Replayable vs. Unreplayable Games

how long to beat.com says that Resident Evil 7 takes the median player about 10 hours to finish the game me personally I beat it in about 8 and my first playthrough was actually quite thorough I wanted to collect all the powerful guns I got a fair portion of the bobbleheads and antique coins and I felt like I took my time without just dottling around but then I went back again and again I did challenge runs I collected all the Collectibles played through all the difficulties completed all the DLC and got all the achievements that took me about 85 hours and I just absolutely love this game to Pieces as man despite its linear relatively short campaign I've poured so much time into Resident Evil 7 that it is actually crazy now let's bring our attention to the game little nightmares for example I have played through this game once and it took me about 3 hours and then I never played it again it was fun but it didn't strike me as something I wanted to experience again today we're talking replayability most video games are always pushing for replay value with tons of extra content bundled in the game sometimes I'll decide I want to 100% a game but then I'll actually start getting at that goal and realize that the optional stuff wasn't implemented so you could experience every exciting aspect of the game but rather just to Pat it out and justify pricing it's like a hamburger right you know most hamburgers ERS have some sort of filler in them whether it be breadcrumbs or an egg or something there are some burgers that are just super lean and delicious and have next to no filler in them at all and then you also have ones that have a decent amount of filler in them and still taste great as well but if you bite into a burger and just taste breadcrumbs with no meat then you have an issue things get more confusing when all the different replayability factors are in the mix so let's just start by establishing the single player standard most games with a campaign go like this you have a main path and some side content this could be in the form of optional missions Collectibles extra modes and the list goes on too often I'll forget the sheer amount of extra content that games pack in is usually straight up exhausting I had to play through Dark Souls 3 Thrice just to get all the achievements do you know how draining that is gives me conniptions if you spent hours on this staircase just for that one [ __ ] Covenant item I have nothing but respect for you now it's natural that the average player would look at that grind and go [ __ ] that I'm not doing all that [ __ ] and that is very fair but honestly I really enjoyed 100 pering Dark Souls 3 because it quite simply allowed me to keep playing the game and experiencing new stuff even after I finished the story this is the video game equivalent of dumping breadcrumbs into your mouth after finishing your burger which can taste good or bad depending on how full you are side content should always be a supplement to already great gameplay rather than something just to just prop up a hollow experience but what if your whole game is a hollow experience well we have a term for that and that's called online multiplayer wow guys we're not very good at this game obviously in reality online multiplayer games are not just Hollow experiences that's a joke but they can Teeter on being too static they rely on the fact that people will be playing their game consistently so as long as you have people to play with you can play the game forever so many games have arrived and then died a year or two after simply because of the fact that no one wants to keep on feeding into their lacking gameplay Loops so on one hand you have these games like League of Legends csgo and TF2 that have these massive communities that have been playing the game for hours each day for nearly decades and you also have these absolutely bone dry games where you'll be lucky to even get into a match without a friend to play with multiplayer games have the potential to be the most replayable games and also the least replayable when you get in a groove of learning and and experimenting and creating new results that is when multiplayer is at its peak and it's on the developers to make sure that they provide for their dieh hard fans both tf2s especially I mean it seems that they've just now started to realize that people actually like to play their games so we got multiplayer servers back for Titanfall and teased with a summer update from Team Fortress only for it to just be some more hat crates I know I got my [ __ ] okay yeah and then oh F oh [ __ ] games don't always have to be about the product itself but the friends you play with a waiter a waiter more toddlers please stop Online PVP games are always more fun with friends but that often comes with the burden of frustration and competition as well Co-op is a good middle ground between the chaos of online [ __ ] and the immersive and focused nature of single player I find games with Co-op modes to often be the most replayable because it means that they both have a near infinitely replayable way to experience it with friends along with a solid way to navigate it solo as well great co-op games have a simple yet exciting gameplay Loop shoot enemies with your friends explore with your friends or just do whatever the [ __ ] you want with your friends when a co-op game knows when to sit back and just be a vessel for friendship rather than a constant blaring source of stimulus then it's doing its job right what was that I'm scared oh that's you chewing wow okay don't do that again goodness when a game is an absolute classic a remake or a remaster can create some differences in replay value firstly for all the people who have already played the original it's a gamble on whether the game is even worth playing because the differences might not be striking enough what could also be the case is that the new version is too different from the original and sacrifices some aspects that made it fun back then Halo C's remaster created way too much much noise on screen which was a big stretch from the simple yet creative visuals of its previous version Halo 2 Anniversary Edition fixed the cluttered visuals and had beautiful cutcenes to boot again though the game is just not worth paying extra for if you already own the original remasters usually end up being the best way to play games whether it be because you're on a new platform or it's just a cleaned up and modernized version of a game you already love but remakes are a whole different Beast remasters can have drastic Chang es but you're still playing the same game if you're playing a remake it can often be a completely different game and translating a game into a new form developers really have to take intention into consideration it's definitely okay to clean up some bloated Parts but there is such a thing as an overcorrection overall though remakes and remasters 2 can either create a new way to replay a favorite game elevating it to New Heights or they can just make you realize why you don't go back to play those games in the first place game games don't always have to be replayed though the enjoyment you receive from finishing the game can be enough and if your memory of the game is sufficient you don't have to go back to play it again or collect everything a lot of games know that experiencing everything isn't the intended way to play for the average player massive games like Elden ring and Red Dead Redemption 2 have just so much content that just going right to the end and stopping there will get most players a more satisfying experience although with the story of these games it is fun to go back and try and catch hints once it's over because you'll be able to appreciate all these little tidbits of information that flew by your head when you didn't know where the narrative was headed story is usually the least replayable part of a game though so skippable cutcenes is always a good option the last thing you want a second playthrough to be is tedious it should feel like diving head first back into a familiar World rather than just dealing with monotony it's just a nice option for people who want more time with great games for me personally though one of my favorite kinds of game is the kind that cannot be replayed well of course you can technically replay this style of game it's not like they lock you out of playing it that would be stupid most unre repayable games once you load them up after beating the game there's not really anything new to discover because beating it usually comes through knowledge a half step towards this would be the soul style of games or Rog likes where they have traditional gameplay but so much of the experience is about learning that progress is knowledge and vice versa a game that completely cannot be replayed is one that relies entirely on knowledge to advance gameplay the best two examples of this specific type of game and probably two of my favorite games ever created are outer wilds and return of the oin both of these games use mystery to an incredible effect driving player engagement through ambiguity and Discovery as you keep playing you'll learn more about how these worlds work what clicks and what doesn't and it's a mentally rewarding experience to finish of course once it's complete you can never experience it again there's a few silly achievements but they're completely separate from the main game and more of an afterthought to me this is the most special type of game even though they're heavily curated and thoroughly tested experiences they all feel so unique to me all of the discoveries I made were my own even though the games guided me towards my conclusions I would not be displeased if more games were like return the oen and outer Wilds because there's always room for one more good game replay value can be convoluted tedious and inconsistent but it also brings me back to enjoy my favorite games again 80-hour games and 5-hour games have different levels of both content and cost but they both have the potential to be equally fantastic games one isn't necessarily worse than the other as long as developers put in effort to make their games enjoyable regardless of subsequent playthroughs and take the time to make memorable pieces of art I think that every single person has at least one game that they wish they could wipe their memory and play for the first time again and considering that it's not exactly possible to do that replay value is a glimpse into that world it Blends the familiar and the unknown into something that lets you experience a level of fresh content before you become too acquainted with the whole game a lot of games benefit greatly from replayability and a lot of other games know when to stop and leave you wanting more but regardless when those credits roll a great game will have you thinking I want to do that again

Channel: Tihshoo

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Id: MwpPTaJ2V4A

Length: 10min 53sec (653 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 25 2023