Okay. Let’s talk about DLC for a little bit.
I can remember a time
when people were excited about the prospect.
Additions to their favorite games?
New content? For a meager price? No problem, they said in a united
chorus. But flash forward to the present
day, and the mere mention of DLC is enough to make people retch. These days, DLC doesn’t always mean “adding
more”; it means “taking out what should have been in the game in the first
place and charging extra for it.” I
guess it’s a way to soften the blow of development expenditures, and to be
fair, it DOES feed into that oh-so-identifiable “games as a service” mantra. Why let people unlock costumes in Street Fighter 4 when you can just make
them pay for it later? Why make Final Fantasy 13-2 a complete game when
you can just dish out costumes, sidequests, and an impenetrable “ending” later
on? Who needs loyalty and goodwill when
you can just hassle customers for more money?
As you’d expect, I
wasn’t exactly excited about DLC for The
Last of Us, given my…well, let’s call it “history” with the game. But my brother -- and presumably every other
person on the planet -- was. So he
played through it, and I sat through it.
I’m standing firm on my opinions about the game, but I’ve always felt
bad about giving it so much trouble. I
wanted to like it, I really did -- and I wanted to be able to share the popular
opinion without looking like some sort of gaming hipster. So while I wouldn’t play through the DLC
myself, I at least owed Naughty Dog a shot at redemption.
The question is, would
they earn it?
Spoilers for The Last of Us -- main game and DLC -- ahead. You might want to ride your horse on out of
here if you’re looking to see The
Misadventures of Joel Grumpybuns raw.