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Last month I wrote some pretty positive impressions of Grasshopper Manufacture's procedurally-generated "survival action" game Let it Die, though I was unsure how the game would hold up in the long run, what with its free-to-play micro-transactions based design that threatened to suffocate the adventure's more challenging later stages. In fact, shortly after penning that piece, I hit something of a wall that nearly torpedoed my interest in continuing to play it. But boy am I glad I worked past that.But first, some background on how Let it Die's death system works. When your character meets their end, there are three ways to revive the one's fallen avatar. One: you use a different character to defeat your now villainous previous avatar, Zombi-U style. Two: you spend some in-game currency, Kill Coins, to revive your previous character (which allows them to keep all the items and XP they had on them when they fell). Or three: you spend the game's very rare Death Metals to revive someone right where they fell, ala a fairy in Zelda. The tricky thing about Death Metals is they're mostly only obtainable by buying them from the PlayStation Network for roughly $0.50 a pop (sold in minimum bundles of 10) or received periodically as daily login gifts.
As for me, roughly seven hours into Let it Die my options to continue were slim. I'd run out of the few free Death Metals I'd received upon beginning the game, my Kill Coin coffers were skint, and starting a new level one character would be a waste as they wouldn't stand a chance at defeating my perished level 25 warrior. Even purchasing Death Metals seemed like a fool's errand after throwing everything I had at a boss only to end up broke, armourless, and with few items and weapons to defeat my seemingly overpowered opponent. As such, my choices were simple: grind for a bit with a fresh character or quit.
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