10 Video Games That Punish You For Dying

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor came up with one of the most fascinating mechanical punishments for death in the history of the medium, courtesy of its innovative Nemesis system.

Any Uruk who manages to kill the player will subsequently be tracked and promoted to Captain, in turn making them even tougher to kill the next time you cross paths with them.

Granted, Nemesis is often an advantageous system for the player too, to grow more powerful and dismantle the Uruk ranks from within, but if an Uruk manages to get the better of you, you'll need to put in the prep time to take them down in the inevitable rematch.

For the standards of this list it's perhaps relatively light as death "punishments" go, but as an incredibly smart and creative way to make the players re-think in-game mortality, the Nemesis system is nevertheless really quite brilliant.

If you're wondering why countless games haven't imitated the Nemesis system to their own ends, it's most likely because Warner Bros. actually secured a patent for it.