End of Life is a third-person action shooter set in a fragmented and ever-moving city, rotating like a Rubik's Cube. The player will shoot needles to overcome enemies and obstacles, dodge deadly attacks, and navigate the changing landscape with a grappling hook, always seeking an advantageous position to eliminate rivals.

Story

The world is governed by two goddesses. Asdis is the creator, while Disad must balance her sister's creations to prevent chaos. When Asdis creates humans, her greatest creation, Disad decides to divide her power and personify it in the Aarendjin, an extension of herself. The mission of the Aarendjin is to kill those humans who pose a real threat to the planet.

Over time, a city discovered the Aarendjin's weakness and started a war to acquire the magic within them. They killed them all and stole their power cores, except for one, Nashla, whom they imprisoned. This power allowed the city to be in constant motion, rotating on itself, preventing Nashla from escaping.

Years later, a revolt within the city aimed to kill the Aarendjin, providing Nashla with the perfect opportunity to execute her plan: recover her core and seek revenge on humans for killing her sisters.

What is End Of Life?

Changing World: A world based on a Rubik's Cube that the player and enemies can manipulate to create combat situations, new paths, and challenges.

Multiple Gravities: Each area of the world has its gravity, with no safe spots when enemies can shoot from the sky.

Relentless Movement: Everything in this world is in motion—the player, enemies, and the world itself. Constantly changing, the player must strive to find their way through battles and gravities.

Gameplay

End of Life is a third-person action shooter where the player embodies a demigoddess with a broken power seeking revenge and reclaiming stolen power. The player faces decisions that define whether they remain faithful to their original mission or succumb to revenge.

The player must use the demigoddess's remaining powers and the world's resources. Different gravities and world modifications create new paths and allow the player to escape enemies when unable to face them.

During the adventure, the demigoddess will find traces of her fallen sisters, recovering part of their powers. These powers grant her new abilities to progress in the world and new tools to defeat her enemies.

Mechanics

Navigation

Gravity Shift: The game world is fragmented, and each fragment has its gravity on each face. Nashla can observe the world from different perspectives, finding paths that would be invisible otherwise.

World Movement: The fragmented world is constantly moving, and the civilization residing there has created mechanisms to alter the world's movement at will. Nashla will use these to turn her enemies' tools against them.

Grappling Hook: Nashla's main tool is a grappling hook, constantly used to reach otherwise inaccessible places and quickly approach enemies to finish them off before they can react.

Combat

Needles: Needles symbolize Nashla's power, each type providing effects to her projectiles. Each needle she carries once belonged to her fallen sisters.

Bullet Time: Nashla's keen senses allow her to enter a state of total concentration. In this state, the world slows around her, allowing for quick decisions and providing a devastating advantage.

Fury: As a vengeful demigoddess, Nashla becomes enraged at the mortals' challenge. When Nashla accumulates enough anger, she enters a Fury state, launching her projectiles more frequently and forcefully. The needles she launches in this state drain life from her enemies to heal her.

Barriers: Enemies, aware of their weakness, constantly try to corner and wear down Nashla. Using complex magical barrier mechanisms, they will trap the demigoddess in an inescapable battle to weaken and defeat her.

Core Loop

The core of End of Life is primarily divided into three parts: advancing through the level, killing all enemies in the way, and discovering how to use her powers to interact with the world.

This core loop represents a partnership between the player and their avatar, discovering the world and the demigoddess's powers at the same pace, fostering player immersion and empathy.

Throughout the adventure, the player's style will reinforce each of the three core elements, from trying to advance by avoiding unnecessary conflicts to exploring the presented world or simply ending all life like a bloodthirsty beast. The decision of which aspect to reinforce will depend on the player's gameplay style, reflecting in Nashla's adventure their own story.

Visual Style

End of Life features a fusion of realistic environments and stylized characters, providing greater creative freedom while maintaining realistic textures for consistency.

The environment represents a Middle Eastern style with warm, earthy, and luminous colors in squares where life once thrived. The warm tones contrast with Nashla's cool palette, indicating she doesn't belong to this world.

The world is portrayed as a Rubik's Cube mirror, with marked edges and different sizes present throughout the entire scenario. It floats disorderly due to the ongoing war, constantly rotating and repositioning as the protagonist advances in the story. The sense of enormity and frenzy is reflected in all the cubes sustaining the world, and the magnitude in each playable scenario.

Magic is prevalent throughout the game, playing a fundamental role. It's represented with brighter and more vivid colors in the environment, highlighting the game's mechanics.

References

The dynamic and changing world created in Doctor Strange inspired the game's dynamic landscape, covering both land and sky, the constant change through battles, and the extraordinary yet partially common landscapes.

Rollerdrome is a central reference regarding gameplay. The combination of action with constant movement is a point that End Of Life seeks to achieve.

The game's story draws strong influences from Hellblade, where both protagonists embark on a revenge story and face psychological issues distorting their perception of reality and objectives. The world-based puzzles served as inspiration for level design.