tactical suicide

An act commonly practiced in single-player video games for various reasons, mainly because the player is in a position where he/she is unable to progress any further or return, and must kill their character in order to respawn at the last checkpoint.

Steve was playing Half-Life when he fell into a pit he couldn't climb out of, so he committed tactical suicide and threw a grenade at his feet, thereby killing himself so he could restart from the last checkpoint.