[General Discussion] Milking games for replay value.

Well, the oldest case I can think of was when I played Dino Crisis 2 to death. I have no idea why, for some reason the game was just fun, so I went through it like half a dozen times (luckly the game wasn't extremely long), trying different weapons and strategies. You discover some interesting uses for the weapons when you go through trying them on enemies you haven't before (like the shock cannon that creates a ball of energy can be used to "trap" the larger dinosaurs between two charges).

Most recently, I played through Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando to get all the skill points. Challenge mode didn't really seem to make the game much more difficult...in fact it seemed easier since you figure out all the uber weapon options the first time through the game. But, it provided me with another extended playthrough of the game, and now I can say that I unlocked the beach costume in it.

Generally if I REALLY like a game and it has some kind of optional goal or something to achieve, I'll take the time to do it (Medals on Star Fox 64). Otherwise, I did restrict myself from using certain weapon attachments in Panzer Dragoon Saga in a recent playthrough to keep the game from being too easy. It's more fun and challenging when your shots don't do 5x damage to weakpoints or drain BP from the enemy in every hit (I actually used ITEMS for the first time! *gasp*).

Oh yes, and I did play through Metal Gear Solid 2 on the Extreme difficulty setting. Now there's an excruciating experience, but boy was it satisfying to finally kill a boss after spending 2 hours trying to take it down.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Gecko3

It'd be really cool if a game unlocked a secret campaign or sidestory after you beat it to add some replay to it.

That actually reminds me of Panzer Dragoon Orta. When you beat it once, you get access to 5 bonus missions (kinda small and simple, but still worth playing), and a full 7 mission mini-campaign with a new character and different controls, and it even had an ending cutscene. The entire original Panzer Dragoon is also included.

That's another game I played quite a bit of now that I remember. Trying to unlock more and more of the Pandora's Box options was very fun, and of course playing through it again in Hard mode. I had actually done the same for Panzer Dragoon Zwei, which required you to get 100% shot down percent on every level to unlock the final option in Pandra's Box (the option to go directly to the level bosses). Although if you have a Panzer Dragoon Saga save in your Saturn's memory, it automatically unlocks all of the Pandra's Box options, which would kinda remove any reward you'd get from playing the game for it (luckly I accomplished that feat before I even bought Panzer Dragoon Saga).

Deus Ex had me playing through it several times, not for a specific reason, but because every time I did I found something new. Holy crap they crammed a lot of stuff into that game, from side missions to alternate story elements if you did certain things (for example it took me 3 plays through the game before I realized you could -spoiler-save Jock-spoiler-). The second one did to an extent, but it had nowhere near as many "hidden" things as the first game, and wasn't quite as good in general so I gave up on it half way through. Although now that I've upgraded my computer quite a bit, maybe it would be worth going through again with those extra graphic quality patches...

There's nowhere I can't reach.