Who Wants to Live Forever?

Apparently you do. At least that tends to be the trend with a lot of recent games. And more games are coming where death won't be an issue.

It has just been released that you cannot die in Fable 2. If you get defeated, you will either gain a scar or have to pay a fee if you don't want to scar. So you don't have to worry about checkpoints or restarting levels or anything.

Now this seems to be a trend recently and one of the things cited by many hardcore gamers as proof that games are becoming easier. Other recent games which make death not really a factor are Prey and The Darkness.

In Prey, after you get past the first level or so, death means nothing. You die, go to the spirit world, a quick mini-game and then return to life. In my opinion, it was pretty cheap and lame. And it made the game very easy overall.

The Darkness was a little better. A lot of people complain that it's like Prey because The Darkness brings you back to life. But really, it's not that simple. The game simply makes it look like you come back to life. It's really just instant reloads of various checkpoints because if you kill some enemies and then die before reaching the next checkpoint, the same enemies are back when you "come back to life." (Although your death count and use of powers is maintained so it can be helpful in gaining some of the achievements.)

So, is gaming overall becoming easier with checkpoints and no death being more and more commonplace?