Games and Replayability

[Aratus]

Well Ive been wondering about this for awhile but was wondering how the Escapist Community felt about this.

How often can you replay a single game and does it depend on the genre? This is more focused on single player aspects of games because multiplayer is designed around being able to play it over and over.

Personally I can replay any shooter campaign over again. Games like Half-Life 2 and Halo: Reach have good and fun stories that, even after going through the first time, can still entertain me after going through again. Going along with that are the fun little things that are in the game play that can make going through a second time different than the first. These can be like using different Suit Upgrades in Reach, different Plasmid combinations in Bioshock, or just trying to get the most difficult achievements by playing differently altogether.

My favorite genre is RPG's. Ironically this is the one genre I cannot play through over again. My issues with RPG's relate to the grinding and going through a their stories twice. Games like Dragon Age, Dungeon Siege, and Neverwinter Nights are very fun RPG's. But if I wanna play through again and make a new character I have to start at square one of the character progression. After going through the game once it feels like more of a grind the second time. But my biggest issue comes from the stories. Some games that have twists throughout the story make it impossible for me to enjoy it again. I wont list specifics for spoilers sake but games like KOTOR and Mass Effect 1 have good stories with good plot twists mixed into them, but I cant enjoy it as much the second time though.

Anyone else feel the same about those two genres or have the same issue with other ones?

 

[PureChaos]

some games have more replay value than others. I've completed Ocarina of Time (Master Quest included) many, many times. probably a total of 25+ by now. I don't buy games very often so the ones i have i play a lot of. not because i have to, because i want to. just finished doing Metoid Prime Trilogy again

 

[Sara Fontaine]

It all comes down to how much I enjoyed a game. RPG's are my favourite genre too; I love anything with a good story/plot that I can immerse myself in and I can play many RPG's multiple times and do so still, but there are some that I will play once and then leave, such as Fable 2 and Infinite Undiscovery (ugh...)

Shooters are a genre I don't really have much time for; I can understand why a game like Halo or Call of Duty will be fun if you're playing with other people or online, but being someone who doesn't play many multiplayer games they don't have much appeal for me. I will admit that sometimes out of lack of anything better to do I'll have a go on Bioshock again or play Left 4 Dead with someone, but the level of enjoyment is far less with this genre than with others. The only genres I find worse than this one is racing or sport. I really can't get into those two no matter how much I try.

 

[Pandalisk]

I have only replayed Deadspace more than once.

Other games i dont replay but rather pick and chose certain levels i like from time to time

 

[Snarky Username]

I love RPGs, but there's no way I can see myself replaying most of them. They're usually the longest games to play through and I can't go through the whole game for a few months without getting bored halfway through. I could play Zelda games hundreds of times though. Last weekend I replayed Majora's Mask for at least the 10th time.

 

[TheSchizoid]

I have way too many games to worry about replayability these days but I used to play Final Fantasy VI (or III when I was playing it on the SNES) and Zelda: Link To The Past many times over. I believe how much you replay a game also depends on how much time you have available to devote to playing games as well.

 

[Sir_Tor]

What I've heard Mass Effect had great replayablity. I couldn't play through it again, it just became soooo dull.

Batman: Arkham Asylum though, now that's a game I love. I've played through it 3-4 times!

 

[Palademon]

Shooters are easy replay value coz you miss stuff. Getting all 130 emblems on Sonic Adventure feels like a chore.

 

[Iwata]

I always have new games to play, so replayability only only becomes an issue many months after my original playthrough.

 

[Et3rnalLegend64]

I would really like if the games I bought had replayability. I don't want to go through it once and leave it to collect dust. That makes me feel like I wasted money.

Personally, I can't do shooters unless I have friends or online play. The single player campaigns don't tend to add up to much for me. Bioshock was amazing, but I didn't feel like playing it more than once. The Halo games were decently fun, and I did actually replay them a couple times, but I can't be bothered to try on Legendary or even Heroic difficulty if they're too hard. It just doesn't seem worth it. Half Life 2 was really fun and I've probably replayed it once or twice. I went through CoD4's campaign once and never did it again.
Whether I replay a shooter or not depends on how much the game boils down to point and shoot and whether it gets unreasonably difficult. Using Halo as an example, it has vehicle sections to break up the monotony, but the enemies are just way too hard to kill on higher difficulties sometimes and it gets rather cheap (Jackal Snipers anyone?). Because of that, I did replay it at times, but kept the difficulty down.

For other genres, the game relies more on skill or strategy rather than what weapon you're holding at which section and if you've memorized the enemy positions. I can beat Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden on max difficulty because they're hard but fair. I'll continue playing Touhou because I can't quite beat it yet but I'm getting there.

I like fighting games just because, but I won't turn the difficulty too high because the computer starts relying too much on computerized reflexes to counter me. I play them for a good while, but they tend to stop playing them once I get bored of fighting computer players. It's not the same when your mind games and pressure don't affect their behavior or performance.

tl;dr I don't like point and click shooters, I like difficult action games, I like my bullet hell and the destructive, 99% female cast of Touhou. I really enjoy fighters, but the computer lacks what a human can bring to the table, either because they can't utilize the full potential of the characters or because computerized behavior just isn't fun to play against after a while.

 

[BelmontClan]

I think replayability partially depends on the length of the game. I've lost count how many times I've played Symphony of the Night, but it helps that you can complete the game in less than 15 hours the first time and around 10 the second.

On the other hand for RPGs, I've played Dragon Quest VIII twice and love it to pieces, wouldn't mind playing it again even though it IS long. Yes, I already know the the story, but that's the point! I get to relive it again! I mean, do you have a favorite book? You don't mind reading that again even if you already know what happens. It's the anticipation of "oooh, I know that I'm getting close to a really good part in 15 pages or so." You can pick up a favorite book or game again because you've developed an emotional interest in the story and you want to relive that experience again. I recently finished Persona 3 and THAT is a long, long game, but the story grabs your attention and wreaks havoc with your emotions, so much so that a random video showing a character long died can make you cry. When I finished, the first thing I thought was "damn, I want to do this again!" I think that's when you know you have a replayable game.

 

[mirror's edgy]

Deus Ex: starring JC Denton, master of anything fun that ends in murder.
plenty of replay value in that

 

[Benmonkey7]

Game replayability is a big thing for me. It is a big factor for what games I will buy. I replay most shooters and RPGs I get like Halo: Reach and Fallout 3 (especially Fallout 3).

 

[Fusioncode9]

Ive replayed Might and Magic 6-8 many times each. As for shooters usually I'll play the campaign once just to play it, and again to do it on the hardest difficulty and get the achievements. If I can I'l play it through with a buddy

 

[Breaker deGodot]

Replayability usually isn't a problem at all, but RPG's have occasionally fallen prey to this.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

eh single player shooters usually dont get me to play more then a few times...unless its battlefront II, i played every aspect of that game at least 40 or so times, conquest/campaign/multi/etc...

rpgs however, if it has a decent moral setup and has a decent plot/storytelling ability, then ill play through it 20-30 times no doubt.

 

[Something Amyss]

I love starting over in most RPGs. Leveling up, trying different things. Still didn't finish Dragon Age even once, but I do replay many games for that factor alone.

 

[NeutralDrow]

I can replay pretty much any game I liked. It just takes longer in between plays for some games. Something like Devil May Cry 3 or God Hand (action games with several difficulty levels), or Wizardry 8 (RPG with extensive character creation and variety), I can replay almost immediately. Something like a visual novel or a JRPG without "new game plus" functions (i.e., not a Tales game or something with character creation), it takes a little longer for me to want to replay.

 

[IBlackKiteI]

As someone above said Mass Effect really doesnt have any replayability.

I reckon real replayability is more than just getting some new lines of dialogue or messed around with weapon combinations.
I see it more like having a lot more ways to tackle the games problems, unfortunately the only game I've played that really does this is Deus Ex, even up until the final mission theres around six different ways to get past a sucky situation.

Games like Call of Duty, Halo, Dead Space, Bioshock, Metro 2033 etc, can be fun to play again and again, but as for true replayability, I think thats been dead for a while.

Although I get the feeling theres some hugely replayable game I forgot to mention.