The old Amiga game cannon fodder did this well - you had named soldiers that rose in rank as they survived missions, but if they died they were gone forever. Th

The old Amiga game cannon fodder did this well - you had named soldiers that rose in rank as they survived missions, but if they died they were gone forever. The increased rank didn't improve them gameplay wise, so you wouldn't reload just to get them back (er, can't even remember if the game had saves in the first place), but you got pretty attached to them the same. Every dead soldier also added a grave to a hill in the mission select screen.