Release Date: 18/04/2014
Played On: Win
Available On: Lin / Mac / PS4 / Win
Time Played: 5h 24m
Progress: Completed all campaign levels
Developer: Infinite Monkeys Entertainment Ltd
Publisher: Infinite Monkeys Entertainment Ltd
There aren't many genres that invoke a noticeable cringe from me when they're mentioned, but "puzzle platformer" sits among the very top of the list. Even without the puzzles, I'm averse to platforming a lot of the time, despite the occasional exception to the rule.
Fortunately for me, Life Goes On is a pretty well-known puzzle platformer for good reason. Thankfully it's super cool and not a complete trash fire of unnecessary platforming and moon-logic puzzles. It even uses physics in its puzzling, which we all know can be infuriating when you launch an object at a target and it floats away because when physics are broken, they're bloody unplayable.
The main conceit about Life Goes On is that you play as a series of knights who are questing through increasingly hazardous maps to defeat evil and collect goblets or something like that. Every map is littered with logic puzzles that usually require knights to be sacrificed for the greater good.
One simple example to explain this is a pit of spikes in front of you, but you can't jump far enough to avoid falling in. Consequently you launch your knight in the air and they get impaled on the spikes and die, but their body remains where it landed. Along comes another knight, who can now jump onto the dead body in the pit, then to the other side.
Sound straight forward? Good.
Now extrapolate this simple mechanic to all of its permeations, and you'll start to see where Life Goes On is headed. By the end of the game you are launching corpses at buttons and through portals. There are electrical conduits that kill knights caught within, but require knights to conduct electricity and open the path ahead. Moving platforms transport dead bodies around and deposit them on switches, or stick them to walls to create ladders. You can see where this is going…
The gimmick of: kill yourself multiple times to get through the puzzles; is more than a throw away and informs all of the puzzle solving throughout the game. It's nice that there was enough meat on this mechanic's bones that it's able to be extrapolated on in interesting and unexpected ways. There's not a lot else going on in Life Goes On, so it's nice that the central mechanic is enough to lean on.
Don't get me wrong though, the puzzles themselves are head-scratching enough to be interesting as well. I find that puzzle games either click with me and are easy, or I just have no idea how to progress and get stuck early on. However the logic used in Life Goes On means that each level has an optimal way to get through it, but can sometimes be brute forced with some creative thinking.
Especially in earlier levels with only a few options, it can be fun to experiment and see if there's another way to finish the level. One had tasked me with getting a corpse onto a switch through a system of spikes and conveyor belts to transport it to the correct location. When I realised I could just pile up bodies so they formed a mountain that filled the entire map (including the switch I needed to press), it made me smile a bit old smile.
Later levels get a bit more linear as they often require a complex sequence of events to take place in order to make it to the goal. While these levels have less wiggle room and creative potential, they really challenge your logic as you plan out what will happen with every move you make. I spent a lot of time with trial and error as I figured each section of each level out, then mapped it out in my mind to execute everything in order.
The increase in strict difficulty from the beginning of the game (jumping a pit) to the end (spending ages figuring out a complex multi-step process) was very gratifying and made me feel a bit smart, which is quite the achievement. Although, this might mean that Life Goes On is way too easy, but I like to think that I rose to the occasion instead.
Along the way there are multiple objectives in each level that can change your focus, as is the way with this sort of game. There are hidden monster dudes that are difficult to get to, but tick a box is you manage to find them and be eaten. Plus there are goals for finishing within certain times and by sacrificing as few knights as possible. I'm not particularly interested in replaying puzzles for these reasons, but I always think it's nice that they're there to add a little bit of challenge and replay for those that dig that sort of thing.
Perhaps one the coolest things about Life Goes On is that it doesn't take itself seriously at all and maintains a joyful atmosphere of play throughout.
The knights are goofy looking and animated in a rag-doll kind of way that makes traversing dastardly hazards comical. Their sound effects when they die are quick peeps of exclamation, creating a cacophony of hilarious yells and yelps when you kill one after the other in quick succession. What's more, as you continue through the game, you unlock different helmets and weapons for the knights to wear and carry. It's a silly little detail, but it's fun to see what random look each knight will have when they spawn into the world.
Finally the levels themselves are very nicely designed and I never found myself confused between background and foreground. The only confusing elements I ran into were the puzzles themselves, which is an accomplishment in itself as I seem to constantly get muddled in games like this due to poor level design. Thankfully though, that's not the case here and everything is smooth and accessible, leaving the puzzles themselves to be the only stumbling block.
I've mentioned logic a few times already, which is on purpose as the puzzles in Life Goes On often require a bit of lateral thinking to solve. Believe me, it's a compliment as there aren't any inconsistencies to how elements in the game work. Platforms move as you'd expect, launch pads launch predictably, even zombies are confined to predictable motions.
This is essential in a puzzle game that uses physical interactions as part of its puzzle system, as it means that there's an understandable language to learn and interpret. Toward the end of the game, I found myself staring at maps without moving for a while as I mentally figured out the path to take. It's only possible because the maps have predictable and logical elements that always work together in the same way. Fortunately, even among all this predictable logic, the creative combinations of these elements is what makes each level interesting and a challenge to overcome.
By now you've probably seen Life Goes On available on just about every platform that exists, but it's become so prevalent for a reason. As far as solid puzzle platformers go, you'd be hard pressed to find one that's as satisfying and entertaining as this.