This was a question I was pondering while playing God of War 2 in muh fish-costume with the Atlas Sword in hand. I bring up this subject because even though it was fun and dandy, I felt a little empty with the overall experience. Let me clarify.
When I beat a game, I look forward to finding what treasures and bounties I have unlocked. New costumes, crazy weapons, etc. But does this really add truly any replay-ability? Sure, you've got that styling gangster outfit for Leon, but do the ganados really care? It's cool, but only for about 10 minutes, when you realize gameplay and story doesn't change at all. It's the same story, same enemies, same bosses, just a new suit. And even in the cutscenes the new costume is left out and changed back into the default, which is a little weird. A big gripe I had about this was in God of War one and two. When I would unlock the costumes, I couldn't use them in Titan mode, which I would need to beat to gain more treasah. Come on, if I'm going to play the game again, I'd like to at least use some new costumes I gained. Please?
Weapons also throw things out of proportion too. It may be fun to shoot that angry boss with the infinite-rocket launcher, but the novelty wears thin after a few short minutes. If I'm going to have the Chicago Typewriter, can't they at least turn up the number of enemies? Or make them stronger? It's a little boring running through the game again (on the same difficulty rating, no less) with a weapon that makes you God-like in a way with nothing new thrown into the mix. It almost makes you want to not use your new toys in order to make the game somewhat fun/challenging. The end result feels like the producers threw them in at last minute and/or with minimal input. It's a nice touch, but doesn't really seem like it was thought out. I guess I shouldn't complain, yet I still feel a little let down with the way they were implemented.
|
Reeper's blog
Follow
RSS
Contact
But if your not really a person who cares much abot replay vaule, achivements, or collecting things, then your not going to care to much about unlockables.
I still remember the blood code and cheat mode code for Mortal Kombat on Genesis (A,B,A,C,A,B,B and \/, /\, <, <, A, >, \/ [dullard! Get it?], respectively).
The first game I remember to have unlockables as we know them was Goldeneye. I curse that game to this day for ruining a perfectly fine system of me reading Gamepro in the supermarket while Mom shopped (the internet didn't exist then) to learn the codes to my favorite games.
The idea behind them is good. "Let us reward the player for his/her time" the designer says. This kind of breaks down if they aren't really rewards at all. That situation you mentioned in RE4 with the alternate costume for Leon is really embarrassing. Either completely reward the player or don't reward them at all. I don't want to see any scenes where Leon is wearing the original costume.
Sometimes I just hate them because they are in fact unlockable. Sometimes you just want to have fun with the game and after paying $50+ for the right to legally play it you are then required to put in hard time to get some seemingly interesting unlockable. You just want to jump right there to that point, but you can't.
Implementation is the key, and I have never experienced an unlock system that was satisfying. Not once.