So, Ground Zeroes is out and has been played now... and sadly completed by everyone who's got it. It's been out for a total of 32 hours here in UK but that's easily long enough to have completed it multiple times over. So what do we have in the game in total. Well, my cousin is an avid game collector so has bought it already but as it's so short I know of 4 people who've played and completed his copy already, in under 24 hours.
The game itself is about 60-90 mins long. The longest play through was 138 mins, the shortest was 49 mins, the other two came in at 92 mins, and 87 mins. This was four people who've not previously played the game. The added missions that are supposed to add to gameplay really don't, and I'm sure you could buy this with some friends, split the cost enough that it comes to £5 or less each; play through it twice each and return it for trade in, all within a single weekend. I honestly won't be shocked if there's a special edition of Phantom Pain released with this included.
So, is it good. Yeah, it's awesome. The game is a genuinely polished and fantastic experience. I'm really looking forward to playing the second level of Phantom Pain now... pity we don't have that yet. If you buy this you're a mug; plain and simple. I personally like short games, I'm of the opinion that short games, about 3-5 hours long, would be a welcome addition to the gaming market. We could release them at a little under half the standard retail price, so $20-25 in USA, £10-15 here in UK.... The price of Ground Zeroes, £29.99, that's fucking sick. To put that in perspective, UK gamers where charged FIFTY US DOLLARS!!! to play Ground Zeroes, that's more than $1 for every minute of gameplay if you're my cousin Lee who finished in 49 mins. Hell, the digital price of $20 in USA actually seems REASONABLE to me, and that's a scary thing to say.
So, the big question here is. Is this going to become a trend? Will this set the scene and before we know what's happening, every game had full retail disc prologues and expansions. Hell, this is something that's worked in the past; Grand Theft Auto: Episodes Of Liberty City for example was effectively a stand alone game made out of DLC packs, the difference being each of the two DLC packs was 8-12 hours long putting the entire content at around 20 hours long or more... that's longer than some main retain releases. So, in that case, it's entirely justified. With Ground Zeroes, here we have barely 2 hours of gameplay (and that's being generous), at a £5 more than Episode OLC initially released at.
If this does become a trend, I expect to see many franchises take this model and run with it. They'll create a main game for release at £50 containing aprox. 8-10 hours of gameplay with a pre-order bonus level that adds maybe 30 mins of content but costs an extra £5 as DLC day one. There will be a "collectors edition" with a stupid plastic doll no-one wants, a soundtrack no-one listens to, and an artbook no-one looks at... that'll cost £80+ but it'll have extra exlusive game content which adds about 1 hour to the game naturally. Now add on that they can create a prologue for release at £30 containing a mere 2-4 hours of gameplay, and create three lots of DLC (or more); each about 1-2 hours long at £10 a pop which they can re-release as a seperate retail disc for £30, oh and don't forget online multiplayer will have some additional DLC in the form of maps for "deathmatch", even in games that aren't FPSs and that have fuck all to do with Call Of Duty, and pointless skins and avatars for £0.49 here and there... If we're really unlucky we'll get in game microtransactions for added weapons, armour, characters, or anything else they can charge us for. Effectively before we know what's going on every video game, if we want the full experience, will soon be running us £150-200 and this is something that scares me.
What do people think? Is this a trend we're likely to see exploited? Games cut up into chunks so we can buy the Prologue, Main Game, Epilogue, DLC Pack 1, DLC Pack 2, and DLC Pack 3; all individually priced in an attempt to cover up the fact that they're more than doubling the price. I'd like to hear peoples opinions.
