Last Stand
I've written before about Casualties: Unknown and how I think it's very interesting. Since then, the demo to the game is now on Steam. It's very nice to see the game being received well over there.
I had a particularly good run a while ago. I got to the 5th layer which is the farthest that I've ever gotten. The demo only has 5 layers, so I was so close to getting to the end.
Everything was going so well. I had everything: food, water, medicine, equipment. I braved the heat of the desert and the radioactive material of the wasteland. However, I was unprepared for the deep forest. The darkness of the forest made it difficult to route through, and I didn't have any good weapons, so fighting enemies was very difficult and costly (why do all of the enemies have to be creepy crawlies!). I had so much medicine, but I forgot the basics: bandages. At some point, I forgot to keep collecting materials to make bandages and that was my downfall.
But, something incredible happened: I got the Last Stand effect. I spoiled myself on its existence, but it is possible to get a final buff moments before you die which gives you just a bit more time to try and fix things.
The whole run was so intense. I knew that I wasn't going to make it to the end, so the release of tension upon ending the game felt good even if I didn't survive.
The Last Stand buff stands in opposition to the rest of the game's realism and simulation, and I think there’s something beautiful about that. Last Stand mechanics exist in other games, but this game in particular is designed to be hopeless and miserable. Most of the time, Casualties: Unknown is not a game about overcoming adversity against all odds: it is about succumbing to it. Any slip, fall, trap, or bite could immediately spell your doom if you aren't prepared for it, and the game is so concerned with simulating the exact ways that your body will fail when you die in painful detail.
And so, it is very fascinating to me that this game gives you one sliver of hope when everything has gone wrong. Last Stand isn't only the brain's final attempt at a push for survival: wounds heal, toxins leave your body, your heart steadies, your thirst and hunger are sated, your mood stabilizes, and you regain lost blood. It is nothing short of miraculous: defying the logic and realistic simulation that the rest of the game is built upon.
The inclusion of the Last Stand mechanic slightly changes the feeling of the game: your chances are still incredibly slim, but there is hope to be found somewhere, no matter how small. In the right circumstances, you actually can pull yourself out of the worst situations. In a way that defies all logic, you can manage to hold on for a bit longer.
In the game’s death screen, it describes the mental state of your character before death. At the end of this run, the game described my character's mental state as:
"Terrified, but hopeful..."
This message managed to deeply resonate with me, especially given everything happening in the world right now.