14 DAY TRIAL // 
Life Goes On is yet another indie game that seeks to challenge players with puzzles of the platforming kind, only one with a slightly morbid side to it, as it uses death as a gameplay mechanic.
As the world of puzzle-platformers gets increasingly saturated, developer Infinite Monkeys Entertainment attempts to offer some fresh elements in order to pique the curiosity of the masses, and maybe also rewrite the entire works of Shakespeare? We don't know, we'd have to check for massive orders of typewriters.
The premise is simple: the kings want goblets, and each level holds one such item. You are a brave knight tasked with the retrieval of said goblet, and you have to literally step on your comrades' dead bodies in order to reach the goal, only to bravely sacrifice your own life in the process of recovering the next.
The novel idea that the game brings to the table is using death as a gameplay mechanic that conditions your progression. If other games have you protect your life at all cost in order to succeed, Life Goes On has you selflessly throw yourself into lethal spikes in order to allow your fellow knights to be able to cross them unscathed.
But the madness doesn't stop here, as over the course of the game's countless levels you'll crash, burn, freeze and electrocute the brave knights in order to do the king's bidding, in a varied assortment of physics-based puzzles.
The game's morbid side is counterbalanced by a healthy dose of humor, and the quest to find the Cup of Life, although riddled with untimely deaths and careful planning of how to kill knights in order to solve puzzles, will never have you ponder whether all the sacrifices are worth it. It is the king's bidding, after all.
You'll encounter many hazards, from rotating saw blades and spiked conveyor belts to gaping chasms, flamethrowers and even erupting pools of lava while navigating your way through the game's levels. Also, you'll have to figure out the best way for your knights to die in order to nab the Cup of Life in what must be the ultimate martyr simulation.
You can even load yourself in a cannon and smash into a wall in order to land on a pressure plate and make sure that everyone else can safely get by the flame-spewing exhaust it's cutting the power to, in the hopes that they'll find an equally valiant end.
Every level challenges you to complete it within a certain time limit and with only a finite amount of deaths, and the difficulty is ramped up by the existence of the elusive fuzzy furball known as Jeff, a pet monster that enjoys the taste of the little tin men and that requires you to jump through hoops in order to feed him in what seems counter-productive and completely-unheard-of behavior for a pet.
The actual puzzles aren't very hard, usually being a pretty straightforward matter of pressing some buttons and impaling yourself on the right spikes, but the difficulty level gradually ramps up and you'll end up having to platform your way through some areas, timing your jumps and synchronizing your movements with conveyor belts and other in-game elements.
It does get a tad boring at times, and it seems like you are stuck doing the exact same stuff in a slightly different order, but most of the times the game is engaging enough to keep you going, especially if you're a completionist and you want to finish the level within the time and deaths limits.
There are some other detracting elements, such as some weird collision detection and the fact that you can't grab on to all the ledges that you should be able to use, delivering a confusing and sometimes frustrating experience, forcing you to follow certain steps and solve a puzzle instead of simply grabbing one and moving on.
While Life Goes On plays in full 3D, the visuals aren't great. They're not bad either, they seem, however, a bit bland, and the game would have benefited from having a more unique art direction, as it seems a tad generic the way it currently is, and it is the same for the sound design.
The Good
- Not too difficult
- New mechanics
- Many levels
- Challenges
The Bad
- A bit generic
- Repetitive
- Simplistic
Conclusion
If you're into puzzle-platformers, Life Goes On will feel like a pretty good title. It presents a decent mix of easy puzzles, offering a challenge here and there, and the platforming parts are pretty accessible, you will have to be careful in the execution but you won't get overly frustrated.
For the most part, it manages to utilize the various mechanics in satisfying and challenging ways and will surely provide entertainment for fans of casual platforming experiences, especially considering the flavorful integration of death as a gameplay mechanic.
