Dying Animations, Your Thoughts.

[ComandaKool]

I remember playing Medal Of Honor: Frontline as a youngster and one thing I always seem to remember more so then other parts of the game is the dying animations the NPCs had. Grabbing their chest when hit with a round from the sniper rifle or spinning around and falling to the ground when killed any other way.

What do you think of dying animations in video games? Feel free to share some of your favorites/most disliked in the comment section. Personally I think quite a few of the melee weapon executions in Skyrim are pretty badass.

 

[Jandau]

Dawn of War - Melee executions. Most (perhaps all non-tank) units had special animations when finishing off enemies in melee. Some even had unique interactions with specific units.

It was toned down in the sequel for "balancing" reasons (units performing executions were invulnerable for the duration) and it was one of the worst changes they made...

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

Personally I think quite a few of the melee weapon executions in Skyrim are pretty badass.

Yeah, which is why I used a mod to make them happen 100% of the time.

On a related note, death animations are bloody hard to make if you're trying for something that looks good while being unique.

 

[Nouw]

Spoiler: You want your dying animations? HAVE 9 MINUTES OF 'EM!

Dawn of War will always have a special place in my heart over other RTSs for its 'sync kills.' One can only imagine how great it'd look remastered *gushes.*

 

[mad825]

Skyrim....
I just don't know how this got approved by the team.

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

Skyrim....
I just don't know how this got approved by the team.

Not much worse than that jumping animation... Although for Skyrim we were talking about the execution moves, not the dying animation.

 

[Hieronymusgoa]

The dying animations of some characters in League of Legends are pretty good/funny (all on Youtube).
Especially Cassipoeia, Ziggs or Pulsefire Ezreal or when it matches some of their abilities like with Zyra or Kog'Maw.

 

[Doom972]

Whenever the subject comes up, I'm reminded of the death animations in Max Payne - I always find it hilarious when I use a grenade to kill a bunch of enemies and they all perform that death animation that looks a bit like a dance/martial arts move at the same time.

Among my favorites are the Death animations from the classic Fallout games - which is why I almost always take Bloody Mess and the ones from Dragon Age whenever you kill a boss-type creature.

 

[BARQ]

Depends, make it too realistic and the gravity of the situation starts to come in, like damn I just killed a guy. No hard feelings, bad dude number 703!
But I can't say I generally pay them much attention.
I can say that the sprint/tackle takedowns on Saints Row: The Third are favourites, although here I'm referring to your character's animation, not the NPC's that are targeted. Using a random civilian as a skateboard is super fun though and highly recommended.

 

[daveman247]

Anybody miss gibs? I miss gibs... Made guns seem more powerful

 

[ComandaKool]

Skyrim....
I just don't know how this got approved by the team.

To me it just seems so blatantly pathetic, and almost denies the satisfaction granted from defeating an enemy, especially a very powerful one.

Dovahkin: "Are you gonna die normally?"
Miscellaneous Bandit: "No, I'm gonna dance!"

 

[ChupathingyX]

Dawn of War - Melee executions. Most

'sync kills.'

Yeah, pretty much this.

The sync kills in both Dawn of War and DoW II were great and added a lot of nice little details to the units.

This one is probably the most well known and iconic example.

 

[CannibalCorpses]

Jagged Alliance 2 - When you shoot someone off a rooftop with a critical hit and their guts fly out of their backs and they fly off the roof onto the floor...always makes me laugh. There is a fairly similar one on Fallout Tactics aswell

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

I had a mod installed for Jedi Outcast, a dismemberment mod. I would turn on Force Speed and zip in with my light saber. A few hacks and the enemy would be severed at the torso and missing a hand or two.

Bayonetta, her hair becoming all sorts of fantastical creatures that would shred the bosses.

Space Marine, the chainsword execution maneuvers.

Mortal Kombat, enough said.

 

[Z of the Na'vi]

The dying animations of some characters in League of Legends are pretty good/funny (all on Youtube).
Especially Cassipoeia, Ziggs or Pulsefire Ezreal or when it matches some of their abilities like with Zyra or Kog'Maw.

Due to the fact that I haven't played League of Legends in some time and have since gotten rusty, I saw Zombie Brand's death animation for the first time the other day.

I'll just let the video speak for itself.


Glorious.

 

[Evil Moo]

I quite like the death animation in Overgrowth [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kms5yScMrbU&t=74s]. Subtle but effective and not the ridiculously cheesy deaths you often find in games.

 

[SSJBlastoise]

The game that sticks out for me is Goldeneye on the N64. The deaths weren't always the best (there's the one where they slip over somehow lol) I actually liked how they would react to where they were shot. Shot in the hand? They shake their hand in pain. Perfect Dark also did this well.

 

[b.w.irenicus]

Well Executions/Killcams are great, if they are done correctly. This means:
a) Look viscious
b) Be short!
c) Diversity

There is nothing more borning that to look at the same killing animation for the 300000000th time which takes like 30 seconds or so.

Examples that do that well:
- Tenchu for the PS2
- Skyrim (although there is a bit of clipping sometimes)
- Vampire - Bloodlines

Games that do it wrong:
- Splatterhouse (the remake): The killcams are pretty average, some are cool, some are boring. The problem is, there is only a handful of them and they take like forever to finish. Killcams like they are executed in Splatterhouse simply suck.

Edit: Regarding Jagged Alliance 2 -> I once (and only once) blew someones head off, which never before and after happend to me again. At that moment I was like "wtf? What just happend?" That was cool ^^

 

[Bernzz]

For over the top deaths/executions, Dawn of War just wins. Every time. Some of those Necron kills were brutal.

For a more "Oh god what have I done" type death, I'd say the deaths in STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl. I've only ever played it with the STALKER: Complete mod, so I don't know if the vanilla game is different, but...the way I'll gun down some bandits in the distance through my electronic scope and they just crumple. They just kinda dropped, it felt real.