DLC Blues

You know, I wasn't born a cynic. There was a time when I was still optimistic about the release of new games, and developing trends in the gaming industry. It's hard to stay positive after being burned so many times though. Year after year developers and publishers prove that despite amazing advances in technology, connectivity, and infrastructure, they will still continue to get the simplest elements of the development process wrong. Now maybe I'm not being fair, maybe these developers and publishers are just human. Maybe they put their hearts and souls into creating these games and for one reason or another things fall short. Time constraints, money constraints, and more can cause a game that would otherwise be full of originality and potential, to falter.

The latest example of this trend of disappointments is DLC season passes. A number of games over the last couple of years have offered a season pass for their DLC, where if you buy all of the DLC up front, you get a discount and maybe some bonus items. On the surface it seems like a great deal for everybody. You get the DLC at a discounted price, and maybe a bonus, the developer gets money in advance to put toward the DLC development costs, and the publisher gets to see the level of interest ahead of time, so they can set future DLC schedules and pricing, everybody wins.

This is the part where you realize that this looks too good to be true, because it is.

In every case of the season pass that I have seen, the quality of the DLC has gone downhill over time, and as a result the DLC quality ends up worse than if each piece had been sold separately and had to stand on its own. After all, each of the four DLC missions that would normally be sold for $10, and would each have to feel like $10 worth of content, now are being sold as a bundle for $30. If one or two end up lower quality, there’s still lots of content in the “package”. Let me give you an example, and the source of why I’m writing this post.

Borderlands 2 offers a season pass. $30 for four $10 DLC packages. Before any of the DLC associated with the season pass was actually released, Gearbox Software CEO, Randy Pitchford said in an interview that the DLC would be: “four ‘big’ pieces of story content in the vein of the expansive and well-received Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC from Borderlands.” General Knoxx was the best received DLC of the original Borderlands, and the comparison was made in order to reassure fans that buying the season pass would be worth it, as each of the DLC missions would be of high quality.

The first mission was released in October, Captain Scarlett and her Pirate’s Booty, which offered a wide variety of story, side missions, new locations, and post-game content, it wasn't perfect but it had a little bit of something for everyone, IGN gave it a 7.5. In November the second piece of DLC was released, Mr. Torgue’s Campaign or Carnage. The Torgue DLC was definitely up to par with what this DLC package was supposed to contain. Excellent writing and fantastic pacing make it a blast to play through, although I found it to be a little on the short side. IGN gave it a 9.2. Finally, the third DLC mission was just released this past week, Sir Hammerlock’s Big Game Hunt, and it falls short in every way. Criminally short main story, limited side quests, less post-game content, and flat writing make it almost a chore to get through. The one thing Hammerlock gets right is a slew of new enemies, but most of them are annoying to fight either because of strange behaviors and tiny critical hit points, or just a variety of annoying abilities and way too much health. IGN gave this one a 6.9.

It remains to be seen if the fourth and final DLC mission in Borderlands 2 will cause the season pass to end on a high note, or if this downward trend will continue. The problem of course, is that if you already have the season pass, you already paid for it, so if it sucks, oh well. The season pass trend has been getting more and more popular over the last couple of years too, Gears of War 3, Saint’s Row the Third, Halo 4, and more all have DLC season passes that encourage you to buy early. The biggest problem is that, by buying the season pass, you are paying for something that you don’t know anything about, with no chance for a refund, which no one should ever do with anything. I know I will never be buying another season pass again, will you?