10 DLCs That Totally Missed The Point Of The Game
How to completely misread an audience.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Ever since the age of DLC began,
00:02not with a bang but with a gold-plated...
00:05...
00:06...
00:07Videogame fans have long been weary of the practice.
00:11You see, for every genuinely great season pass,
00:14there have been many more examples of publishers
00:17using DLC as a low-effort cash-grab
00:21to siphon mar-money
00:22from their most pro-fullership customers.
00:24I'm Ewan,
00:25this is Wild Culture Gaming,
00:27and here are ten DLCs
00:28that totally miss the point of the game.
00:31Number 10, The Final Horizon, Sonic Frontiers.
00:35If you're wondering why Super Sonic looks so pissed off here,
00:39it's because the requirements to actually unlock
00:42his new super form in Sonic Frontiers
00:44are about as pleasant as a Sriracha sauce enema.
00:47While Sonic Frontiers was largely appreciated
00:50by the wacky, wonderful, and slightly terrifying Sonic fandom,
00:54look, I can only give my insight
00:55from the outside looking in, okay?
00:57It's DLC, called Final Horizon, didn't fare so well.
01:01Simply put, Final Horizon brings
01:03all of the base game's issues to the forefront
01:05and makes them worse.
01:07Frontiers' loose controls and graphical pop-ins
01:10were more forgivable in the main game,
01:12as the challenges were simple enough
01:14that you could work around those issues.
01:16Final Horizon, however, demands a level
01:19of precision platforming simply not present
01:22in the base game's challenges,
01:24resulting in howlingly frustrating deaths
01:28and restarts the same damn sections over and over again.
01:32Oh my God, I'm being driven mad.
01:33I mean, look at poor Scott Tailford.
01:36He's goddamn traumatized by this thing.
01:38Final Horizon ensured that Frontiers' final blow
01:41saw the game split its trousers open
01:43and let one gigantic Eggman rip
01:46over its unsuspecting fan base.
01:48Number nine, the ultimate shortcut bundle, Battlefield 4.
01:53The joy of multiplayer first-person shooters
01:56comes from mastering their unique systems.
01:58Or if you're a sicko like me,
02:00it comes from being blown up repeatedly
02:02by artillery and hell let loose.
02:04Either way, multiplayer shooters thrive
02:06on the sense of achievement
02:07that comes from hard-earned proficiency.
02:10Or, you know, you could just chuck another $50
02:12at the publisher and unlock enough weaponry
02:15to level a small town.
02:16Such was the case
02:17with Battlefield 4's ultimate shortcut bundle,
02:21a President Gransworth of DLC
02:23that gave an undeniable advantage
02:25to those with the means
02:27and lack of scruples to pay for it.
02:29Those who purchased the bundle
02:30gained immediate access to the game's best weapons,
02:33giving them a massive headstart
02:35over us mere unfortunate sons
02:37who had to slum it in the normal ranking system.
02:40However, I would say that anyone paying $50
02:42to unlock every gun in the game
02:45probably is just losing at life anyway,
02:48but I digress.
02:50So, happy anniversary, Battlefield 4.
02:53We'd like to say that DICE learned its lesson
02:56from this, but then it made Battlefield 2042.
02:58Man, you'd think they'd have figured things out
03:002,038 games later.
03:02Ba-dum-tsh!
03:04Number eight, get to work, The Sims 4.
03:07Ever since The Sims launched way back in 1998,
03:11yes, it really has been 25 years,
03:14its raison d'etre has remained the same.
03:16Players can either live vicariously through their Sims
03:20or torture the poor sods by making them go for a swim,
03:23then removing the ladder so they can't get out,
03:25like some kind of Sims jigsaw,
03:28crafting tests for an ungrateful Sim populace.
03:32Oh, sorry, I literally don't know where that came from.
03:35Anyway, let's talk about the excruciatingly dull
03:38get to work DLC pack,
03:40which unfortunately interrupts the fantasy
03:43with the drudgery of daily labor.
03:45I am definitely not the jigsaw killer.
03:47Now, to be clear,
03:48jobs have always been a part of the Sims' lives.
03:51They just occurred off-screen out of view of the player.
03:54The get to work pack pushes the Sims'
03:56bread-earning activities front and center, though,
03:59and in the process makes their lives,
04:01and ours, a heck of a lot duller.
04:04Not all the jobs offered in the pack
04:06are remotely fun to engage with,
04:08and watching your Sims slog their way
04:10through their tedious workday
04:11completely wrecks the idea
04:13that they're living their best lives.
04:15Basically, if you want your Sims to suffer,
04:18just stick with the swimming pool, yeah?
04:20Number seven, the season pass, Marvel's Midnight Suns.
04:25Marvel's Midnight Suns was a beautifully bizarre mashup
04:28that, against all odds,
04:30successfully combined a wonderfully deep card battler
04:33with a persona-style social system
04:36that encouraged you to hang out
04:37with the Avengers between missions.
04:39I do have to ask what the Avengers were doing
04:41in a Midnight Suns game,
04:44but nerd tantrum aside, this was a good title.
04:47Sadly, horrendously poor sales
04:49means we will never see its like again,
04:51which is what makes the small slice
04:53of additional content we did get
04:55so goddamn disappointing.
04:57Midnight Suns' season pass was, frankly, terrible.
05:02The original game sang
05:03because of its intricate turn-based battles,
05:05which pitted the game's expertly designed cast of heroes
05:08against a thoughtfully crafted selection
05:10of enemy combatants.
05:12The season pass, unfortunately,
05:14failed on both of these fronts.
05:16Now, the DLC featured a bevy of heavy hitters,
05:19Deadpool, Storm, Venom, and Morbius.
05:23Wait, what are you doing here?
05:25Get out of here, you wee rascal.
05:26Regardless of Morbius, Morbin, everywhere,
05:30none of these characters were given the care they deserve,
05:32with many of them reusing abilities and animations
05:36in the game's original group of heroes.
05:38On top of this, the new vampire enemy faction
05:41were a chore to fight,
05:42especially with their irritating ability
05:45to resurrect fallen troops.
05:47All in all, Midnight Suns' DLC
05:49was a wasted opportunity
05:50that saw one of 2022's best games fizzle out of existence,
05:53rather than going out in a Johnny Blaze of glory.
05:57Number six, the Verizon costumes, Marvel's Avengers.
06:01Ugh, Matt, why is that a thing
06:04I've had to say aloud with my mouth?
06:06Marvel's Avengers Verizon costumes.
06:09Stop it, gaming, you're drunk.
06:10Marvel's Avengers is arguably the most potent argument yet
06:14against the game industry's obsession with live service.
06:17What started off as a promising-looking
06:19single-player action RPG
06:21soon devolved into an MMO-like mess of repetitive missions,
06:25boring loot, and the bizarre image
06:28of Hulk choosing which ribcage to equip
06:31to increase his DPS.
06:32Hulk confused by gear system, huh?
06:35Gaming and Marvel fans turned their noses up accordingly,
06:39resulting in the game's eventual delisting,
06:42which is a shame given that some of the combat in here
06:45and the graphical fidelity on display
06:47was pretty impressive.
06:48It was just stuck in a terrible shell of a live service.
06:52As warnings against corporate greed and short-sightedness go,
06:55they'll come much clearer,
06:56which is why the ability to deck the Avengers
07:00in Verizon-emblazoned apparel
07:03is at once completely outrageous and wholly appropriate.
07:07As Verizon is currently under investigation
07:10for using toxic lead in their cables,
07:13yeah, seeing the Avengers advertise their brand
07:16is grotesquely fascinating.
07:19The world's most famous champions for justice,
07:21sponsored by a company seemingly epitomizing
07:24the worst aspects of corporate America.
07:27Number five, the true ending, Beautiful Katamari.
07:30Speaking of poorly thorn out cash grabs,
07:33the original Katamari Damacy became a cult classic
07:36soon after its 2004 release.
07:39Creator Keita Takahashi's game
07:41about amassing random objects into a bigger and bigger ball
07:45was a weirdly attractive delight,
07:47helped by the game's charming visuals and catchy soundtrack.
07:50It was also a cutting commentary
07:53on the dangers of consumerism.
07:55The act of ceaselessly collecting items
07:57to make a bigger and bigger ball
07:59until there was nothing left to collect
08:01was Takahashi's method of rolling against
08:03the destructive nature of consumer culture.
08:06Unfortunately, its publisher did not get the message.
08:09In 2007, Bandai Namco released Beautiful Katamari
08:12on the Xbox 360.
08:14Excited by the prospects of charging customers
08:16even more money for a game they'd already paid for,
08:20Bandai Namco made the contentious decision
08:22to hide the game's true ending behind a paywall.
08:26Although Beautiful Katamari's final levels
08:29were included on the disc to actually play them,
08:32you had to purchase an additional DLC pack.
08:35Number four, Warden's Keep, Dragon Age Origins.
08:39OC booted up Dragon Age upon its release in 2009,
08:42soon came across an NPC called Levi Dryden.
08:46Mr. Dryden could be found loitering around the player's camp
08:49hoping that the hero would help him explore
08:51a haunted castle to help clear his family name.
08:54Agree to help him though,
08:55and you'd be whisked away to a checkout screen,
09:00asking you to pay five pounds
09:02the privilege of helping Levi out of his mess.
09:04Because nothing says grimdark medieval fantasy
09:07more than a random NPC joining your camp
09:10and demanding you pay actual real world money
09:13to go on a quest.
09:14You know, it's kind of fun to imagine the conversation
09:17the player would have had with Levi off screen.
09:20What the hell is a pound?
09:21Why would he give you five of them to solve your problem?
09:24You should be paying me.
09:25Now, Dragon Age was a real labor of love for Bioware.
09:29They spent over a year solely focusing on world building.
09:33Given that, you can't imagine the writers
09:35were too happy to see corporate mandated DLC
09:38being shoehorned into the baby
09:40with all the subtlety of an action figure screaming,
09:42buy me, buy me from a toy Zara's aisle.
09:45Number three, Pinnacle Station, Mass Effect.
09:48The first Mass Effect game is beloved for many reasons.
09:52It introduced us to one of the most evocative
09:54sci-fi galaxies ever created
09:56and gave life to some of the most beloved party members
09:59in RPG history.
10:00Oh, Garrus, my Garrus.
10:03But for all its undoubted virtues,
10:05the original Mass Effect's combat
10:07has always felt like a bit of a first draft.
10:10Mass Effect wasn't Bioware's first attempt
10:13at real-time RPG combat, but it often feels like it is.
10:17Floaty physics, imprecise aiming,
10:19and a near total lack of impact from your weapons
10:22means the game's many fights are occasions to be endured
10:26rather than enjoyed,
10:27which is like amplified by double
10:29when you throw in the Mako.
10:31As such, the Pinnacle Station DLC was a total misfire.
10:35Its USP was that it provided more than a dozen
10:38unique combat scenarios for buyers to indulge in.
10:40Unfortunately, due to the aforementioned issues,
10:43actually playing the DLC is an experience
10:46akin to wearing B.O. scented deodorant.
10:48It doesn't solve your problems
10:50and it just gives you more of it.
10:51Number two, Lonesome Road, Fallout New Vegas.
10:55Fallout New Vegas was a great RPG,
10:58but a pretty terrible FPS.
11:01Guess which part of the equation Lonesome Road focused on.
11:05Prior to the DLC's release,
11:06New Vegas developers Obsidian had crafted a trio
11:09of excellent DLC packs to support the main game.
11:12And the hope was that Lonesome Road
11:14would see their work on the franchise end on a high note.
11:17Sadly, it wasn't a B.
11:19Lonesome Road ignored what made New Vegas
11:21so great to begin with,
11:22its stellar writing and quest design
11:24in favour of precision VATS
11:26highlighting the game's shonky combat.
11:29The DLC was a tiresome trudge
11:30through a detritus-lined canyon
11:32that bombarded the player with high-level enemies
11:35and mini-bosses galore
11:36in what felt like a bad pastiche of the Borderlands games.
11:40Frustratingly, the final conversation
11:42with Lonesome Road's villain is classic Fallout fare,
11:46weighty, thought-provoking,
11:47and excellently written and acted.
11:49Yet it stands in such blatant contrast
11:52with the tedious three-hour-long gauntlet that precedes it,
11:55you can't help but wonder what might have been
11:57if Obsidian hadn't spent so much of the DLC's runtime
12:00playing against their strengths.
12:01And number one,
12:03the Oscorp Search and Destroy Pack, Amazing Spider-Man.
12:07As the stratospheric sales
12:09of the recently released Marvel's Spider-Man 2 show,
12:12people love nothing more than the chance
12:14to slip into the shoes of the webbed wonder.
12:16What is it that makes Spider-Man so much fun to play as?
12:19Is it the exhilaration of web-swinging across New York?
12:22The thrill of battling his iconic rogues gallery?
12:24The relentless dad joke level quipping?
12:27Well, according to Activision, it's none of that.
12:30The real answer is the chance to play crappy knockoff games
12:34on Peter Parker's fictional cell phone,
12:36which they did in 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man tie-in game.
12:40For a mere price of $2.99,
12:43true believers could purchase
12:44the Oscorp Search and Destroy Pack,
12:46allowing them to experience the giddy, giddy highs
12:49of playing two poorly-made ripoffs of classic video games
12:53on Peter's Oz phone.
12:55Whether fighting waves of robots
12:57in Space Invaders clone Gwen's Hunter,
12:59or rampaging through Manhattan
13:01as a giant snake-like creature in Destroy the City,
13:04the only thing you'll be amazed by
13:06is the fact that someone from Activision
13:09genuinely believed that someone would pay for this.
13:12The Amazing Spider-Man's delisting
13:14means it's no longer possible to sample
13:16the dubious delights of the Oscorp Search and Destroy Pack,
13:19but maybe that's for the best.
13:21This DLC is one blip that should stay in the dust.
13:25Like, forever.