Games are expensive. That's why I've determined a system to determine the value of the game and it has nothing to do with length. A 30 hour bad game is still a bad game. Even a good game that's 30 hours long might still offer bad value if it achieves that length by forcing you to replay levels or by featuring a parade of endless similar missions. What I use to determine value are the following: content, polish, engagement, freshness, and staying power. Let me explain.
Content: This refers to things like levels, maps, game modes, skins, characters, etc. Redundant content doesn't count for much and good content counts more than bad content but this is mostly a quantity over quality category. I grade it on a scale of 'Very little' to varying degrees of 'A lot' A full retail release(60 USD) is expected to have a lot of content.
Polish: This basically refers to the games overall presentation. Things like graphics, sound, and art design. Also technical polish. Does the game run smooth and without bugs? Loading times and menu navigation are all thrown into this category. I rate on a scale of 'D' to 'AAA'. Reflecting how the industry refers to high profile, highly polished games as 'AAA'. A full retail release is expected to have 'A' levels of polish.
Engagement: We expect games to engage us. They are interactive after all. This category encompasses a lot of things including challenge, gameplay mechanics, and story quality. A game that is so easy is akin to watching a slightly interactive animated movie rendered in realtime. Sloppy or unbalanced mechanics similarly disengage us. I rate on a scale of 'Reality Television' to 'Chess'. A full retail release is expected to have high levels of engagement.
Freshness: Why buy a new game, if I can just play one I already own and get the same experience? That's what this category attempts to answer. It's fairly straightforward: The more new experiences the game has, the more fresh it is. I rate on a scale of 'Rotten' to 'Face Slappin Fresh'. A full retail release is expected to be fresh.
Staying Power: 4 questions here. How long before the online community vanishes, rendering my multiplayer game dead? How long before the developer stops supporting the game with patches and updates? Will I ever want return to the single player campaign and not out of completionist urges? What's the resale value look like? This category is mostly a guessing game. I rate on a scale of 'Dead on Arrival' to 'Lifetime'. A full retail release is expected to have a year of staying power.
If a game scores well in all 5 categories it is worth 60 bucks.(provided you enjoy that type of game). If it scores exceptionally well, it's a steal at 60 bucks and if it doesn't score well it's worth less and I'll rate it at less then 60 bucks.
Content: This refers to things like levels, maps, game modes, skins, characters, etc. Redundant content doesn't count for much and good content counts more than bad content but this is mostly a quantity over quality category. I grade it on a scale of 'Very little' to varying degrees of 'A lot' A full retail release(60 USD) is expected to have a lot of content.
Polish: This basically refers to the games overall presentation. Things like graphics, sound, and art design. Also technical polish. Does the game run smooth and without bugs? Loading times and menu navigation are all thrown into this category. I rate on a scale of 'D' to 'AAA'. Reflecting how the industry refers to high profile, highly polished games as 'AAA'. A full retail release is expected to have 'A' levels of polish.
Engagement: We expect games to engage us. They are interactive after all. This category encompasses a lot of things including challenge, gameplay mechanics, and story quality. A game that is so easy is akin to watching a slightly interactive animated movie rendered in realtime. Sloppy or unbalanced mechanics similarly disengage us. I rate on a scale of 'Reality Television' to 'Chess'. A full retail release is expected to have high levels of engagement.
Freshness: Why buy a new game, if I can just play one I already own and get the same experience? That's what this category attempts to answer. It's fairly straightforward: The more new experiences the game has, the more fresh it is. I rate on a scale of 'Rotten' to 'Face Slappin Fresh'. A full retail release is expected to be fresh.
Staying Power: 4 questions here. How long before the online community vanishes, rendering my multiplayer game dead? How long before the developer stops supporting the game with patches and updates? Will I ever want return to the single player campaign and not out of completionist urges? What's the resale value look like? This category is mostly a guessing game. I rate on a scale of 'Dead on Arrival' to 'Lifetime'. A full retail release is expected to have a year of staying power.
If a game scores well in all 5 categories it is worth 60 bucks.(provided you enjoy that type of game). If it scores exceptionally well, it's a steal at 60 bucks and if it doesn't score well it's worth less and I'll rate it at less then 60 bucks.
Resistance 2
This is a review to determine value and not necessarily quality, but of course value is largely determined by quality.(see above) If this is not what you were expecting you have been warned.
Content: Resistance 2 offers 3 fully realized and different game modes. Single player, competitive mulitiplayer, and co-op. Competitive multiplayer features all the usuals like CTF, DM, and Team DM,and also skirmish, a kind of modified capture the point game similar to COD4 headquarters. None of these are redundant game modes and all are fun. There are a bucnh of maps spread over 7 unique regions.(borrowed from the single player locations) Co-op lets you play 3 different classes which all play differently. They're played over the same 7 regions. Single player has 7 large levels and a prologue. Only the prologue reuses locations. 7 levels is not a ton but each level has a different look and feel. It's all run and gun gameplay,(no vehicles) but variety is still decent because the game mixes it up with large scale battles. corridor type fights, bosses, zombie hordes, and giant robot and dinosaur enemies. 13 completely different weapons plus grenades with absolutely no weapon redundancy. Impressive. The game also features multiplayer perks and unlockable character customization options, and 4 difficulty levels. It's a lot of content. It's more content than Gears 2, the other big shooter of the season, but it's not a lot more. Either way it's still a good amount of content for your money.
Verdict: "Overflowing"
Polish: Top notch graphics and sound. Hit and miss art design; Bryce Canyon and all the outdoor levels are gorgeous but the insides of the alien ships are decidedly meh and the spires are ripped straight from Half Life 2 yet still manage to look ugly. The main menu is ugly but is easy to navigate. Online play is smooth and matchmaking is passable. 60 player limits impress. Robust stat tracking remind you that this must be an important game if it's going to keep track of all these stats. Occasionally unimpressive art design isn't enough to change the fact that this is a big budget highly polished AAA exclusive title.
Verdict: "AAA"
Engagement: Single player engagement is high thanks to a decent challenge(I died a lot on normal) and good action variety. Loses points for cool but easy to defeat bosses. I was able to beat the game on the highest difficulty level without much issue so it's not a lifetime to master game. Of note; the story does not engage at all. Not one bit.(Ok the ending is cool, but too little too late) Good weapon balance and decent maps keep multiplayer very engaging. co-op is the weak link here, because often matches are little more than point and click fests as waves of mindless bad guys attack. Good luck finding 8 of your closet friends to join you on a mission.
Verdict: High for an FPS.
Freshness: It's not. It has one thing that other FPS's don't: more creative weapons. It would be redundant to own Halo 3,COD4, and Resistance 2. Resistance 2 is my personal favorite of those 3 but at some point you got to stop buying FPS's right?
Verdict: "Rotten"
Staying Power: After beating it on the highest difficulty level it's unlikely R2 will make the rotation of games you just need to play again and again. That's why we Half Life 2. Multiplayer populations are still robust and predict people will play until the eventual sequel. Not huge numbers but serviceable. A major patch and DLC come out today so it's life looks strong for now.
Verdict: "Until the sequel arrives(2 years?)"
Conclusion: 4/5 ain't bad, right? Especially since it got great scores in two categories. Sort of. Drumroll please...
Final Verdict: Start at $60; score down $10 for each FPS purchased in this console generation.
EDIT: I wrote this pre-patch but Meltown is pretty awesome and Superhuman effectively fixes Co-op. It turns it into mindlessly shooting wave after wave(or healing wave after wave) of easy stupid enemies and adds challenge, strategy, and a real punishment for dying. Players are all of a sudden playing as a team or they're going to lose. Yeah, it's sweet.(doesn't address some XP balance issues, but that's not all that important.)
So you can go ahead and add points to content and engagement after this patch, but it doesn't effect my final verdict.
