DLC - Gotta love it. Sure sometimes it's (the now infamous) Horse Armour, other times it represents the welcomed expansion of beloved fantasy. Fallout 3 had the excellent "The Pit", "Point Lookout", "Broken Steel" etc. Value continue to delight fans of Team Fortress 2 with continued (free) support. And who can deny the Kings of DLC - Rockstar Games with GTAIV: Tales from Liberty City. But what about exclusive DLC? The kind of promotional goodies reserved for the fortunate few who made their purchase from a specific (often American - but we'll get to that) retail outlet or took advantage of a promotional offer from a vertically integrated corporate cousin.Before, these items represented little more than an unlockable skin or custom weapon (I remember being jealous of B-Roll's Golden Lancer in Gears of War). If you pre-ordered Arkham Asylum from Play.com you got early access to the Armoured Batsuit (which you could still unlock upon completion). Being a huge fan (quite literally) of the Mass Effect franchise, I was initially concerned when I heard about the various pre-order outlet-specific bonuses. Luckily someone leaked all the codes online - true digital democracy in action - and I had a chance to get them all before I'd even bought my copy. Happily my fears were baseless as once again, the items were novelties, not gamechangers....
That's the heart of the problem. Now we're seeing DLC that not only is so localised that European gamers are completely excluded from their benefits or face considerable delays to access. But we're also seeing bonus content included on Limited Edition or Special Edition bundles, the value of which we can't possible comprehend without having actually experienced the core title first hand. Let me briefly outline the two recent experiences that have prompted this entry.
Case 1) Battlefield Bad Company 2: The Dr. Pepper fiasco. I was addicted to this game since it's release. Slammed through the single player campaign, then dipped into the multiplayer. Normally I'm really not one for competitive MP, but I thought I'd give it a shot, and it hooked me. I found I could carve my own niche, offering support as a medic I felt part of a team yet retained my anonymity, which suited me. Levelling up became like online game crack. I wanted the next item until my medic was maxed, then I moved onto the engineer - liking the idea of having a squad of top flight support soldiers. I wanted to drain the marrow from the experience, and would periodically check to see if there was DLC.
Every time I did, I noticed there was content from a US only Dr. Pepper promotion unavailable to international consumers. I thought it was probably nothing special. Recently it came onto XBL, one pack for each class at 160 points apiece. Each seemed to be offering a special player skin and a special camo-version of a weapon. It was then I noticed that the weapons available for each class, were the ultimate weapons one unlocks when maxing out that class. I thought "surely that's not the case, they couldn't have made this kit available to US players months before UK gamers, that would completely unbalance the experience". Giving the top guns to newbs that haven't gone through the hard work and grid of levelling just because they bought a frakkin soft drink? Sadly, this was the case. I bought the sniper pack, and sure enough, you could be a PFC and have the most powerful weapons in the game if you had a can of fizz or 160 MS points.
I couldn't help myself, I had wanted to try these guns, I had been working so hard for it. So I bought the pack for the Soldier and Sniper...but the thrill had gone. I jumped into a game, tried them out, but didn't feel the high I got every time I acquired a new weapon through sheer hard work. Then every time i was killed by a lower rank with one of these weapons, I felt cheated...
I haven't been back to the Battlefield since, and it's a real shame.
2) Red Dead Redemption: Special Edition. I was tempted to buy this. Check it out - now going for far more £££ then originally advertised.
The content sounds so good, but too good to be true. I thought "can it really be that much of a boost?" Surely not. Well, again, I was wrong. Here's where the paradox in my whole argument makes itself known. That content (War Horse, Golden Guns, Assassin Outfit) turns out to be massively powerful. Now, I bought the vanilla version and I loved the game. I had no way of knowing before having made my purchase, what that limited edition content would mean to me, as a gamer and consumer. Now I do, I feel like I've been slightly betrayed (by myself, and Rockstar).
So why do I feel like I cheated myself when I bought my way to power in BBFC2, but feel like I've been cheated by not having such goodies in RDR? BBFC2 is a contest, a twitch gaming frag fest. RDR, whilst it may not admit it openly, is a Role Play Game. You become Marston, you inhabit his avatar, you imprint upon him. There's none of the frivolity (unless you court it) of GTA, as your actions matter. That said, the legend of Marston is at odds with his status at the start.
You walk into town as a former outlaw, a trained and talented (albeit reformed) killer. You've been sent on a mission to take down your old posse. You're Clint, let's face it. And when it dawned on me what I was, what characterised the experience that lay out before me, and what that Spec.Ed. content represented, I suddenly felt betrayed by the fiction. If I rode into town on the War Horse, which in my mind would have been the stead I rode in the ol' killin' days and took care of ever since. Rode into town with my golden guns strapped and primed, again relics of my past infamy. Rode into town wearing the assassins garb which once again provided stat-boosting benefits in keeping with my legend - then I'd ride into town as John Marston. The man, the legend, going back to his old ways in search of....Redemption.
This is something I couldn't ever possibly have predicted without living through the game, as I have now. And even though, perhaps, I'll unlock this content through playtime alone, it will never change the fact that right now, I feel as though I've missed an opportunity to play the ultimate version of this truly epic fiction.
I love DLC, I love what it can be at it's best...all I want is informed choice. Even if it comes at a cost to me while free for the drinkers of the Doctor's finest soda. I want to know what the content is, does and represents. Then when I make my informed purchase, I am the only one responsible for the outcome.
If you've been arsed to read all this, I'd love to know about your low down DLC experiences.
Peace out
Gaijin.
