Recently in videogaming we have seen the terrible decline of the Expansion Pack and the triumphant rise of Downloadable Content. Downloadable Content (DLC) is a fairly new phenomenon and like most newcomers to the industry is still walking on unsure footing with wobbly legs. We’re going to take a look at a couple working models of how game studios are adding/altering their major titles after they hit the shelves and hard drives.
We’ll take a closer look at the most recent Fallout 3 DLC pack “Point Lookout”, Empire: Total War’s unit expander “Elite Units of the West”, and finally jump through the warp to the 41st Millennium and see what is what with Imperium Man in Dawn of War II’s mega-patch “There Is Only War”.
I finally get to indulge my childhood fantasy of shooting Sloth from the Goonies in the face.
Fallout 3
Fallout 3 is definitely the veteran of these three when it comes to DLC. Since release it has seen four different downloadable content updates. It started with Operation Anchorage, followed by The Pitt, Broken Steel, Point Lookout, and the soon to be released (August 3) Mothership Zeta. Each package contains a series of new adventures, new weapons, and additional beasts and baddies to dismember. These little beauties sell for $10 roughly as translated through some strange future currency known as “Microsoft Points”.
For your ten bucks Bethesda takes you on a tour of swampy Point Lookout, a back water Maryland burg infested with tribal cults, southern mansions, and a variety of mutants that look like a cross between a Cracker Barrel ad and Sloth from The Goonies.
When you tire of exploring and shooting the cast of Deliverance in the sprawling map that is 1/5th the size of the original wasteland there are Chinese spy missions and a Ghoul Safari to play around with but all in all Point Lookout’s many attractions would never exceed 10 hours of game play.
Like the other Fallout 3 content packs it is more of everything we love about Fallout, but nothing jaw dropping. In fact it is kind of a downer after Broken Steel which introduced us to a slew of new bad guys, toys, changed the wasteland, and upped the level cap. For high level characters it is a small series of adventures that have you treading down a familiar series of moral choices.
The most enjoyment I have with these different add-ons is with a newer inexperienced character that is treading down unfamiliar ground. Instead of knowing and manipulating the expected series of choices I get a second chance to play a whole new slew of Fallout 3, but without spending enough to buy the game all over again.
If I was smart and not impulsive I would wait for the inevitable re-bundling of the game with its expansions and save some money, but I have not been disappointed in the cost or delivery of these downloadable adventures. What aggravates me is the lack of change in each subsequent title. I love Fallout 3, but from release there have been precious few actual patches. The inventory and control is still a mess. The game looks and runs exactly the same as it did at launch. Sure it crashes less now but all of the flaws and imperfections are still there and as glaring as ever.
Despite being game that has the most aftermarket content on this roundup it has changed the least since release. Thankfully there is still a vibrant mod community to assist my fellow PC enthusiasts to this end.
Empire: Total War
You’ve already established colonies in the new world, secured your trade lanes from pirates and enemy empires, and started picking off tiny German provinces. What more could you need? How about some more Elite Units? That’s right! Empire: Total War did come in two distinct flavors at release; the regular, and the Elite Units edition which contained several little trinkets which justified the $20 price hike. For that twenty bucks you got 6 exclusive units and (if you bought the boxed version) an in-depth manual, map, and art book.
Despite this additional content a lot of the different nations played exactly the same. The lack of variety in the unit loadout caused each battle and subsequent campaign to feel more monotonous than any other Total War game I have ever played. Thankfully our prayers were answered and the gaming community received the Elite Units of the West DLC coupled with a large patch.
Instead of 6 weak little units, 14 were delivered for the microscopic price of $3.49. This was coupled with the 1.3 patch which itself added 14 free units and delivered some significant updates to the AI and numerous bug fixes. Nothing spices up a game like a patch and 28 units delivered for a tiny price.
These additions were exactly what Empire needed. I always felt like the original release tripped over itself with the sheer scope of scale, and that the combat was almost forgotten. The mystery and anguish felt when your forces first engaged an enemy which fought in a different style was missing, as well as the high tech late game units that armies leaned heavily on. This was fine when the game was released because it was a new system, there was technology and research, trade and diplomacy fully fleshed out like we had never seen before in the series.
Land combat which is the main section of the game feels much better now, but the Naval combat system still feels like trying to herd cats with cannons strapped to their backs. It would be great to see another release to address the finicky system with which ships lob cannonballs at each other.
However, this DLC and patch were more of a life raft thrown to a drowning game than a real solid addition. I don’t think this formula will work again; adding new units without an additional campaign, faction or time period settings would be rather shaky. It leaves me wondering about what is next for the Total War series, Empire specifically. We saw The Creative Assembly put out an expansion for Medieval II: Total War as late as 2006, and Empire practically begs for a French Revolution or Napoleon-era setting where the British, Russian, and Spanish frontiers are desperately trying to contain a pushy, stout French Emperor.
Dawn of War II
In the grim dark future there is only WAR, and Dawn of War II delivers gobs of it. Relic have been giving Dawn II a lot of support since it launched last February. A few new maps have filtered through and a 2v2 matchmaking system were welcome additions a few months ago, and after an extensive beta a sizeable overhaul of the multiplayer balance and tech patterns have been culminated into the There Is Only War DLC. Crazy enough it is completely free, which raises the question of whether it is DLC or not. It is content that is downloaded, but it is free and also is a patch? What is this thing?
I guess it is more significant than a patch and thus can be considered DLC, but it does raise the question of what the nature of DLC is as compared to a patch. I suppose Relic would look a bit arrogant to make a big hubbub about a patch as opposed to a brand new DLC, but back to the game.
There Is Only War has retooled the way the multiplayer is played along with a slew of new maps to play it on. However, other than the maps there is precious little new content. There are no additional units or game modes. Sure, certain units have been retooled, like Tyranid Carnifexes being split into Thorn-back, and Screamer-Killer varieties, but there is no authentically new content.
That being said it is a refreshing addition to the multiplayer community and at least has re-energized and extended the fan base. Plus it functions as a testament of goodwill to the gamers that felt that Dawn II’s multiplayer was suffocated at release.
In reality all this Patch/DLC business is just to whet the appetite of fans for the inevitable expansions to come. If Dawn of War II follows in the stead of its sister Company of Heroes, and the original Dawn of War expansions are coming, new armies are coming, it is only a question of when and who. The question on every Warhammer 40k fan’s mind is what army is next? Chaos? Imperial Guard? Tau? Necron? Something crazy like the Inquisition? In Relic we trust. Perhaps the reason we aren’t being charged for this DLC is that Relic knows they will be able to charge us later for new races.
Don’t get too far ahead of yourself waiting for the next race. This old dog still has a few tricks in her, and I wouldn’t be surprised or disappointed if another wonderful DLC/Patch hits hard drives before a major expansion.
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