Upgrades in FPSes

[Rolf]

When Zero Punctuation reviewed Wolfenstein he asked the question "why do all games need upgrades".
He had a good point. So im asking do FPSes need upgrades. Do you think it is a good idea that you have the option to make your wepons better? Or do you think it is a waste of time.
I personally hate to upgrade. Just give me the gun and show me where the enemy is.

 

[Hybridwolf]

Upgrades are good, but only when they are in plain sight. Wolfenstiens problem was that the upgrades cost gold which was impossible to find, or you getting all the intel, which was only possible on the last mission. So when done correctly, yes they are useful, but when made into a chore, no.

 

[open trap]

they are ok, like in der rise the pack a punch made the game a hell of a lot more fun and survivable, it also makes it fun to see what each weapon is like upgraded

 

[Cargando]

I like upgrades, just so long as they are more fun than game altering.

 

[Aardvark]

Deus Ex had good upgrading. So did the 'Shocks. The rest of them were big fat piles of suck.

 

[Dioxide20]

Modern Warfare 2 could be really cool if we could chose our weapon attachments. I always thought the M16 in the first games single player was really cool looking with the laser sight and silencer, but you couldn't do that in multiplayer.

 

[Radeonx]

They're only good in straightforward FPSes when the cost for doing it is covered by the main objective, Killing the enemy, so no backtracking.

Definitely this, which is why, in my opinion, Call of Duty did a great job with this. They made the challenges for the helpful weapon items sheer killing, and made the cosmetics harder to get (ie. Headshots). I liked this idea, and I find games that utilize things like this are much more fun.

 

[pneuma08]

I like upgrades, just so long as they are more fun than game altering.

See, I feel the opposite. I enjoy upgrades that let me play the game differently. Like Mass Effect, playing the game as different classes cater to different playstyles, and the replay value of that game was multiplied for me.

The problem I think is that most upgrade systems aren't very well thought-out, and just up the power level of the character. While fun every once in a while, it's just annoying when it's both necessary and disjointed from the rest of the game, or when enemies also scale (which defeats the purpose of getting stronger in the first place!), or even worse, both.

So I suppose all in all I find it a troubling trend, like stealth games a while back. Done correctly, it's great, but there's too many "Me too!"s that don't know what they're doing.

 

[Naheal]

It would be fine if it were simply a "customizable weapon" option rather then an "upgrade" option. For instance: The option of a silencer/flash supressor and a scope on a weapon.

 

[Kermi]

I liked the gun upgrades in Wolfenstein - starting out with a pea-shooter then gradually bolting on silencers, scopes, extra ammo... I also liked searching for gold/intel/tomes every time I cleared a room, or wandered around Midtown.
I guess I'm just weird.

 

[Ariosona]

Upgrades were done best in ratchet and clank IMO, where your gun was upgraded for killing shitloads of monsters, and it was nice that they seemed to balance the enemies so well that they always seemed to be perfect in relation to how good your guns were.
The large amount of upgrades per gun and the actual change in gun on the final upgrade gave you a sense of achievement whenever you upgraded each gun aswell.

I would say more games need to follow this route if they're going to try and include upgrades, otherwise they just end up like a grindfest when you have to scour the Earth in search of that one remaining piece that turns your gun from a peashooter to instakill-godmode-nuke launcher.

 

[happysock]

When Zero Punctuation reviewed Wolfenstein he asked the question "why do all games need upgrades".
He had a good point. So im asking do FPSes need upgrades. Do you think it is a good idea that you have the option to make your wepons better? Or do you think it is a waste of time.
I personally hate to upgrade. Just give me the gun and show me where the enemy is.

Out of curiosity do you like COD games where you can "upgrade" your gun with attactchments(red dot sight, silencer etc..)

 

[The87Italians]

As long as I don't have to go out of my way to get the upgrade, I'm fine with them. I mean, who doesn't like shooting explosive rounds when you only had to make it through the level to get them?

 

[Stoic raptor]

I love upgrades. There so fun.
Unless its a weak upgrade, like increase the power by 10%

 

[fix-the-spade]

It depends on the game.

System Shock/2 and Deus Ex wouldn't work at all without the RPG parts, neither would Metroid Prime without the progressive increases in your abilities. They allow you to explore the world more deeply and arbitrarily blast opponents you used to fear whilst allowing you to confront the creatures you had to run from.

But in the context of a Halo, Half Life or Gears (ok, not fps but same play style) type game it's really not necessary. It gets in the way of the important bits, the charge'n'barge and the level design.

 

[mad benji89]

personally i love upgrades its like a rewarded and a insentive to keep on playing well the story alone should be enougth for u want to complete it but its still nice to have somthing extra to work towards but i dont like a upgrade systerm where i have to go around looking for somthing for a FPS i think that the best way to get upgrades is to gain it through doing challanges for example getting so many head shots or killing so many people with a perticaller weapon.

but when i was playing bioshock i font the weapon upgrade ports pritty easy to find so when i was looking for the upgrades it didnt really take me that long to find them lol

 

[Snotnarok]

Fitting upgrades yes, like in Metroid when you pick up a new piece of gear that lets you access a new area. I don't thin EVERY game needs exp/gold/credits that you shove into a shotgun to make it kill easier.

 

[Deleric]

I like them, but not when they're divided into "Speed" or "Accuracy", because I honestly can't notice the different.

 

[UsefulPlayer 1]

Sure I love upgrades, like in RE4 or Bioshock.

But of course it was be unnecessary in games like HL2(unless it's like the gravity gun) or Halo3.

Some games do well with RPG elements, but not all games need it. I believe it's best for games to provide an incentive to explore the land and more likely then not exploring Wolfenstein was just not fun.

 

[Casual Shinji]

You could actually understand what he was saying in that review?

It was like hearing the Skatman sing do-re-mi.