The first time you play a game is always special. But what about the second time, or the third? Many games these days actively encourage replaying, with things like character-specific or expanded "true" endings, a "New Game+" mode that allows you to carry things over, additional difficulty modes, or even major parts of the story and gameplay features not being available on your first time through. Do you enjoy replaying games? Do you find yourself playing through them differently to see how that affects the gameplay (for example, a stealth, no-kill run in a game like Dishonored, or picking "evil" dialogue options in a game with a moral choice system like Mass Effect) or looking for optional extras and secrets that you missed the first time through? When playing JRPGs, with the element of surprise gone for the story, do you find yourself paying attention to different things that you didn't notice before, or are you just there to enjoy the experience? Generally, do you feel that replayability is an important part of a good video game, or should replay value come solely from how good the experience is the first time?
I was going to mention Dishonored specifically. I had loads of fun the first two times regular, but then I played it a third and fourth time as specifically no-kill (an assassination game where you don't kill anyone) and then a specifically kill-everything play. It was fun every time, and I even do similar things in Fallout in which I'll join different factions for an entirely different story. New Game Plus is something I generally enjoy less. It feels like most of the time I'll just mercilessly mow down enemies by how power-leveled I am, and I get bored by never learning any new skills or getting much (or any) new story. Even if the difficulty is increased the second time, it rarely feels like it's changed the right amount: either it's like Salt and Sanctuary where bosses can be defeated in half as much time even with their boosted stats, or it's like Borderlands 2 where you need to get several sniped critical headshots on every random bandit just to finish them and it becomes no fun. I for one think that replayability is a very important part of a video game, particularly for my own financial reasons. When I buy games, I often think about how much playtime I'm getting per dollar. If I get a 40 hour game for $60, that's costing me $1.50 per hour. If I can have fun playing that game three times, that's 120 hours for $60, so I'm spending $0.50 per hour. Now how many hours have I played in Skyrim among how many created characters...?
A lot of a game’s value comes from replay value to me. I’d much rather have a short replayable game than a long one off experience. Even so, I think some games handle replayability better than others. “True” endings irk me on a whole new level. Way too many games hide a lot of major story elements over an ending you can only get by obscure means. Miss one of the requirements and you have to start the game from scratch. The only titles I’ve played that handled “true” endings well is the Zero Escape series. In those games, you can jump back to any scene and make different decisions to get the other endings. No mashing through text or repeating puzzles you’ve already done. New Game Plus is something I can always appreciate. Being able to carry over equipment and other information saves the hassle of getting them again. Shovel Knight is my favorite example of New Game Plus, hands down. Not only do you keep your old items and equipment, but you also get to replay the levels with fewer checkpoints and worse defense. It makes an already difficult game that much harder. Perfect for long time players like myself.
