Does anyone really replay games?

The Game Room
1

You almost always see some comment about replayability in game reviews. Ehter that is has some degree of it or none at all. As for myself, I always tend to have three or four games on the to-be-played stack and replaying something I’ve already finished would put me that much further behind.

I know that some games unlock extra levels or harder difficulty settings once you complete the game to entice you to run it again, but does anyone ever go back for another round?

The last game I replayed was Hellgate: London. And that was only because the final boss and I died on each other spears so I didn’t get the last loot drop. And I wanted to try a tech character rather than magic.

How about it? Anyone replay games often?

Which ones?

Why?

2

I replay *Prince of Persia: Sands of Time * at least once a year. I also replay Burnout a lot, at least until the next iteration comes out. My son has replayed Fable at least five times and he is always replaying his Pokemon games ad nauseum.

3

I do. For much the same reason that I re-read books. If I enjoyed the story, after sufficient time has passed I’ll often enjoy revisiting it.

Of course, I do bump up the difficulty so it’s not a complete cake-walk.

The other big reason is finances: replaying a game is much, much cheaper than going out to buy a new game.

Baldur’s Gate gets replayed fairly regularly. NWN did for a while, but now I think I’ve sucked all the fun out of that. I still go back to Alpha Centauri, though. I don’t think that will ever get old.

4

When I was younger I’d replay games all the time - get 100%, do all the alternate paths, all that. (King’s Quest VI, I miss you.) As an adult it doesn’t interest me unless it’s a sandbox game.

5

I started a new playthrough of Buffy the Vampire Slayer:Chaos Bleeds this weekend. As to why…well it’s Buffy!

6

I hadn’t really considered it during the OP, but I will replay some games if there are significant forks during the game or if there are different factions to start out with. Supreme Commander for instance. Warhammer and Warhammer 40k as another.

I guess I was really asking about linear games where there won’t be major differences beyond difficulty from start to finish. Doom and Half-Life.

But for me, once I have completed all the faction trees, I’m done with it.

7

When it comes to single-player games, I’ve always considered “replayability” to be G-rated shorthand for “fuck-around potential”.

Take GTA3. Most people loved it, and not for its epic storyline, compelling characterization, flashy graphics, or groundbreaking physics engine. They loved it because you could spend two hours – or two minutes – just fucking around to see what sort of havoc you could wreak, totally apart from the actual missions (which were plentiful, and provided a nice distraction for when you finally got tired of fucking around).

Another example, at least for me, was Super Mario 64. Sure, I got all the stars, opened up all the doors, found all the secret areas, spent forever searching in vain for Luigi, and all that jazz. What kept me playing it years after I’d done all that, though, was the ability to move around and interact with the environment in novel and creative ways…in other words, to fuck around. Nearly every time I’d enter a level, I’d find a way to go somewhere I hadn’t been or do something I hadn’t done – slide down a slope to access a lower area, sextuple-wall-jump to the top of a mountain, pick up an object and find somewhere strange to put it – often with comedic result.

(I’ve spent too long on examples already, but I couldn’t let this pass without giving props to San Francisco rush, an otherwise-mediocre racing game memorable for rewarding you for extensive fucking around.)

Now, contrast those to, say, Final Fantasy VII. That was an amazing game by all counts, and I spent days and weeks with it unlocking its various secrets and taking in the storyline and universe. Once that’s done, though…aside from nostalgia or brushing up before watching Advent Children, there isn’t a lot of point to playing it again. The characters, the NPCs, the dialogue, the FMV; they’ll all be the same, and my only reward for trying to fuck around would be a few random battles.

Granted, there are other factors that can contribute to replay value – multiplayer, say, or the “addictive” element of a puzzle game – but when it comes to single-player titles, the word “replayability” is, to me, synonymous with how much fucking around can be done.

8

I’ve replayed some games a dozen times over. Or more. If the gameplay is actually fun, then you probably want to come back. If all it had was pretty graphics or just the cache of bring new, then it was never good no matter how “exciting” it seemed at the time…

This, in fact, is what I look for in games, media, whatever. If it’s good, I will come back. If not, it’s a failure flat out no matter what I thought at the time.

9

Any game worth playing once is worth playing twice. :slight_smile:

Probably not true, but any game I loved I’ll probably play again. I replayed the heck out of Diablo II, Master of Orion II, Civ II/III, all of the Age of Empires games… etc. I replayed the Katamari games I have, I replayed lots of RPGs. I rewatch movies and re-read books, too. I just like to age them a little bit and pick them up in a few years.

10

I replay everything, and if I don’t, I usually give it away.

11

I’ve replayed most of the games I liked enough to actually buy.

12

Most games I replay are either so good I don’t remind starting a new file (Super Mario World, Link to the Past, Final Fantasy VI, Tetris, etc.) or the New Game Plus feature sucks me in and suddenly I’ve dropped, like 100 hours of grinding into it (this is why I’ve held off buying the latest NIS SRPG - I finally was able to bite the bullet and sell off the other titles I had been playing, but before that they were all massive time sinks).

I’m very close to 100% completion in a number of games, but I’ve given up on trying to accomplish it because finding those last few Doodads of Whatever are mind-bogglingly difficult.

13

I can’t tell you how many Civ games I’ve played over the years. It’s an obsession that never dies.

RPGs on the other hand, I don’t replay very often. Seems like by the time I forget how they were the first time through, there’s ten other new games to play.

'course, I have many WoW characters. If that counts as replay, I guess I’m guilty.

14

Yep since if a game plays well once then it will play well when I come back to it later. When I play a game I’m looking mainly at game play elements instead of the graphics or the story so when I run into something special I’m willing to go back and revisit it. Typically the only way that I wouldn’t go back to a game that I enjoyed along those lines is when it has been superseded by something more refined.

That’s not even mentioning the games that are designed for repeat play (strategy games and so on).

15

Some games (Deus Ex) have multiple possible playstyles and routes through levels that require replaying the game to get the most out of it.

16

I only have a handful of games that I have only played once.

Either I never finish it at all (I get bored and don’t bother finish, or I find it too hard, or it’s a game that doesn’t actually end).

Or I replay it.

The ones I have finished, and not replayed, yet, I finished relatively recently, and have more games that I’ve played or replayed in the meanwhile.

17

I generally don’t replay games. I try to get the most out of a fresh runthrough.

Silent Hill I did replay because there’s one ending you can only get on replay (it’s the silly ending, though). And I did recently watch the whole set of “blind” run videos on Youtube, thanks to dotchan.

The major exception for me is Thief (1 & 2). I love that game so much I’ve gone through it about five or six times at least. The fun there is that you can try crazy things with it (knock out everyone on a level without any alarms; do it completely undetected, stack all the crates and dance on the edge of the universe, etc.)

Right now I’m actually in the middle of replaying an old game - Disciples II (partially out of lack of interest & funds for newer games). Although I’ve completed all the factions’ storylines before, I’m finding it entertaining. Partly because it’s been long enough ago for me that I’m relearning it, and partly because the gameplay varies enough to be interesting.

18

I replay most of my games. For example, I probably play through Ocarina of Time every six months or so. Portal, I beat, then immediately beat again with the commentary on.

19

I replay the hell out of Baldur’s Gate 2, especially with all of the player-made mods out there.

20

I replay any game I enjoy. Sometimes it’s too take a different route. Sometimes it’s just because I like the game.

I’d replay Alone In The Dark again if I could get it to run on this machine.