Checking the Video Replay
In which MetalJim asks YOU to admit whether or not you like to go two-timing on your video games…
I wrote last week about a pretty good PC game called Mass Effect – an interesting hybrid of an RPG and a shooter. I was able to finish the game, and now I am thinking about going back and playing the entire game through a second time, only this time with a different character class and, more importantly, an evil character.
Flash back a long way in time, to a galaxy far, far away…
I’m talking about 1997’s Star Wars: Jedi Knight Dark Forces II.
The old classic Jedi Knight PC game had two main “paths” that you could explore depending on whether you kept building up your “dark side” powers as opposed to your light side powers. A lot of the game’s levels played out more or less the same, but the story had a different feel and you got two very different endings. In the “evil” version, you were more or less setting yourself up as a rival to the main baddie by the end of the game.
Now, I am flashing all the way back to 1997 because I think it is one of the last times that I really remember doing a full replay of a single player RPG-like game just to experience a small amount of alternate content.
Well, then again, I did play DiabloII all the way through with at least 3 or 4 different characters. I played all the way through Nightmare mode with at least one of those characters. The random maps and the random treasure sure help to keep the replayability high in that game.
So, all of this brings up a few interesting survey questions…
1) Do you enjoy sometimes playing an “Evil” PC in a single-player RPG even though you know that most of the content in the game is probably designed to make it easier for the “good” heroes to finish the game?
2) Do you feel that you haven’t really finished a game unless you’ve seen more than one of the possible ending cinematics?
3) What counts for more when it comes to re-playing video games? A) Trying it again on a harder difficulty level, B) Exploring different aspects of the story, or C) Just trying alternate character builds and searching for uber-loot?
4) Alternatively, do you find it so hard to finish any single player video game these days that you don’t even waste any time thinking about a do-over?
Some of the above probably does apply to people who play World of Warcraft. Anyone out there willing to admit that they’ve reached Level 60 with at least one Alliance and one Horde character? Do you keep playing World of Warcraft because you want to keep exploring all of the content, new dungeons, etc., or do you just keep grinding it out because you want to have slightly better loot than the guy standing next to you on the goblin airship?
As for me, I am more of an “explorer” when it comes to video games. I’m not really drawn to playing evil characters, but if the game is good enough I might try the “evil” path just to see some of the other quests and content that is only available on that path.
Comments are welcome. I’ll try to check in a few times over the next couple of days, but I will probably skip posting next week as I am in the process of moving from my small apartment to a rental house that is all of three miles down the road. In many ways this move should be very easy, but I have a lot of crap that needs moving (books, games, etc.) so it will take me a few days to get re-established once I am moved.
Posted on July 9th, 2008 at 9:02 am. About 'Checking the Video Replay'.
I’m currently in the process of playing Diablo II with a friend of mine online, for something like the third go. I played it once back when it came out, another time to play some characters I never tried before, and this time I’m playing 8 characters simultaneously with the goal of getting one of them to the end of Hell level (in the Normal - Nightmare - Hell versions). I’ve played through Neverwinter Nights a couple of times or more with two or three vastly different characters (elven Fighter/Wizard, Half-Orc Rogue/Assassin, and human druid. I found that the game didn’t change all that much and I was a little disappointed in that. The Temple of Elemental Evil, however, changed dramatically depending on which alignment group you selected. The first time through I played the LG group, then the Neutral group, and lastly, the LE group. Each time I played, the quests were different, the goals changed, and the play felt different. However, the adventure itself changed little (of course). It’s the nature of the computer-game genre that replayability is not high on many gamers’ lists. Everyone’s always pushing the envelope and looking for something new. Besides, programming all the permutations that would make such replayability possible would take up most of the disk drives on modern computers and likely bankrupt companies trying to produce such behemoths. I think the World of Warcraft model is viable - just not affordable in the current economy. Having a basic game framework and altering it over time seems to be the way to keep everyone playing YOUR game, as opposed to checking out the newest flavor of the month.
Posted on July 9th, 2008 at 9:28 pm. About 'Checking the Video Replay'.
Yay! Survey time!
1-When I play a game I like doing the light side paths. Partially because it is closer to my nature and partially because a lot of games have really horrible bad guy scripts. I almost never play a evil character the first time I play a game.
2-I like seeing all the endings of the games I play. Fortunately Youtube makes this really easy. After I finished Bioshock I went to YT to see the bad ending. I really like the endings that have variables based on what you accomplished in the game. Fallout was cool that way.
3-Story and Character builds are what draw me back to the games. Difficulty isn’t much of a factor because I will usually deal with that when I start playing. If a game I just started is to easy I will bump the difficulty and restart before I get too far. If there are a variety of character options I usually want to try them. When I played KOTOR I had to go thru 3 times to try the 3 different jedi classes. I played many many Fallout characters to try out different perk and skill options. I only worry about loot hunting in multiplayer games. What’s the point of finding something cool if you can’t share it?
4- Bioshock was close to this. It took me so long to get to the point where I wasn’t cringing at the sound of the Big Daddy footsteps that going back to the beginning didn’t really appeal to me. Also the lack of any different type of character made the thought of replaying the game seem boring. The only plus was to see the other ending and I already said how I got to do that.
Posted on July 12th, 2008 at 11:06 pm. About 'Checking the Video Replay'.
Well as someone who doesn’t play a whole lot of different video games, my 2c may be only worth 1c. I find I always choose the ‘good’ guy path; just my nature. Even in D&D the closest I came to Evil was some kind of Chaotic Neutral character, but that didn’t last as my evil acts were met with swift and harsh retributions from the DM (don’t ask me why, it was a short lived campaign). In video games I prefer FPS’s with substance…Half Life (all flavors), Bioshock, Oblivion, GTA:San Andreas. GTA is an exception to the good, since you pretty much have no choice in the matter, but I played and REplayed it many times. It’s one of my favorites. I love the open environment game! and GTA is very open. Most of the time I’ll only replay a game on a harder setting. I’m currently replaying the MINERVA mod to HL2 on hard and dang it is that. I should try Mass Effect…hmmm I’ll go look for a demo.
Later
BobT.