No it isn't. At all. What's the fun of the game if you can just walk around and kill everything you see without dying? RPGs would lose playability, no matter how strong you are, you would be able to defeat anything.
Goes against everything video games have established, in my opinion.
And checkpoints render death a meaningless and pointless standard. It's almost like walking around without dying, because all death is in some games nowadays is a minor inconvenience. It's equal to someone pausing the game for a second, taking you back a few steps and allowing you to continue on, no punishment at all.
SOME games have balanced checkpoints, they don't quite frustrate you by making you play the entire game again, but at least they're far and few between. I myself prefer the system where a game allows you to save or create your own checkpoint, or use a save point. It adds strategy to a game, you almost gable with the game on you character's life on how good you are at the game. Again Resident Evil's ink ribbons allowed one to judge strategically a safe point in which to return if you died. It also added tension to boss battles and fighting even the smallest enemy. When your health was on low, it really mattered, you really did everything within your power to keep your character alive. Zombi U has a great 1 life mechanism which I find really refreshing with Survival Horror and other genres.
With games nowadays you don't care if you're low on health because "oh well I'll just pop up again just before I die and carry on, no biggie" it's insane.
Edited by Penguin101, 01 April 2013 - 04:25 PM.
