Pay $1 to unlock all levels

[Oirish_Martin]

I would rather jailbreak my device than pay money for what's essentially a cheat code.

There are creative ways of getting people to cough up their money though, I did pay money to get the extra weapons and RIGs in Dead Space 2, not least because it made the first few chapters of Impossible mode easier (yes, I know, I suck -_-)

 

[Something Amyss]

Now imagine it applied to something larger. Such as a large linear game like Resident Evil 5 (That utilizes levels) and having the option to unlock the rest of the game.

This is not unprecedented. There have been a number of games with "Time Saver" unlocks for a price.

I'm rather apathetic. This is something I won't pay for, but it doesn't bother me if others do.

 

[Something Amyss]

If a AAA game did that I would just tell the devs to fuck off and demand a refund. I'd bring 'em to court over it if I had to. If I didn't demand a refund I'd just crack the game, then play the content already on my drive on my terms.

So wait, you'd take them to court over a completely optional unlock pack for things you can still earn in-game?

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

I think it just opens up a lot of room for abuse, making things stupidly difficult to unlock and then charging money to unlock it more easily.
Eventually it'll be like trying to play a F2P MMO without paying, a massively uphill battle.

 

[Something Amyss]

That being said, I wouldn't mind cheat codes making a come back.

The two aren't entirely mutually exclusive. Both GTAIV and the last two (Maybe all three) Saints Row titles had cheats that handled this well.

Of course, Saints Row 3 also added the concept of "pay to cheat," many of those cheats being ones we'd had free access to in SR2. So even then, they're shifting to a different format. I don't blame achievements, though. The only stuff that is truly verboten is the Gameshark/AR style stuff, and those were endangered the minute leaderboards game into benig.

 

[Riki Darnell]

idk if I would like level unlocks but deff weapon unlocks. can you imagine playing RE5 for the first time with unlimited rockets! lol

 

[Robert Ewing]

Bring back good ol' cheat codes, that's what I say.

I loved a good cheat code. Infinitely improved the longevity of a game. And a survey I held at my college a few years back found that the variety of cheat codes in a game really factored in the chance of someone buying it. Because it'd give them shit to do when they didn't want to play the game properly.

Take GTA vice city, san andreas, III, II, I. Cheats galore! They were so glorious and fun to play with. I wasted hours just messing around with the cheats!

Sadly GTA 4 threw it all out the window, with a narrow selection of cheats, that were only temporary at best, and you couldn't access them when you wanted because of that stupid phone mechanic. I,e you want the restore health cheat to be available in the heat of battle, right after you've lured 10,000 police officers into your rocket launchers blast radius. But no, we got no such treat. The cheat is unusable while under fire... Now we have to resort to dodgy native trainers to edit the games values to cheat. Sure trainers are awesome, especially the GTA4 one, with many, many awesome functions, but It makes me sad.

I maintain what I have always said. In a singleplayer game, let the player fuck shit up, and go off the beaten track. In Multiplayer, you play by the freaking rules.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Uh no, I'd rather advance by earning it the proper way, ie beating the previous levels.

 

[orangeban]

I think that, with single-player games at least, you should have all levels unlocked from the get-go. Or, if you like the sense of accomplishment, have a little option in a menu that lets you unlock all levels.

Let's say I'm playing a platformer, and I hate, hate, hate the underwater levels. I payed for game, why can't I skip the underwater levels? If a movie gets all sappy and dull, or a book gets into a long-winded diversion, I can skip those bits. I don't see why games should be any different.

It's bullshit when a game forces you to slog through shitty bits in order to reach fun bits. Just let me skip past them, it'll be better for everyone. If I could of, I would probably have skipped some of Mass' Effects combat, since I found it quite difficult at some points (the first one, I found the others easier). I just wanted to get to the next talky point with Garrus and Wrex, but the game was forcing me to shoot dudes in generic corridors, again.

 

[Something Amyss]

The implication is that you can't run the levels at all unless you pay. If they're just offering an option setup and still allowing you to beat the levels manually I wouldn't care.

What about this

Last night, I was playing 'Cut the Rope'. Well, ZeptoLab releases new levels every once in a while. So, I was looking through the ones I hadn't unlocked and an interesting icon popped up. 'Can't wait?'

It directed me to an Amazon Appstore product 'Star Key'. This unlocks all levels (present and future.)

Implies that you can't run the levels at all unless you pay?

Or this?

Now imagine it applied to something larger. Such as a large linear game like Resident Evil 5 (That utilizes levels) and having the option to unlock the rest of the game.

Emphasis mine.

And to clarify, you can run the levels on cut the rope without paying (Since this evidently wasn't obvious from the original post).

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

I wouldn't be that bothered. I'd never pay it myself, or use such a feature, but if other people want to ruin their progression and experience I say they can. It's not a competition, it's for personal enjoyment, so I really don't care.

EDIT: And for the record, the multiplayer equivalent of this - being able to buy weapons/loadouts/whatever early - I do despise, but in the end, same thing. I'll probably be the more satisfied customer.

 

[Electric Alpaca]

I personally have no issue with it, and may end up using it one day.

Cut the Rope is literally a waste of money, if you can't do the earlier levels then you certainly wouldn't be able to do the later.

Other games, such as Burnout: Paradise or the used example Battlefield 3 definitely have a place.

Unlocking all the cars removes the need to repeat races (i.e. coming back to get gold times impossible with start cars) and unlocking all weapons removes the slog through the peashooters and gives you the rottweilers immediately.

In Battlefield 3, I think it has even more of a place. One of the biggest deterrent for new adoption of an existing online game is the disparity between veteran and beginner, so if the playing field can be leveled somewhat I don't know why there is an issue.

Additionally, purists will use this tool to skip the Death:Kill skew present with poor weaponry and begin honing their statistics immediately.

EA have done well in delaying the weapon unlock packs a suitable period of time so the game wasn't segmented immediately, and now just offer an alternative. It depends on how much you value your time.