Poll: Whatever happened to replayability?

[DAPLR]

When I was playing Prototype, I spent more than 50 percent of it fucking around the early stages with all the powers. Mass Effect is also a great example of this kind of replay. When you start again with more than the socks around your ankles.
Why can't more games have this? I would have loved to play through FF thirteen again with all my stuff! Devil May Cry does it...why can't you!
Some say 'It ruins it for some games'. I personally don't buy it. I had the most fun playing KOTOR 2 when I used a cheat save that gave me all my stuff from the start.
Almost every Bioware game should have this. Also JRPG's. It's fun! I don't wanna find all the weapon upgrades for the assault rifle again on Vanquish. I already did it!

That felt good...what do you think? Should more games have this kind of replayability? And if so, why?

 

[Radeonx]

It should, just because it wouldn't be that hard to implement it and using a system like this would be completely optional.
It can't possibly damage anything, so I don't see a problem with it.

 

[airwolfe591]

It sounds like you're talking about New Game + which seems to have become rather obscure lately. I'm for any kind of replayability that isn't a multiplayer addition.

New Game+, Branching Storylines, Procedurally Generated Content, etc., anything to get more bang out of your buck right?

 

[DAPLR]

It sounds like you're talking about New Game + which seems to have become rather obscure lately. I'm for any kind of replayability that isn't a multiplayer addition.

New Game+, Branching Storylines, Procedurally Generated Content, etc., anything to get more bang out of your buck right?

Exactly! I didn't spend the last 100 hours levelling up my character to perfection for you to tell me to start a new one from scratch.

 

[SeriousIssues]

I play multiplayer shooters or just HUGE games.
Like Fallout. I'm too lazy to start the game over because of the sheer shock of not having anything left after being King of the Wasteland, but you can always journey out and find new things to do.

 

[Rooster893]

I love replayability. It lets you relive great games and play them for what they're worth.

As of this day, I have beaten WWE SmackDown! vs Raw 2006 with everybody, and I still love playing it! It's, IMO, the greatest wrestling game ever.

Anyway, yeah, replayability is definitely important.

 

[BlindMessiah94]

It sounds like you're talking about New Game + which seems to have become rather obscure lately. I'm for any kind of replayability that isn't a multiplayer addition.

New Game+, Branching Storylines, Procedurally Generated Content, etc., anything to get more bang out of your buck right?

Exactly! I didn't spend the last 100 hours levelling up my character to perfection for you to tell me to start a new one from scratch.

Ah Chrono Trigger...The game I have played more from start to finish than any other. At least over 50 times...

 

[Kotep]

Personally I'm a fan of true replayability, where you can go back through the game and do things entirely differently to see how they turn out.

Alpha Protocol had both kinds (NG+ gave you a special 'veteran' background and there were a lot of ways to complete missions differently) but its only downfall was that the gameplay itself wasn't particularly great.

 

[Akihiko]

I certainly would like to see more new games+ where you can play the game through again, keeping certain stuff.

As for branching paths, extra dungeons etc. Those don't really bother me, I play games for the story, and extra dungeons tend not to add any, and branching paths usually doesn't change that much in terms of the story.

 

[Azaraxzealot]

When I was playing Prototype, I spent more than 50 percent of it fucking around the early stages with all the powers. Mass Effect is also a great example of this kind of replay. When you start again with more than the socks around your ankles.
Why can't more games have this? I would have loved to play through FF thirteen again with all my stuff! Devil May Cry does it...why can't you!
Some say 'It ruins it for some games'. I personally don't buy it. I had the most fun playing KOTOR 2 when I used a cheat save that gave me all my stuff from the start.
Almost every Bioware game should have this. Also JRPG's. It's fun! I don't wanna find all the weapon upgrades for the assault rifle again on Vanquish. I already did it!

That felt good...what do you think? Should more games have this kind of replayability? And if so, why?

quoting prototype gives you insta-credibility with me.

i think it did replayability PERFECTLY, and i did exactly what you did. just restarted the game, finished the intro missions, and went to town on the... city.

it's why i loved the incredible hulk: ultimate destruction as well

 

[Katana314]

It's not compatible with all game types, but I at least think companies should make an attempt to let you replay certain parts of the game, possibly with a change in the way things work. Difficulty levels are often good for that.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

New Game + is pretty much JRPG-only territory, sadly. With exceptions, of course.

I'd love it in Bioshock.

 

[DAPLR]

Rock on dude, I loved Ultimate Destruction. Afterwards you get to play as banner himself!! Fucking awesome!

 

[Scabadus]

I think a lot of games could add a lot of value to themselves if the developers just took a step back and said "right, with one devoted workday, what code can we add specifically for replayability?" It's not about changing the game world, or story, or characters, or anything like that, it's the tiny things like being able to start with all your stuff. Instantly doubles the value for money (sort of) by adding a second fun playthrough to the campaign.

A couple of posts above me mentioned branching storylines, remember that this can be done very badly. Especially if the story has branches at several points, who wants to play through the first five missions for the fifteenth time just to see that last ending?

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

New Game+ should be a feature in all future RPGs. It makes Mass Effect such a better game. You can start out on higher difficulties with it, since the early game on Insanity with a low level character is absurdly difficult. You can also perfect a character, correct any "mistakes" you may have made with them.

 

[Kopikatsu]

I honestly can't bring myself to finish games if they don't have a New Game+ or some kind of post game content. (I mean, I'll get to the final boss in RPGs, but won't beat them.)

That's basically just because I don't feel like spending two hours going Buff - Attack - Attack - Heal - Attack - Buff - Heal - Attack - Attack - Heal just to see a screen that says 'CONGRATULATIONS! You wasted two hours of your life for a game over screen! Screw you!"

 

[krazykidd]

i personally dont really care for replayability , because i usually cant be bothered to replay a game once i finish it , ( with the exception of Alpha protocol) , but for JRPGs, i prefer to have alot of extra sidequests, bosses dungeons etc... ( the wild arms series was amazing at this ) to keep me playing after completing the game instead of having to restart the game with everything i had ( although they do have a new game plus , where you keep your lvls , and items and such) but i found this to be boring because all the challenge was gone.

 

[motyr]

The game I've replayed the most is The Legend of Zelda: OoT. Why, you might ask? Because it's a fantastic game. I am prone to replay games that are REALLY GOOD, added gameplay mechanics/difficulty levels/other gimmicks don't matter to me as much as everything else that you would categorize as a criterion of a "good game". If it's a great game, I will replay it at some point or another.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I liked how they went about unlocking bonus powers in Saint's Row 2: mess around doing non-essential quests (almost all of which are available very early on) and you can end up with unlimited respect, unlimited ammo with almost every weapon type and, a bunch of sweet rides. Not to mention all the money.

As for straight-up New Game+, I don't recall a single game with the feature that was ruined because of it.

 

[Conza]

When I was playing Prototype, I spent more than 50 percent of it fucking around the early stages with all the powers. Mass Effect is also a great example of this kind of replay. When you start again with more than the socks around your ankles.
Why can't more games have this? I would have loved to play through FF thirteen again with all my stuff! Devil May Cry does it...why can't you!
Some say 'It ruins it for some games'. I personally don't buy it. I had the most fun playing KOTOR 2 when I used a cheat save that gave me all my stuff from the start.
Almost every Bioware game should have this. Also JRPG's. It's fun! I don't wanna find all the weapon upgrades for the assault rifle again on Vanquish. I already did it!

That felt good...what do you think? Should more games have this kind of replayability? And if so, why?

Yes, I think games should be replayable.

Unfortunately, don't you think it's quite a subjective thing? There are some games that most people believe to have replayability that I say 'nope, not a chance', and there are others that people label 'no way you can replay' that I replay.

Portal, is something I can think of, I didn't replay it immediately after I finished it, but maybe 6 months later, I didn't remember all the puzzles, so I found it to have some replayability. On the flip side, ME2, I'm replaying now on insanity, and yes that game has massive replayability, but I'm finding it so liniear (compared to ME1), that I'm not liking the replayability as much.

But games where no replayability is intended, I think is criminal, especially for the money they charge us for them, if they were cheaper, that'd be one thing, but unreplayable games aren't, so they should make most if not all games replayable, whenever possible (through re-importing characters and increased difficulty, multiple routes, ect ect).