Character REGRESSION? Is that a thing?

It seems nearly every game has some form of character progression (upgrading, leveling, etc.), but has any game ever forced you to become weaker  over time? I don't mean starting out strong only to lose everything and then gain it back, like in Metroid games.  I'm just curious, because I think some really cool, or really stupid stuff could be done if developers implemented something like this into their games.  Has anyone ever seen this?

Certain variations of the popular Gun Game gametype on Counter Strike start you off with powerful weapons and for every 1-3 kills you do, the weapon downgrades a level, and eventually you're stuck with a glock.

mmm maybe only in the form of giving you a really good gun and then taking it away.  Half-life 2 did this I think.  Gave you a gravity gun that killed guys instantly and then took it away.  Killzone 2 gave you a ilghtning gun that killed everything in sight and then took it away. 
 
That's all that comes to mind other than Darksiders, for example, where you start out with all your powers and like 5 minutes later it takes them all away.  But that has happened in a quite a few games.

I can't think of any game that does it in the way your describing but if done right I think that could be a really interesting mechanic.

" It seems nearly every game has some form of character progression (upgrading, leveling, etc.), but has any game ever forced you to become weaker  over time? I don't mean starting out strong only to lose everything and then gain it back, like in Metroid games.  I'm just curious, because I think some really cool, or really stupid stuff could be done if developers implemented something like this into their games.  Has anyone ever seen this? "

Benjamin Button: The Game?

I know there are examples where you are awesome at the outset, have all your powers/ stuff stripped from you and spend the rest of the time reaquiring it. I cant think of any instances where you just get worse and worse through a game.

This thread reminded me of the Idle Thumbs podcast where they talk about the mod "Neo Tokyo". It's a multiplayer shooter where you gain xp. You lose it for friendly fire. Apparently it's hard to distinguish friend from foe, as one of them talked about accidentally killing their teammates until all they had was a pistol. You buy weapons with xp. I think they ended up with -xp.

i guess abiliteasing does not count?

well.. Some games take away exp if you die. That counts, right?
 
It would be a pretty cool idea though. But it would be extremely hard to make that fun.
 
EDIT; OH WAIT! Far Cry 2. Technically, you get weaker and weaker, because of Malaria. AHA!

" @Alphonzo said:

" It seems nearly every game has some form of character progression (upgrading, leveling, etc.), but has any game ever forced you to become weaker  over time? I don't mean starting out strong only to lose everything and then gain it back, like in Metroid games.  I'm just curious, because I think some really cool, or really stupid stuff could be done if developers implemented something like this into their games.  Has anyone ever seen this? "

 Elder Scrolls : Morrowind  My character got the HIV or something along the lines and slowly grew weaker and weaker - until he died. I never played that POS game again.  It's part of the main quest. But I got the illness by exploration, without having the quest. I had no idea what's going on.  God, did I hate that game! "

" I can't think of any game that does it in the way your describing but if done right I think that could be a really interesting mechanic. "

Shinobi on the PS2 had a mechanic where you were constantly draining health as you played through the level.  You had to kill enemies so that their souls would be drained instead.  That game was fuckin' frustrating.

Shadow of the Colossus kinda does it, but not in any mechanical sense that affects what you can do.

This approach to things isn't very popular with game designers. Abiliteasing works because the player gets to play around with some awesome abilities or weapons for a bit to get a sense of how fun they are and then when they're taken away the player is more enthused to work their way towards getting those weapons/abilities back. When you give the player a bunch of awesome powers and then just start one by one stripping them of them, as they progress through the game the player receives no sense of reward for overcoming opponents, they feel constrained in the amount of abilities at their disposal and in general having all those things that seemed really cool just straight out taken away makes the game seem increasingly "lamer" to the player as they progress.