Call it an expansion pack, call it a micro transaction, call
it whatever you want, but in the end downloadable content (DLC) is here to stay. DLC refers to additional content for a game
that can be used to enhance or extend the experience, and can consist of new
levels, new aesthetics, new playable characters, new areas/bosses, and a number
of other opportunities. DLC typically comes with a price tag of some sort as
well, and while some of the opportunities may be relatively inexpensive, others
can leave you wondering if you got screwed out of a large chunk of the game
(what up Asura’s Wrath). Furthermore,
these opportunities are marketed relatively poorly at the time of release, as
they are released well after the original game hits store shelves. Instead,
game companies focus on incentivizing the purchase of the upcoming DLC when
purchasing the main game, giving consumers to purchase both the game and the
add on content at a discount, typically in the form a “season pass”.
Regardless, this post aims to look at some notable examples of whether DLC was
worth the price of admission for fans or a slap in the face.
(All post release.
Credit: Smashbros.com)
Worth It – Super Smash Brothers Wii U/3DS new
characters
Fighting games may not seem like the perfect place for
additional content. Moving hard earned cash for clothing changes seems trivial,
and while arenas are nice, they’re not exactly a game changer. What Nintendo
did with its latest iteration of the Smash Bros. franchise though was
brilliant. In the course of a year and a half, Nintendo periodically released
new characters to its popular fighter. The game itself was first released back
in October 2014, and continued releases with a total 7 new characters up until
March 2016. Furthermore, each new character was a major announcement for
Nintendo, and included 3 new third party characters in Ryu from the Street
Fighter series, Bayonetta from the Bayonetta series, and most shockingly, Cloud
from the Final Fantasy series. The
company also released three old favorites in Mewtwo. Roy and Lucas, along with
Corrin, who would be starring in his/her own game later that year, essentially
providing players with marketing for an upcoming game[1].
The best part is that the majority of these characters all had distinct
move sets, giving players more tactics to learn and utilize. Some of characters
are actually considered the best in the game. While the characters were not
cheap individually, each wave of content typically came bundled with new stages
and costumes at a lower than per each item price, making the subsequent
purchases not too hard to swallow. When it comes to creating worthwhile
additional content, Nintendo threw a knockout punch with this one.
(I mean…really?
Credit: Knowyourmeme.com)
Worthless – Extra
costumes, armor, etc. in almost every game (Exception: die hard
fans)
Listen, I’m not trying to rain on the parade of costumes. I
think they’re pretty cool if you’re a fan of a game or series. But let’s be serious – they add basically
no value to a game outside of aesthetics or if they have some benefit it’s
minimal. Take the horse armor upgrade from Skyrim, the early armor from Nioh
as boring defense examples, and a lot of the other options add minimal value.
For a company to charge for such services seems unfair and unnecessary, and
would be way more welcome if they added them as a late game bonus or for
meeting certain requirements. It does not look like this trend has any plans to
change in the near future for better or worse. I have to give credit to a game
like Tekken 7, which forces players
to continue to play the game to accumulate virtual money to purchase these aesthetics
as opposed to using real world money.
(Superb informational advertisement. Credit: Youtube)
Worth It – Sonic & Knuckles, the OG DLC
When Sonic &
Knuckles was conceptualized, it was actually meant to be a part of the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 cartridge.
Unfortunately due to both time and memory constraints, the full game would not
make it in time for the original February release of Sonic the Hedgehog 3. As a result, Sega thought up an idea of
splitting the game, letting 3 finish
at a natural point, and then allowing Sonic
& Knuckles to consider the story. What this means is that when users
purchased Sonic & Knuckles the cartridge
itself had “lock-on technology”, meaning it had an adapter where players could
input a Sonic 3 cartridge and play Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles in one full play through. It also made
Knuckles a playable character in Sonic 3, and Tails a playable character in Sonic & Knuckles. Furthermore,
players could now play as Knuckles in Sonic 2, along with the special stage
mini game in the original Sonic. Overall,
in a world without Downloadable Content (i.e. 1994), Sega came up with a
revolutionary method to fully utilize its most successful franchise.
(Ugh. Credit: GamersGlobal)
Worthless –
Gratuitous nudity in The Saboteur
Electronic Arts (EA) does not have the best track record
when it comes to DLC. To confess, I’ve never played this game myself, but from
what I’ve read it’s middling at best, and insulting at worst. To my original
point, when I researched information for this post, a simple Google search of “Worst
DLC” will lead you to quite a few EA published titles (including this one).
Essentially, for five dollars, players could enter a casino/strip club with
virtual nipples and basic card games. Five dollars where you can essentially
find things of the sort for free on the internet via another simple Google
search is just insulting. What’s really harrowing in my opinion though, is that
EA preyed on the negative stereotypes of gamers, the isolated individuals
incapable of making any social contact and thus needed to debase women to churn
a quick buck. Gamers are smarter than
you think EA, get over yourself. Unsurprisingly the developer, Pandemic
Studios, is defunct as of 2009. Good riddance.
(Prepare
to die. Credit: DarkSouls3.Wiki)
Worth It – Dark Souls and Bloodborne provide some of the best boss fights via DLC
Listen, I promise you the next post won’t have a shout out
to either Dark Souls or Bloodborne. Since my hot take
(Right here) I’ve simply gone back to them over and over again, playing through
the game and the DLC. Let’s start with Dark
Souls 3 – Two separate DLC packages that are pricy but consist of some of
the best boss fights in the game/series. While the Ashes of Ariandel package
was admittedly a little light, the Sister Friede battle was breathtaking, and
again, brought back moments of tense, unadulterated pleasure, where you have so
few opportunities to get your strikes in, but once you do and you win, it’s
totally worth it. That boss fight alone was worth the investment. In the other
DLC add on, The Ringed City, we are treated again to some of the best fights in
the entire game (and potentially, the entire series). The final boss, Slave
Knight Gael, is so intense, hard, infuriating, invigorating, adrenaline
pumping, and gut wrenching that it simply has to be played and mastered for it
to be fully understood. It really pains me when people say games are a waste of
time, largely because I do consider gaming to be its own unique art form, but
also because I find the comments baseless. I’d love for those people to take an
hour to try to beat Slave Knight Gael and let me know if they do or do not feel
anything, I’d wager it would change a lot of opinions.
(Be afraid.
Credit: Fextralife.com)
On the Bloodborne side
of things similar feelings are represented. There are a healthy dose of new
bosses with unique move sets, and some of them I consider the best in the game.
Lady Maria is an intense battle where you feel like you are truly going at it
with one of the more polished villains, plus she has the coolest weapon. My
favorite once again lies with the final boss though in the Orphan of Kos. When
I got to the Orphan I had essentially played through Bloodborne twice, although I was on my first run of the DLC. I had
gotten pretty good at understanding the game and knowing how to attack enemies
and bosses. I defeated the aforementioned Lady Maria on my second try, and
happened to feel pretty confident entering the coastal battlefield with the Orphan.
What I found though was that I was not expecting the speed and ferocity of the
creature, and simply got wrecked over and over. Finally, through perseverance I
uncovered strategies to win, and surely enough with enough strikes was able to
best him. When I finally did, I let out a loud “YES” in my household. I never
do things like that really, so when a
game can make you feel something so primal, something good is going on.
As an aside I have a fun story regarding the battles with
the Orphan of Kos. You see, I moved home to my parents’ house after finishing
grad school before relocating again to begin my career and it was a great
experience. I got to bond with my parents – seeing them regularly and helping
out with errands and the like, while also finding some quality time for rest
and relaxation after a busy two years. I was also able to catch up on a
significant amount of games I wanted to play, hence beating Dark Souls 2, Dark Souls 3, and Bloodborne again.
Unfortunately during one of my losses with the Orphan of Kos my mother made the
mistake of opening the door and gently calling down to me in the basement[2].
Sadly getting whooped left me in a bit of a tizzy, leaving my only natural
reaction to roar back with “MOM! NOT NOW”, after which I heard the door close
softly. I then put my head in my hands, as in all my years of gaming and at
nearly thirty years old had I felt more like a child. Oh well, we can all laugh
about it now, I suppose that’s what counts.
(Fair value?
Credit: Youtube)
Worthless – Asura’s Wrath makes you pay to finish
the real game
So this is a tough one for me. On the one hand, Asura’s Wrath was an absolute gem of a
sleeper hit and deserved better from Capcom. On the other, it did not sell
well, so when a sequel that had begun development was promptly cancelled fans
were left at a loss. Now, Capcom should’ve given the additional content to the
players for free (in my opinion of course), but of course, they charged money
for the opportunity to continue the story. For Capcom to cancel the sequel and
then force its players to pay to see what the additional chapters were in the
game for a price seems cold, and really shows how out of tough Capcom is with
the modern gamer. I went ahead and bought the additional chapters and they were
excellent, and I’m sure more content would have come in the future had the game
not been cancelled. Ultimately though, having Capcom sell content that was
reserved for a cancelled project at a price point seems more like a con. I get the company does not want development
to go to waste, but considering the game did not sell well Capcom could have at
least done a solid for those who shelled out cash for the original product
instead of trying to exploit them. Furthermore, there were other special
chapters with Street Fighter
characters battling Asura, which were fun and all, but man, can we get a break
with the Street Fighter cameos already?
If there is one thing Capcom has no idea on how to do, it’s when to know enough
is enough.
(As a longtime MM fan…totally worth
it. Credit: Destructoid)
Others worth mentioning: the famed Mega Man Killers come in
additional levels to Mega Man 10 (Worth it if you are a fan), The Witcher 3 provides players with an
extraordinary amount of new gameplay (Definitely Worth it), amiibo support (it varies across the board, but I’d say
it largely correlates to the Worthless side,
mainly in that Nintendo likes to block certain unlockable content unless you
purchase the toys, which objectively teeters on the unfair side of things)
Overall, we’re at an interesting point in gaming. DLC is no
longer being thought of as a cool extra, but instead is being planned prior to launch
to get additional dollars for the full game experience. In some sense it’s fine,
but in others it’s unfair to those who expect value out of $60. Being told you’ll
need to pay $25 extra to “get everything” is over the top, and while there are
few details on the data available, I strongly believe that unfortunately this
model is here to stay unless things become too outrageous (see the recent issue
for Metroid Samus Returns) that the
community finally says no more[3].
Unfortunately with quite enthusiastic fanbases I’m not sure we’ll ever see that
happen.
