Games With TOO Much Content?
- Thread starter Tanis
- Start date
Yeah i think Skyrim is a good example. They focus entirely on making a big world with tons of content, ultimately stuff like the main storyline suffers and becomes short and half-assed but we've got a bajillion go-get-the-mcguffin quests that are just boring 
I can't really agree with the sentiment on a personal level.
I do understand how people can be overwhelmed by too much content, but here's how I see it.
Even if I myself am a bit overwhelmed in the beginning, it's only going to increase replay value over time. Course, this only applies if you're the type who plays games several times through.
I will admit Amalur is PACKED with quests and dungeons. If I tried to see and do everything with one character, it would be an awful slog and probably make me hate the game, but over the course of 6-7 characters I've almost seen and done everything at a much more organic and reasonable pace.
I do understand how people can be overwhelmed by too much content, but here's how I see it.
Even if I myself am a bit overwhelmed in the beginning, it's only going to increase replay value over time. Course, this only applies if you're the type who plays games several times through.
I will admit Amalur is PACKED with quests and dungeons. If I tried to see and do everything with one character, it would be an awful slog and probably make me hate the game, but over the course of 6-7 characters I've almost seen and done everything at a much more organic and reasonable pace.
I will second Kingdom of Amalur. Don't get me wrong i loved the hell out of the game. It can just be very heavy going if you try to do everything (and i mean EVERYTHING) on a single playthrough. Even more so if you got all the DLC too, and i agree with the silly errands. Would of thought a big badarse hero would have something else to do.Klagnut said:
Also played Skyrim but didn't make it to the end. My brother hogged the console back before i could finish it. But i was getting a bit worn out from that too.
I think my problem is when i play a game for the first time, i must do everything! sadly it also makes my 'games to do list' incredibly big. Probably keep me going for the next year.
Every open-world game ever.
Assassin's Creed, GTA, TES, you name it.
They always seem determined to pile on the tedious filler at every opportunity.
I find that the only way to make them bearable is to skip everything except main story quests. Except then you're missing most of the content, so what's the point?
Assassin's Creed, GTA, TES, you name it.
They always seem determined to pile on the tedious filler at every opportunity.
I find that the only way to make them bearable is to skip everything except main story quests. Except then you're missing most of the content, so what's the point?
MMO in general I suppose! There're tons of weapons/armours to unlock and raids and all that banana.
And as people said above, Kingdom of Amalur is packed. I heard one of the developers tried to play it on Easy with fast-travel and it still took them 100+ hours to finish everything.
And as people said above, Kingdom of Amalur is packed. I heard one of the developers tried to play it on Easy with fast-travel and it still took them 100+ hours to finish everything.
L.A. Noire had the issue. I was glad I got to spend time in the world, but it was obviously dragging on for too long. Even the developers seemed to understand that, given that pretty much every mission after Homicide was incredibly short, more firefight heavy, more poorly paced, and/or loaded with filler content. It was still a fun game, but it was hard not to notice that the developers had lost a little interest by Vice.
There was also Skyrim. Loads of content, but almost none of it was worthwhile to experience.
There was also Skyrim. Loads of content, but almost none of it was worthwhile to experience.
I think you can only have too much content if it would've been better to make far less and use the saved time to polish it up better, Skyrim would certainly be a candidate but I'm a bit iffy; the whole huge open world thing was kind of the selling point, but the endless linear dungeon quests didn't really excite me after a while.
90% of open-world games are guilty of this.
Especially the GTA games. Most of the sports and activities are only there to add to the world, but in no way is it any of it substantial. Terrible controls, awful tutorials, and generally boring. I just don't see the point of it.
Forza Horizon, on the other hand, does "extra stuff" really well. There are roadside fold-out banners that you ram into to get discounts on upgrades, to the point where getting all of them gets you free upgrades. There are also some "barn finds" that are basically barns that have busted up cars that you can fix up and use in the campaign.
Basically, if a game has extra activities besides the campaign, they should be there for a reason, and not just count as fluff.
Especially the GTA games. Most of the sports and activities are only there to add to the world, but in no way is it any of it substantial. Terrible controls, awful tutorials, and generally boring. I just don't see the point of it.
Forza Horizon, on the other hand, does "extra stuff" really well. There are roadside fold-out banners that you ram into to get discounts on upgrades, to the point where getting all of them gets you free upgrades. There are also some "barn finds" that are basically barns that have busted up cars that you can fix up and use in the campaign.
Basically, if a game has extra activities besides the campaign, they should be there for a reason, and not just count as fluff.
I would argue that "too much" content isn't the issue, it is "too much of the same" content that is the problem.
Kingdoms of Amalur, great example btw, is a tremendous game and some of the questlines, the warrior guild questline for instance, have both clever little set pieces, tracking the merchant caravans and gathering clues, as well as story arcs that relate to the wider world. Those are fine and I would say you can never have enough of quality stuff like that.
KoA also has a metric fuckton of "deliver a letter to A", which is purely there to introduce the player to new areas and should be handled by the 'quality' content, and the good old "kill 10 wolves and brang the pelts" bollocks.
Now I would argue that GTA 5 does not do this. It has the whole "strangers and freaks" side-quest system which I would regard as quality and distinct content and not dross.
Skyrim is... I dunno, I think I'm going to have to be a tad hippoctritical here and say that I really enjoyed all the bloat. The fact I could roll up almost anywhere and be given loads of stuff to do was something I found really positive when I started playing. I guess now it is a little bit like porn you've seen loads of times before? You know what's happening next so you just put it on fast forward.
Kingdoms of Amalur, great example btw, is a tremendous game and some of the questlines, the warrior guild questline for instance, have both clever little set pieces, tracking the merchant caravans and gathering clues, as well as story arcs that relate to the wider world. Those are fine and I would say you can never have enough of quality stuff like that.
KoA also has a metric fuckton of "deliver a letter to A", which is purely there to introduce the player to new areas and should be handled by the 'quality' content, and the good old "kill 10 wolves and brang the pelts" bollocks.
Now I would argue that GTA 5 does not do this. It has the whole "strangers and freaks" side-quest system which I would regard as quality and distinct content and not dross.
Skyrim is... I dunno, I think I'm going to have to be a tad hippoctritical here and say that I really enjoyed all the bloat. The fact I could roll up almost anywhere and be given loads of stuff to do was something I found really positive when I started playing. I guess now it is a little bit like porn you've seen loads of times before? You know what's happening next so you just put it on fast forward.
Can't think of any, Skyrim & KOA:R are fantastic and I'd be extremely disappointed if less content was available. I honestly think they'd benefit from more quests, I'm not an OCD completionist however and will pick and choose things that are interesting, worthwhile (in a RP sense) or align with my character's morality.
EvE might be a contender, not for too much content but the amount of time required to train skills. It's the reason why I gave up. Around 5 years ago it took 46 real world years to train every skill and no doubt there's more added now. Sure, you don't need every one but it takes a seriously long time to even get up to piloting cruisers effectively, it's just too ridiculous for it's own good.
EvE might be a contender, not for too much content but the amount of time required to train skills. It's the reason why I gave up. Around 5 years ago it took 46 real world years to train every skill and no doubt there's more added now. Sure, you don't need every one but it takes a seriously long time to even get up to piloting cruisers effectively, it's just too ridiculous for it's own good.
KOA:R was a game I couldn't quite click to. It felt like a MMORPG but a single player version. I actually think it would have been a really fun MMO or at least good for a Neverwinter Night style co-op campaign.
The game was just far too bloated though.
I found Assassin's Creed III also had a bit to much in it. I mean, the parkour sections are kind'a fun at first but when you're on the 4th one and you realize the mazes are becoming longer and longer it starts to become quite disheartening.
The game was just far too bloated though.
I found Assassin's Creed III also had a bit to much in it. I mean, the parkour sections are kind'a fun at first but when you're on the 4th one and you realize the mazes are becoming longer and longer it starts to become quite disheartening.
As much as I love them, I'd say the Shin Megami Tensei Persona games. While the plot is linear and the grinding minimum enough for casual play, with Tartarus in Persona 3, and the sheer amount of after-school-before-TV activities in Persona 4, it's too much content for a completion run. Throw in social links, each combination of which will be different play-though to play-though (probably) a fully complete run is impossible.
And don't even get me started on "We're going to give you an option to go home on the last day, but if you do it, you miss a CRAPTON of content" and other similar situations in the games.
And don't even get me started on "We're going to give you an option to go home on the last day, but if you do it, you miss a CRAPTON of content" and other similar situations in the games.
I once tried to play the Witcher 2. What I was hoping for and what I got were two different things. There was entirely way too much stuff to do in crafting before and after combat.