The Replay Value
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Nechrol
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Amidst moving out this weekend I was in the process of packing all of my worldly possessions when it came to sorting out all the games and consoles that I had with me. While I had a silent ride with the Polish van driver the company had provided, I started musing on why I had kept the games I had for so long. There were ones as far back as my PS1 and Gameboy and, between wondering if the silent mountain of a man was about to turn into a darkened alley and perform unspeakable acts to me, I mused why I had kept them so long.
There are a lot of factors that counter in to a games’ replayability and sometimes it is one or two things out of the list that is mentally ‘checked’ in our minds. The best games however should attempt to hit all the spots that keep us coming back for more through all the frustration and pleasure.
Our top ten games in our minds by default adhere to what makes a great experience. If you take a second to pull a few out of your floating brain space you could probably rail off a few reasons why you enjoy them so much. The games that give me the most replay value, for the money that I forked out for them, fall into many different genres. They are ones that I’d never trade and would only lend to a friend if we first stepped outside into the yard and brawled like drunken chimpanzees.
Plot, story, the narrative, the little pixelated mouths that flap when we’re playing is one of, if not the most important factor when I’m thinking about purchasing a game that falls under the RPG genre. I’m like a fussy dinner guest when it comes to playing them, it’s the reason I’ve never bothered to play Kingdom Hearts. Friends have recommended it to me time and time again but at the first appearance of a Disney related character I removed the disk and turned it to dust under a manly hammer. My preference in narrative is something more adult themed, darker, brooding, suffice to say I’ll only play it if the protagonist’s brow is so permanently furrowed you could take shelter under it in a powerful storm. It’s probably why I enjoy Final Fantasy and the Tales series so much; it’s more adult orientated in a sense. There are parts however where the protagonists seem so angsty they’re going to forget saving the world, lock their doors and listen to Morrissey until the whole thing blows over.
Taking a step back from focusing on the games story another key focus for some players is the choice of character and how they can customise them and build the story from their own choices. The most well know games that focus on this mechanic in my experience would be the Elder Scrolls and Fallout series. Oblivion and Fallout 3 are cemented in my ‘never trade’ pile and are games I’d always come back to for the sheer amount of choice and direction. I will say one thing that is my own fault when I take a break from these two and come back; I always end up choosing the same class. Every good sense screams at me not to pick a stealth build, try something different, a warrior, a mage perhaps, but no my hands won’t let me. Although recently I have dabbled in different classes and it can reveal a game from a whole new perspective, like playing my DS in a washing machine.
There are other aspects of choice like being good, evil, neutral and all the ones in between the spectrum. When I first play a game with choice I’ll always be a shining example of human kind, like the Pope with a shotgun. I’ll try and do the right thing even if it means me giving all my resources away because some peasant I just saved from a burning building wants to build a skyscraper out of toothpicks. If it’ll give me good karma I’ll spend eight hours whittling the toothpicks with my own incisors. The second time round is when I get to be bad and I’ll happily go around town massacring everything with a heartbeat. Firing a nuclear weapon launcher in the heart of Megaton and watching the populace go mental as I rained down death was a particularly satisfying night in.
Expansion packs and mods are also key in increasing a game’s longevity in these consumer times. For the PC this is of course old news, that community has been there for ages. In the days of PS2 and Xbox expansion packs were only really available for FPS’s such as Rainbow Six and Halo. Now, it’s practically the life blood of most games and the companies are more than happy to rip people off with downloaded content that at one time would have just been part of the game. Take Disgaea 3 for example, acquiring new characters and stages would at one time be awarded upon completion or meeting any number of prerequisites. Now you have to pay for them, it’s like buying a burger and them only giving you the meat, you then have to pay separately for the bun, fries and shake.
Despite all these facts and niggling aspects that some of our favourite games possess they are often outweighed by the good. Our favourites don’t have to be the most complex or well thought out games in existence. Sometimes we’ll be in the mood for a high class gourmet meal with a waiter whose nose is held so high he’s practically broken his own neck, ala Final Fantasy VIII in my case. Other times we want something different like Dynasty Warriors for example. It’s quick and easy and we don’t have to think about, like ordering fast food while drunk.