business, the quests you take on or decline, is totally up to you.

On my play through (which is still going on by the way), I’ve tried to mix it up a bit with two or three main plot branches to explore, the odd collectable as and when I find them, plus everyday fetch quests. Which can be dull, and repetitive, but in the in-game economy seems to be built around such a way of playing. But still not as grindy as Destiny.

As this is an MMO, the game-world is full of other gamers to interact with, either on a casual ad hoc basis or a more formal agreement. There are established squads and factions in the game – up to you whether you want to join them or go it alone. There are pros and cons to both, and the game gives you plenty of time and scope to try different ways of interacting with the world.

Furthermore, the game is forgiving in that you can make horrendous mistakes without it showing you the game over screen (which, ironically, you’ll never see), so experimentation is the order of the day. The usual role-playing methodology is used, such as hit points, health, charisma, and damage.

There’s an interesting morality system in the game, but to be honest it changes all the time and not everyone adheres to it. I think The Developer needs to work on this, and patches are being released all the time (check your equipment though, different patches come from various sources which can overlap or even destroy the previous incarnation).

The artificial intelligence at times is amazing, but every now and again someone does something so incomprehensible that you think there must be a bug. You’d have thought 4.5 billion/6,000 years of QA would have sorted that out, but apparently not.

One thing to note is that this game works on the permadeath premise, once you’re dead, you’re dead.

To be fair to The Developer, she’s made the options as flexible as possible; for instance the difficulty level can be changed on the fly. But be warned, the lower difficulty levels can be a bit boring and lack challenge. Difficulty is dynamic within the game also, outside of the player’s control, which throws unexpected events at the player at little or short notice.

If you like your games methodical and risk free, this isn’t probably the title for you. I’ve read on 4Chan that there’s a hidden element to the game whereby if you choose certain classes of character you can play on after death, but I think that’s just a rumour.

All in all, I can only recommend this game; there are times when it’s a monotonous slog, but the results make it worth it. Sometimes. As a bonus, it can be played on any equipment, so you don’t need the latest kit to get the most out of it.

I’ve not given this a score as it’s a review in progress.

By reader TheTruthSoul (PSN ID)

The reader’s feature does not necessary represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.

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