From Red Dead Redemption to Alan Wake; Call of Duty to Halo,
downloadable content can be quite irritating. Map-packs and weapon upgrades are
a bit understandable, but are extra story missions necessary? Story missions
are classified as extra content that tells a part of the story that was
originally left out or added to lengthen the main campaign. It seems quite
unnecessary, as well as costly. How many gamers have purchased a game and find
that they are paying extra just to fill in the gaps? How many times have we
been subjected to a full-price game that hasn’t been completed?
Any Assassin’s Creed title after the first one has at least
a few story missions that are released after the actual game. Take AC: 2 for
instance. They tell the story of how Ezio Auditore was involved in some
influential events in history with Chapters 12 and 13. They also fill in the
gaps between Chapters 11 and 14 in the main campaign. My problem with this is
that Ubisoft clearly had an idea as to what they wanted to do with the story,
yet they couldn’t add those two campaign chapters until later on. Wouldn’t that
mean that the game is incomplete? If I buy a game at full price (games usually
sell at $59.99), and play through the entire story mode only to realize that
there are pieces missing…
Let me put it this way; If a new book came out, and the
author chose to withhold three chapters in the hopes that readers will buy the
next book just to see what happens; it doesn’t seem very cost effective for the
reader, especially when the reader has to pay $30 for the initial book. Does
that mean that they now have to pay an additional $15 just to flesh out the
plot? I’ll continue for those of you who still don’t get it.
As many of you know, I love Mass Effect! I live and die by
my decked out level 60 Commander Shepard, whom is now a level 30 in Mass Effect
2. But when I play Mass Effect 2, there is something that bothers me all to
hell. On Illium, you reunite with Liara T’soni, your squad mate from the first
game. Romantic relationship or not, she needs your help getting information
pertinent to finding a spy working for the Shadow Broker.
I don’t know about everybody else, but I absolutely despised
that terminal-hacking mission. The strategy guide says that whomever Liara
kills isn’t the spy reporting back to the Shadow Broker. It’s her assistant!
While I think it’s an interesting twist for Liara’s part in the game, but there
was no closure on it until the DLC pack was released almost seven months after
the actual game. This lets you actually join Liara on her journey to get
revenge on her enemy and rescue a long-lost friend. It was a great addition to
the game, and it definitely filled in some holes in Liara’s plotline. But did
it have to be left out?
And don’t even get me started on how the Arrival DLC pack
should have been included in the game from the start. It plays a gigantic part
in the unraveling plot, and takes place smack in the middle of the game. Not to
mention the fact that the repercussions from the DLC pack serve as the baseline
for the opening of Mass Effect 3. How can you honestly say that it’s right to
release a DLC pack that has a direct tie-in to the next game after the title
has already been release? What if you didn’t play the Arrival DLC pack? Bioware
is known for their outstanding stories, but players won’t know what’s happening
in the beginning of Mass Effect 3 if they haven’t played it. Let’s just say that your actions caused
a lot of people to die, and citizens of the galaxy want your head on a pike!
Here’s the kicker. Depending on the size and length of the
downloadable content, the price can range anywhere from $2-25. I paid a total
of $9 for both DLC packs for Assassin’s Creed 2. The Mass Effect 2 packs cost
me a little over $30, including the appearance packs. That’s a decent amount of
extra dough on top of the full price I paid for the game.
With all that said, if developers need to take extra time to
polish the game with all of its story elements intact, I will gladly wait the
few extra months it might take to do so. Actually, if all the content is ready
by the game’s release date, they should package it altogether and charge the
total amount. For example, if a game costs $60 at release, and the DLC costs
$30, I would rather pay the $90 upfront. I know the developers have to make
their money somehow, there is no sense in making me jump through hoops just to
see what Ezio did in the ten years between Chapters 11 and 14. Make sense?
