Hit the Ground Harder

Yahtzee shows us why Just Cause 2 makes Newton spin in his grave.

"He doesn't even need (Parachutes) to break his fall, because he can hookshot onto the ground and escape unharmed. That's right! The best way to survive smacking into concrete at terminal velocity is to smack into it slightly faster."

—Yahtzee on Just Cause 2 in Zero Punctuation

Oh no! You're falling from a huge height. Maybe your helicopter got shot down. Maybe you misjudged a jump. Or maybe you got knocked into the air by a huge enemy. The point is: You're going to pancake when you hit the ground and there's none of that oh-so-handy water anywhere! You don't have magic slowfall powers, you can't render yourself invincible, and you left your parachute at home. For most people, this would be the end...

But no, you're not like other people. You have a way to survive your immense fall. Make your fall speed even higher and smash into the ground at an even higher speed, to make the laws of reality fold in on themselves escape from your situation unscathed, or at least, far better off than you would have been if you'd just let gravity take its toll.

Whether it was intentional, or an exploitable flaw of the game, you've just managed to Hit the Ground Harder and cheat death.

Examples of Hit the Ground Harder include:

• Just Cause 2 is one of the biggest offenders of this, a review of which gives us the picture and title quote, and for good reason. You can literally fall from a mile-high height and survive by grappling into the ground and survive with no health loss whatsoever. This is made particularly noticable by the fact that Soft Water is completely and utterly absent, so you find yourself actually 'aiming' for the ground.
• Zig-zagged with the Mario series when it comes to ground pounds - it varies between just resetting your momentum, to making you into a Nigh Invulnerable comet that is the only thing capable of destroying certain blocks.
• In full effect in Terraria. Gravity is by far one of the harshest forces in the game, which makes the late-game Lucky Horseshoe (which cancels fall damage) very highly sought-after. But until you get one, you can always use your Grappling Hook / Ivy Whip to latch onto the ground and survive.

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