14 DAY TRIAL // Each gamer has at least one title that he or she will never forget: we can call it The Game. Its name doesn't even matter: we all have at least one title that got us so addicted that we lost countless nights playing it, we probably lost friends, too and recovering was a tough job to do. If you are one of those people who don't know what I'm talking about, you are not a real gamer. But chill, man! It's not an offense!
One of the latest games to get me completely addicted (if not the last one able to do that) was Heroes of Might and Magic III - the turn based strategy game released about nine years ago! And the strangest thing (for many of my friends) is that I play the game whenever I get the chance - and I love it now as much as I loved it back in '99 when I first played it.
I was just wondering: what's happening with games today? How come no other developer has been able, in such a long time, to create a title capable of keeping me awake for over 24 hours in a row? And, yes, I am talking here about the most recent GTA IV, Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect, Call of Duty 4 or Halo 3... All these games are indeed "wow" at first, when you play them, but completely lack that "something" needed to keep me there, in front of the screen, in their world. And it is indeed a sad thing.
HoMM3, on the other hand, has graphics that are worst or comparable to some of the poorest visuals on the DS, does not have a story I can remember (I can't even remember any memorable campaign mission) and it is, if you are to compare it with the 100-button strategy games released now, a rather simplistic one.
What makes such a game addictive, then? I strongly believe that it is the replay value. Each game will be different from the previous, each new map you start playing - no matter if you played it three times before - will bring you a different experience. Because everything in that game can be changed, altered and done over and over again without getting to a point and saying "uhm... I did the exact same thing last time I played it!" That is what true replay value means.
Today, we have multiple endings and achievements that can only be unlocked if we finish the game three times. If we restart the game and go through the same missions but choose slightly different things - "yes" instead of "no", "maybe" instead of "for sure" and so on, these will become frustrating, in the end, and won't reward you like the old games.
Because that's what it's all about, after all: reward! And just think about it for a second: if Heroes of Might and Magic III was not the latest game to turn you into an addict, it surely was a title more than five years old. Because, even though the previous years saw games breaking sales records, none of the released titles were able to bring us virtual worlds, characters or stories to love... Truly madly deeply.
Just try to remember: HoMM3, Diablo I and II, Starcraft, World of Warcraft, Wolfenstein, Doom or Colonization, to name a few oldies but goldies on the PC. Just try to remember and compare them with the titles released during the last five years!