As hard as it is to believe, there haven’t always been expansion packs. Every now and then a sports game would put out a stadium disk or roster patch, but the early 90s were largely bereft of such cash grabs. The first expansion I can remember being excited about was the Campaign Disk for SSI’s Age of Rifles<\/i> (1996), and it only added some campaigns and some random combat options. Not exactly thrilling.<\/p>\n
Now, it seems, every major strategy release gets an expansion pack. A lot of minor strategy titles get them, too. I’ve been heavily playing two new expansions over the weekend (stay tuned for comments at a later date) and have been mostly underwhelmed by both. They are aren’t bad games at all. In fact, if either was included as part of the original game they would have made it even better.<\/p>\n
But it raises the question of what expansion packs are for. What makes one a success and one a failure? Note that by “failure” I am not judging the games by sales. Any Sims<\/i> expansion will sell a million copies whether it is as good as Hot Date <\/i>and Unleashed<\/i> or as lame as Superstar <\/i>or Making Magic<\/i>. By “failure” I mostly mean “Was this worth my<\/b> money? Has this changed the game for the better?” So by failure, I mostly mean “Did it fail me and my petty expectations?”<\/p>\n
Hey, gaming is very personal.<\/p>\n
A good comparison is the two expansions for the two best RTS of the last few years – Rise of Nations<\/i> and Age of Mythology<\/i>. RoN<\/i> expanded with Thrones and Patriots<\/i>. It gave the player six new civilizations, new wonders and four new campaign maps. It integrated seamlessly into the RoN<\/i> game world. The campaigns were excellent and breathed new life into a game mode that was not very replayable after the third or fourth time.<\/p>\n
Age of Mythology<\/i> had the Titans<\/i> expansion. Lots of new stuff here, too. A new (if short) campaign, a new superweapon, and a new faction (Atlantis) with new gods. This meant new god powers, some of which would regenerate over time. But the whole package was a lot less compelling than what RoN<\/i> had to offer.<\/p>\n
In many ways, AoM<\/i> is a superior game. Ensemble had to balance not only four wildly different factions, but also 48 different deities. The rock\/paper\/scissors stuff was doubly cyclical since you not only had units and their counters, but the hero\/myth\/mortal dynamic as well. And it works. Regenerative god powers was a neat concept and the Titans looked cool.<\/p>\n
I’m not alone in my opinions here, either. Though the Gamerankings differences are negligible (Thrones<\/i> gets 88, Titans <\/i>85) , Gamespot, Computer Gaming World and Computer Games Magazine all had the Rise of Nations <\/i>expansion ahead by a comfortable margin. Gamespot had different reviewers for each (Jason Ocampo for Thrones<\/i> and Greg Kasavin for Titans<\/i>) while CGW and CGM had the same guy cover both (Di Luo and Tom Chick, respectively).<\/p>\n
Don’t get me wrong, Titans<\/i> is not a bad expansion. It’s hard to imagine what a bad expansion even is, since where gaming is concerned, more is usually better. It is not, however, as good as Thrones<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Why not? Well, the Atlanteans are not a compelling race. Their gods are simply an older Greek pantheon and so lack added exoticism. Ensemble didn’t want to introduce gods that most players would be unfamiliar with (how many gamers know their Sumerian gods? Maybe Aztec? How about Chinese?) but the result was a feeling that these new people were just more extras from a sword and sandal movie. The titan superweapon meant that almost every game ended the same way and whoever got the titan out first would usually win. The Atlantean counter-unit specialists made the RPS concept more transparent, but the battles more annoying. In some ways, the expansion took some of the mystery and fun out of a game that I really, really like.<\/p>\n
Rise of Nations<\/i> integrated the new stuff perfectly. There was never a sense that you were playing against a race that hadn’t been planned from the beginning. The new racial powers were quite powerful but did nothing to overwhelm or diminish the assets that the orignial cultures brought the table. Though, empircally, Thrones<\/i> added more stuff it did less to change the fundamental game. It expanded; it didn’t rebuild.<\/p>\n
This can’t be seen as a hard and fast rule, though. Take the Conquests<\/i> expansion for Civ III<\/i>. The chilly reception that greeted the original game (at least in some quarters) was almost completely destroyed by the rapturous applause that resulted from Conquests<\/i>. Some of this joy, undoubtedly, was spurred by bugged and disappointing Play the World<\/i> expansion, but for many Conquests<\/i> made Civ<\/i> a whole new game. The Bioware RPGs have expansions that usually introduce new campaigns as long as the originals. The best of the Sim<\/i> expansions do more than add new material, they add new worlds and life options for your dolls, sometimes radically changing the game (Hot Date <\/i>and Sims 2 University<\/i> did this.) Cossacks<\/i> had two expansions, and neither added anything of note beyond a couple of new European armies.<\/p>\n
So, as usual, no answers here. Feel free to fill the comments with reflections on the best and worst of expansion packs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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