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In the first set of games we're going to be looking at unlockables are used to draw (see also: force) attention to an area of the game that the players might otherwise ignore. In the second set the unlockable content is simply withheld until the player has done enough grinding to satisfy some arbitrary threshold. It's also worth noting that for the purposes of this article I'm only referring to games in which either the multi and single player interact via unlockables or multi-player games in which the unlockables are just that poorly implemented.
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As mentioned above the first category offenders are those games that force the player to go through other (single player) modes in order to unlock multi-player content. The most egregious offenders in this category are fighting games and the most egregious offenders amongst fighting game (at least that come to mind at the moment) are 'Super Smash Bros. Brawl'
and vanilla 'Street Fighter IV'
('vanilla' here referring to the first of three versions of the game). For Brawl we're looking at a game that has 36 (37 if count Zero Suit Samus) playable characters of which 14 must be unlocked. Now, while it is worth noting that all of them can be unlocked through normal (multi-player) gameplay that they all also have faster, if significantly more irritating ways of unlocking them by going through the games other modes collecting random trophies, completing events, etc. Hell, one of the unlocks is done simply through playing the game for ten hours, i.e. leaving your console on overnight. This is not good design. Withholding content until these criteria have been met is just obnoxious. Well then I guess the good news then is that vanilla 'Street Fighter IV' only has 25 characters. However that good news is followed swiftly by some bad news: you have to unlock over a third of them. The criteria here might actually be more tedious than Brawl as it involves simply grinding the same stupid single player mode over an over again. The criteria ranging from simply beating Arcade Mode with a specific character to beating arcade mode with every character (except the one you're unlocking obviously) to beating arcade mode while getting multiple perfect, super and ultra (don't worry about what any of that means just realize that it's arbitrary and obnoxious) finishes. Ugh, moving on.
and vanilla 'Street Fighter IV' ('vanilla' here referring to the first of three versions of the game). For Brawl we're looking at a game that has 36 (37 if count Zero Suit Samus) playable characters of which 14 must be unlocked. Now, while it is worth noting that all of them can be unlocked through normal (multi-player) gameplay that they all also have faster, if significantly more irritating ways of unlocking them by going through the games other modes collecting random trophies, completing events, etc. Hell, one of the unlocks is done simply through playing the game for ten hours, i.e. leaving your console on overnight. This is not good design. Withholding content until these criteria have been met is just obnoxious. Well then I guess the good news then is that vanilla 'Street Fighter IV' only has 25 characters. However that good news is followed swiftly by some bad news: you have to unlock over a third of them. The criteria here might actually be more tedious than Brawl as it involves simply grinding the same stupid single player mode over an over again. The criteria ranging from simply beating Arcade Mode with a specific character to beating arcade mode with every character (except the one you're unlocking obviously) to beating arcade mode while getting multiple perfect, super and ultra (don't worry about what any of that means just realize that it's arbitrary and obnoxious) finishes. Ugh, moving on.Now we hit on those games which (thankfully) restrict their multiplayer unlockbles to the multiplayer mode(s) yet somehow still manage to screw things up. The best example of this and a game that in analyzing it last week actually inspired this article would be 'Killzone 2'
. Now in general the pinnacle of class based shooters (FPS games in which players are allowed to select specializations) is the now free to play 'Team Fortress 2'
so any game that's stepping into that sub-genre is going to have to at least kind of stand up to this comparison. Now, you might be saying that TF2 has unlockables and you'd be correct. However they're what we where talking about at the beginning with regards to correctly implementing unlockable content. You see none of the TF2 character classes are locked to the player. The unlockables are all extra tools for their respective classes (usually new weapons). It's also worth noting that (to the best of my knowledge) the new weapons unlocked in TF2 would be classified as more 'different' than 'better' than the starting weapons in that they allow the player to go about a certain class in a different manner than the stock equipment allows for. Ok, so now that we're done fawning over TF2 and explaining why it's a well designed game let's get down with why 'Killzone 2' isn't. The main reason for this is that 'Killzone' ignores TF2s example of how to do things and forces the player to unlock every single class via fairly tedious multi-player grinding. Here's a hint: when playing a class based shooter and everyone is forced to play the same (starting) class for a long time things get boring in addition to there just generally being a hell of a let less strategy involved. Hell, 'Killzone 2' even manages to cock-up it's one original idea (as far as I know) with regards to class based shooters in its multi-class combinations (that is allowing one class to borrow a skill from another). It does this mostly by making the more useful abilities for cross class work obnoxiously difficult and tedious to unlock for multi-class use.
. Now in general the pinnacle of class based shooters (FPS games in which players are allowed to select specializations) is the now free to play 'Team Fortress 2' so any game that's stepping into that sub-genre is going to have to at least kind of stand up to this comparison. Now, you might be saying that TF2 has unlockables and you'd be correct. However they're what we where talking about at the beginning with regards to correctly implementing unlockable content. You see none of the TF2 character classes are locked to the player. The unlockables are all extra tools for their respective classes (usually new weapons). It's also worth noting that (to the best of my knowledge) the new weapons unlocked in TF2 would be classified as more 'different' than 'better' than the starting weapons in that they allow the player to go about a certain class in a different manner than the stock equipment allows for. Ok, so now that we're done fawning over TF2 and explaining why it's a well designed game let's get down with why 'Killzone 2' isn't. The main reason for this is that 'Killzone' ignores TF2s example of how to do things and forces the player to unlock every single class via fairly tedious multi-player grinding. Here's a hint: when playing a class based shooter and everyone is forced to play the same (starting) class for a long time things get boring in addition to there just generally being a hell of a let less strategy involved. Hell, 'Killzone 2' even manages to cock-up it's one original idea (as far as I know) with regards to class based shooters in its multi-class combinations (that is allowing one class to borrow a skill from another). It does this mostly by making the more useful abilities for cross class work obnoxiously difficult and tedious to unlock for multi-class use.Well that's pretty much it. Before I go I would also like to point out that I don't think 'Killzone 2' is that bad of a game it's just that had it not made a few small mistakes it could have been a future classic. Also another reason that I find unlockables irritating is that with the burgeoning competative scene for video games organizers are often relying on participants to bring some of the equipment and since most information these days is stored on a console's hard drive if a player hasn't unlocked everything for a game (or purchased DLC) then that console is useless for tournament purposes. Sorry there isn't a more cohesive conclusion on this topic but I'm being told I need a few more Skill Points in order to unlock the “Astute Author” ability. See you all next week.
is that bad of a game it's just that had it not made a few small mistakes it could have been a future classic. Also another reason that I find unlockables irritating is that with the burgeoning competative scene for video games organizers are often relying on participants to bring some of the equipment and since most information these days is stored on a console's hard drive if a player hasn't unlocked everything for a game (or purchased DLC) then that console is useless for tournament purposes. Sorry there isn't a more cohesive conclusion on this topic but I'm being told I need a few more Skill Points in order to unlock the “Astute Author” ability. See you all next week.
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