Starting Again
by The Rook
Yeah... but I bet she's a shit gamer!
For many years I have been playing games and it’s always been the same way. Play a game, beat it and move onto the next one. There have been times when I have gone back and played the same game again but it was always after a significant amount of time had passed. The reason for playing the same games was always down to not having the money to buy any new games and I had played all the games my friends had too.
Times have changed a bit and I am now working and earning money. Now I don’t smoke, drink or have a significant other, (three things that tend to rid you of your money quicker than a pyramid scam) so I get to spend my money on games. I have also found that I tend to start again in the same game once complete for different reasons.
Now I’m going to go back some years to when I played Resident Evil 4 on the Gamecube. This was the first game, to my recollection that, once completed, I immediately started it again because I enjoyed the game so much. It is still one of my favourite gaming experiences to this day, even if they did take out the zombies. Starting again, allowed you to carry over your stats and inventory from your completed game. This meant you were better suited to start the game with upgraded weapons. The one that springs to mind is having the magnum, and such a difference it made.
There was a colossal boss that you had to fight, a giant ogre type beast of a man that a number of the villagers lead out on ropes, before it attacked them. I remember fighting this boss for a while, shooting it’s head and then the parasite creature that emerged from it’s back. The giant would charge at you and you would evade by going between it’s legs before turning and shooting it again. This went on for a while until you finally beat him. The second time around was a completely different affair with the magnum. It took one shot to the head to make it lean over and one shot to the parasitic creature from it’s back and it was dead. The game did eventually even out later into it as the enemies got tougher too. This was the first time I had experienced stats carrying over to a new game.
Forward a number of years and I remember playing Dead Rising on the Xbox 360 and I had to start that game again, but that was due to bad choices made by myself. There were missions (leads – as you were a photo-journalist) that needed to be completed by a certain time. I had plenty of time, so spent some of that doing side missions, exploring some areas of the mall and rescuing other survivors. I got to a stage when I could not complete the relevant mission by the required time and no matter how I tried to manipulate my saved game, I just wasn’t getting to the lead in time which led to game over as I could not get the necessary information to progress the story. There was only one save file, so I didn’t have access to loading up a previous save at an earlier stage of the game. Kind of annoying but I had to start the game again. Strangely enough, it also carried over my stats. I hadn’t beaten the game, but the progress I had made in increasing my item slots and increasing my health bar was still registered.
The Boxing Day sales at Harrods have really changed since the chavs took over Knightsbridge
Another game I have played were restarting has also benefited me was Call Of Duty 3. You played the roles of a different soldier in a number of different armies fighting during World War II. As the game jumped from different missions for each army all leading to the same goal, I found it hard to follow the story in it’s entirety. A second playthrough (on veteran- I’ll get to that shortly) helped me to tie all the plots together.
There have been other games I have restarted for other reasons too. Quake 4 was the one of the first retail games I played on the Xbox 360 (borrowed from a friend) and once I completed it, I started it again on another difficulty. This is something I had never done before. It was always beat the game and move onto the next, but now achievements had been introduced and I had another goal to work towards while playing. This has led to me starting many games again: for example, Call Of Duty on veteran difficulty (told you I’d come back to this). It has also led to me getting more time out of my games too, which can only be a good thing considering how much they cost nowadays.
If you say ONE more time that I look like a gay Charlie Sheen, I'll pop one in yo' ass fo' shizzle mofo. Hang on... that came out all wrong!!
Other games I have started again to go back and pick up achievements I missed out on first time around. Some games I’ve even started again for playing co-op, examples of that being Gears Of War and Saints Row 2 (although co-op achievements were part of that too). There are some older games I would like to go back and start again, however, the pile of ‘to be played games’ also requires attention.
I’m sure there are many other reasons people start their respective games again, whether it’s to try the good/bad path in games like Knights Of The Old Republic or Mass Effect, trying different ways of assassination in the Hitman games, playing as a different character class in an rpg or just because you enjoyed a game so much. As long as the enjoyment factor is still there then I’m happy to replay a game again.
Last five articles by The Rook
I usually go back to games I enjoyed playing the first time, or if something sets off a feeling of nostalgia for a title or series. Very occasionally I’ll have a marathon season and play through a series in order, like all of the Final Fantasy games, as I did a couple of years ago. Varies from game to game though.
I never really used to replay a game after finishing it, not without giving it a good breka or so. My old habit used to be, Play the Single Player (on the Hardest available difficulty), pick up all the skills and about halfway through the campaign, start dabbling in the multiplayer and then maybe after a few weeks would I think about mopping up the campaign. After that it would either be time to play something else or if it was a truely great game, maybe I’d carry on with the multiplayer.
Recently, with me being poor (or maybe it’s just that games are a lot better these days!), I do find that once I’ve clocked a title, I restart.
Titles like Prototype -which I didn’t really like- give you that added incentive to replay the game by letting you carry over all those skills you purchased and chase the upper tiers. It means that for all the struggling you had to do at the start of the game (whist you were getting used to the controls and how it all works) became a total cakewalk and that you would be back at the end sections in no time.
Mainly I find myself replaying a game to mop up ‘cheeves but there really are only a few titles that have made me go “THAT WAS TOTALLY AWWEEEESSSOOMME” at the end and saw me do a straight restart.
@Preach
I find myself doing that with games in the run up to a sequels release.With Half-Life 2, I replayed Half Life and all the expansions (incl. Blue Shift which I’d never got around to) in the week before it Unlocked my pre-download on Steam. It’s been a few years since I had the time to really indulge like that though. Retirements gonna kick ass
This is another comment.
This is a good feature.
Written by a good writer.
Go Rook, go.
Just don’t retire too early, Adam… enforced early retirement is killing me, it’s boring as hell after the first year or so.
Ack where are my manners. Was a great read Rook!
@ Preach
Oh I’m sure I would tire eventually, but I’d still welcome the down-time
Thanks for comments.
I’ve never replayed a previous title in a franchise before the next one came out, as I would be concerned of ‘too much of a good thing’ syndrome setting in and not enjoying the latest game as much.
I’ve only done it a handful of times and it’s never tainted a game in that way for me. If the games warranted a small homage to its impending release, chances are It’s going to be well recieved regardless. Unless its Deus Ex 2 that is…
I replay games that have a sequel coming out soon only if it’s a series with a progressive continuity, like Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, or Assassin’s Creed and Assassin’s Creed II. In the same way that I’ll watch a film with an upcoming sequel on DVD before heading to the cinema, in order to refresh the story so far in my memory.
Otherwise, as Rook says, you run the risk of burning out your enthusiasm for that kind of game on the older one and losing interest in the latest release. Ultimately though it’s whatever works for the individual.
I rarely finish games, let alone start them again
I restarted Oblivion because I wanted a nastier character in order to go through the Dark Brotherhood questline. Thought that it would be a chore, but I enjoyed it…mainly because I faffed around and avoided the Oblivion gates though
There are a few games that I could happily play over again, but it is hard to decide whether to do that or move on.
At the moment, I’m on my first playthrough of Overlord and shudder to think that at some point I will have to do it over again, possibly twice to mop up the achievements. That will be left to a very rainy day unless taken by a moment of madness. I think with the advent of achievements/trophies, that replays are often more forced…whereas beforehand, folk wouldn’t necessarily have bothered, now if they want the shiny achievement, they have to.
That said though, like Kat, I have too many unfinished games lying on my tag…whether or not I can clear any up before Red Dead Redemption swallows my time remains to be seen.
@Kat – unless it’s L4D/2. How many times how you beaten those campaigns? LD
@Lorna – I was able to do the Dark Brotherhood on my normal playthrough that I was being the good guy in for the rest of the game.