Games Where You Can Gamble With Your Life

Video games often involve risk and reward – players are constantly making choices that could mean success or failure, much like a gamble. Think about a tough boss fight: do you use a valuable potion to survive, or hope you can land one final blow? While those moments can be stressful, the games below are designed to be even more challenging and put you in truly dangerous scenarios.

Games often present players with high-stakes choices, like taking big risks for valuable rewards or casting spells with dangerous side effects. In the games listed below, players can truly gamble with their character’s life, potentially facing a Game Over. But for some, that added danger is what makes the experience thrilling.

CloverPit

The Devil’s Casino

Balatro unexpectedly became a huge hit. The idea of a poker-based roguelike sounded strange, but it turned out to be incredibly fun. Now, other games are exploring similar ideas, like CloverPit, which traps players in a tense, Saw-inspired room and challenges them to gamble on a slot machine.

The main objective is to earn money and accumulate enough to advance to the next level. While you can also use gold and tickets to get helpful bonuses, the most important thing is to avoid being eliminated. Though it doesn’t need to be, the game CloverPit can be surprisingly challenging.

Final Fantasy 7

Learning Roulette

The Final Fantasy games often include spells and abilities that involve risk and reward, letting players gamble with their character’s health. A good example of this is the Roulette technique found in Final Fantasy 7, which players can learn from enemies.

The Roulette ability scans across all enemies and allies, instantly defeating whoever it stops on. It’s incredibly strong – potentially the strongest in the game – but it’s a risky move, as it can just as easily eliminate a party member as an enemy.

Shovel Knight

Destroying Checkpoints

Shovel Knight is a fantastic modern indie game that captures the spirit of classic NES titles. It’s tough, but fair, with helpful checkpoints and shops where you can upgrade your gear to make the journey a little easier.

Throughout the game, players earn gems and money to unlock improvements. A quick way to get a lot of money is by destroying checkpoints, but this is risky. If you die without a checkpoint, you’ll have to restart the entire level, which can be really annoying.

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

A Game Of 21

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is known as one of the most frightening games in the series, and it received a good amount of downloadable content. One particularly unsettling addition was Banned Footage Vol. 2, which featured a segment called “21.”

This part of the game involved a risky card game where losing meant taking damage. Accumulate enough damage, and your character would die. It was the most suspenseful and brutal moment, reminiscent of the Saw movies, that the Resident Evil series had ever presented, creating a truly intense card game scenario.

Hitman 3

Dealing With Le Chiffre

The newest downloadable content for Hitman 3 is called The Banker. In this episode, Agent 47 is assigned the task of eliminating Le Chiffre, the villain from the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale, which was Daniel Craig’s first appearance as 007. As with all Hitman missions, players have many different ways to complete the objective.

This downloadable content challenges players to win a card game, but attempting to cheat too obviously can have serious consequences. While it’s more entertaining to play a hand and enjoy the banter between Le Chiffre and Agent 47, a stealthy, assassin-style takedown is the safer approach.

Borderlands 2

Here Comes Krieg

After its initial release, Borderlands 2 introduced Krieg as a playable character through downloadable content. Krieg is a former Psycho, making him a chaotic and unpredictable fighter. Players who enjoy risk-taking might be interested in his Hellborn skill tree, which focuses on chance-based abilities.

Krieg has skills like ‘Burn, Baby, Burn’ that boost his fire damage, but come with a risk – he might ignite himself and take damage. Another skill, ‘Fuel the Fire,’ increases his chance of catching fire, but also makes his attacks more powerful. This pattern of high risk, high reward is common throughout Krieg’s skill tree, and defines how the class plays.

Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster

The Arcanist’s Gamble

As a huge fan of classic Final Fantasy, I was so excited when Bravely Default: Flying Fairy came out – it really felt like a love letter to those older games, bringing back Jobs and Crystals. Now, with the Switch 2, they’ve remastered it as Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster, which is awesome! One of my favorite, but definitely trickiest, classes to play is the Arcanist. Their spells are super strong, but they come with a big risk – a lot of them can backfire if you’re not careful!

Skills like Exterminate inflict Dark damage on both allies and enemies, even if they’re already poisoned. Twilight can instantly kill anyone who is asleep, friend or foe. While these skills can be powerful with careful planning, they don’t distinguish between teammates and opponents. If your allies are already suffering from status effects, using these skills could easily backfire.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Nightmare Troubadour

Beware His Evil Eye

Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Released: August 30, 2005
Platform: DS

I remember when Yu-Gi-Oh! Nightmare Troubadour first came out on the DS – it was a huge hit! It’s not talked about much now, but back then, it was awesome. The story is pretty straightforward: you’re just a duelist entering Seto Kaiba’s tournament. You get to wander around town, challenge other duelists, and collect cards. Losing a duel wasn’t the end of the world, which made it really fun and accessible.

Exploring at night is risky, as players might encounter powerful opponents like Maximillion Pegasus who can initiate a Shadow Game. Losing means your soul is sent to the Shadow Realm – essentially, it’s game over. While the potential reward is stronger cards, being banished is a terrible outcome in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh.

Buckshot Roulette

Deal Or No Deal?

Russian Roulette is commonly played with a revolver, famously depicted in films like the 1978 movie The Deer Hunter. Buckshot Roulette takes this to a more extreme level. Players enter a disturbing nightclub and confront a mysterious figure called The Dealer.

The game uses a shotgun, not a handgun, and each player takes turns shooting either the dealer or themselves. If a live round is fired, a life is lost for either the player or the dealer. A blank round allows the player to continue their turn. It’s more than just a quick trigger pull, though – players can explore, find helpful items, and strategize. There’s also a four-player versus mode for added excitement. At just $3 on Steam, Buckshot Roulette is a surprisingly affordable game to try.

2025-10-21 22:05