Now to me personally the term unlockable means two very different things. First off you’ve got the kind for the obsessive player, where you complete some challenge or series of challenges to get a cool piece of armour or just some decorative item. This is pretty much how MMOs keep players coming back again and again, but it’s clearly present in almost every game. It’s a pretty basic progression mechanic to make you feel like your actually getting something for moving forwards in the game.
The other kind that we’ve only really seen in this generation of console gaming is paid unlockables. In general I’d say these are microtransactions, where you pay for a new car, gun or costume. These are quite clearly a very different beast to unlocks earned from simply playing the game, and one that are open to a lot more debate over whether or not they’re a good thing.
However there is, of course, a discussion to be had about whether unlocks through play are a good thing before we even get to paid unlocks. For me it depends how vital the unlock is. For example I loved going through all the Lairs of Romulus in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood to get the Brutus Armour, but you could easily finish the games main storyline without unlocking the armour.
In contrast to this you can look at unlockables like cars or courses where not being able to unlock them can be detrimental to your enjoyment of the game. In particular I would be extremely annoyed if I wanted to play St. Andrews golf course, but I wasn’t able to get far enough into the game to unlock the course then I’d probably feel pretty dissatisfied with the game. Being punished for my poor virtual golfing just isn’t fun.
Developers and publishers are now trying to resolve this by adding the paid unlock model to play unlocks. Of course I don’t feel that paying is the ideal solution, particularly given the days of cheat codes are hardly in the distant past.
However, whilst I’m not necessarily in favour of paying to unlock things that are already in the game, I’m perfectly for paying for unlocks of items on the disc but not in the game. Why? Well if something is worth paying for as DLC then I think it’s worth paying for as a simple unlock code. This is purely because when developers put it on the disc it’s budgeted for by assuming people will pay for it, in exactly the same way that the business case for downloadable content is made. If it costs the developer the same the make why should it matter the form of delivery?
With my thoughts on the matter out of the way, lets hear your opinion. Do you like games that give you unlocks? Is it ok to pay for content already in the game? What about unlocking new content on the disc?
elpablo79
I quite like the idea of unlocks ingame as they feel like they help towards progression in the game. What I find strange is when u complete the game, u unlock some fancy weaponry or armour, which can only be used if u play again on the same difficulty level. If I was gonna play the game again, I’d be trying a harder difficulty so I don’t feel particularly rewarded. That’s just me on that front. As a point mentioned earlier regarding golf, I’ll never be the greatest GT5 player so I do worry I may miss out on quite a bit.
Grey_Ghost13
New Game Plus should be implemented more with single player games to facilitate stuff like this. I think MGS pull this off brilliantly, I played through the games extra times because they were good and you got things like the stealth suit and unlimited ammo bandana!
elpablo79
Agreed, I like to use the new stuff, it would just be nice to use them on multiple difficulties. If I feel like going on “ludicrous insane” difficulty would be kinda cool with a badass loadout that I earned with my playthroughs. It should accumulate like MGS (still an amazing game)
clone555
Borderlands does this really well. On the second play through, all the enemies levels are scaled up. So you have all the bad ass weapons, but you still have the challenge. I think it’s the ultimate ‘unlockable’ game. As you progress, the guns continue to scale upwards. makes for incredibly addictive gameplay.
liverpool82
my back door in unlockable
liverpool82
is
eye8have9you3
For me, unlockables are just extra targets, I played through all of AC brotherhood without doing any of the VR training missions, but on hearing I would unlock a Raiden costume it spurred me on and got me to try them. I assumed they’d be really boring but actually some of them were pretty fun, the costume on the other hand? disappointed
SpikeyMikey23
Unlocks keep me interested in a game, aslong as they are attainable!! What kind of annoyed me with bad company 2 was the unlocks stopped after lvl 22, and that kind of killed the game for me, had no desire to go all the way to lvl 50, to achieve sod all.
COD Blackops also annoys me. I liked that you had unlocks at most levels, with blops, once you have the moolah, you can get what you want more or less, when you want it, it doesnt take long to get moolah either.
clone555
Same with DIRT2, the unlocks dried up at about 50% game complete. You really miss them when they are gone. Even if it’s just a new paint job or a stupid horn for your car, they really do add to the fun.
freezebug2
Unlocks are an important part of a game for me through progression and always have been. It is really a part of the
game structure that will keep a long lasting interest through to completion.
Where buying unlocks fails is if they are available through progression of a game but can also can be bought without any effort as a DLC pack…all of that satisfaction missed in a single PSN store transaction.
I remember when Split Second was released and they had a best cars pack on the store, which could be earned through progression of the game. Online play where I had unlocked up to medium grade cars racing against the Buy-it-now-in-store boys was no contest, their top class cars were easily beaten by my lower rated cars as I had experience on my side through playing the game to unlock cars.
Charmed_Fanatic
I like unlockable stuff for when completing games. makes re-playability and the game more interesting. i.e. Uncharted series
clone555
I like unlockables. But some things should not be so difficult to unlock. The Top gear test track in GT5 for example is incredibly difficult (for average players) to unlock. But they made such a big deal about it being in the game. It was a big selling point. And then I realize (after many hours trying) I can’t unlock it… Grrr!!! And as for the Red Bull prototype thingy… not in my wildest dreams will I ever unlock that car.
If it’s something that everyone wants, and you tell everybody about it as part of the sales pitch, then don’t lock it up! Let people have it, even the players who aren’t that good…
Rocket_345
Do you have to do all of the events on the top gear test track to unlock it or just the campervan one?
clone555
I think it’s just gold medal on the camper van one.
cc_star
Progressive unlocks in single player are part of the natural progression of the game, for example in Dante’s Inferno you start the game able to do a light & heavy attack and through progression of the game you can add many combos, with both weapons and of course magic. Once you finished the game you can start again with all your unlocks on whatever difficulty level you want, if you’re a completionist its will take two play throughs to unlock everything anyway.
what I don’t like is game where you don’t have the skill/ability/time to progress, all games should ship with a level select & invincibility cheat code so you can see the content you’ve paid for.
I’m not a fan of online unlocks other than for cosmetic purposes because players who have sunk more time in are better at the game anyway, and then they get super-powered weapons, classes or abilities on top of the extra ability. Seems a good way to create an elitist experience too me & puts many people off.
deadwelsh
Give me a good old fashioned unlock once you have completed the game. Best examples of these i can think of are in the MGS series.
MGS1 – depending on your choices you got the camo or headband
MGS2 – play it through and unlock tanker level (unless you played the previous versions)
I also remember these being a long time ago when i could actually plough 20 hours a weekend into a game, so now i appreciate playing games like COD and earning the XP to level up[ to get the best weaponry. Worst thing about that is the game gets v boring once you have achieved your goals.