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DLC that is better then the main game
- Thread starter HMS_Pinafore
- Start date
They're standalone DLC that was originally designed as DLC and then eventually got sold outside of it to try and make more sales, especially since a lot of people will sell their base game copy. They want to be able to sell to those people, and while often DLCs are made to renew interest in a game and sell more copies of it too, some cases like this they might make a decision to just completely separate it. I feel like famous examples like Minerva's Den or some of the DLCs for Tomb Raider could be cut off into their own thing if devs really wanted to, but ultimately they weren't.
Miles Morales is a shorter game than the first, but it's still very very much fleshed out into it's own thing. I think the case with uncharted it's a lot shorter and more focused. Idk there's definitely a blur to this line.
Surviving Mars is like this too. The base game is OK, but it becomes an amazing game when you install the Green Planet add-on that enables terraforming
I thought TW3 had way, way too much generic open world garbage to be a good game.
The first dlc cut all the bs and just told an interesting story without relying on all the gameplay bits, which were absolutely crap.
If you only playing something from cdpr, and I'm not sure you should, play that.
Don't bother with the second dlc though, that just added more pointless bs as per the main game.
For a classic example the Baldurs Gate 2 "dlc" added so much to the experience. It is still one of the few games that says "ok you beat the main game... you are now god like, everything is scared of you. Should we remove all your power? Nope, go fuck up some other gods and have fun with it"
The first dlc cut all the bs and just told an interesting story without relying on all the gameplay bits, which were absolutely crap.
If you only playing something from cdpr, and I'm not sure you should, play that.
Don't bother with the second dlc though, that just added more pointless bs as per the main game.
For a classic example the Baldurs Gate 2 "dlc" added so much to the experience. It is still one of the few games that says "ok you beat the main game... you are now god like, everything is scared of you. Should we remove all your power? Nope, go fuck up some other gods and have fun with it"
Play Octo-expansion
Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion pushes the mechanics of that series to the fullest
And the story and vibe is good
And it has the hardest Nintendo boss battle I've encountered
and it has this
And the story and vibe is good
And it has the hardest Nintendo boss battle I've encountered
and it has this
Maybe Skyrim's? Not to say the base game is bad or anything but the dlc is a lot more interesting imo, also if you count it probably most mmo's, expansion passes work really well for uprooting the old stuff in mmo's and making them a fresh experience.
dark souls ii. just to add, in my opinion crown of the sunken king is the best thing fromsoftware has done. they perfected the souls formula in that single dlc. then in the next dlc they gifted the world with the best boss fight i've ever played in fume kinght
haven't personally played the dlc but judging from people's reactions over the years, this is the best example
haven't personally played the dlc but judging from people's reactions over the years, this is the best example
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I played Undead Nightmare and thought it was a fun game, so I then bought main RDR a few months later expecting something even better but was so, so bored. I tried again a few years later but again was too bored to carry on.
A surprising number of titles. I wonder if its because the DLC is done at a point where the developers have mastered the game engine and mechanics and are now pushing new ideas having understood the game's inner formula for what makes the game so fun to begin with.
Makes you wonder, imagine if developers were asked to create a 'best of' compilation of their game so it could be played and finished in say 5-10 hours - all the best bits and all the bloat trimmed out.
Makes you wonder, imagine if developers were asked to create a 'best of' compilation of their game so it could be played and finished in say 5-10 hours - all the best bits and all the bloat trimmed out.
Splatoon 2, Dark Souls 2 DLC.
I don't think the Dark Souls 3 DLC is better than the main game, but I don't think the main game feels complete without it.
I don't think the Dark Souls 3 DLC is better than the main game, but I don't think the main game feels complete without it.
I'm still a bit salty they canceled the expansion (and any remaining DLC that hadn't been rolled into it). It was going to be so good. :(
This is what used to make expansions so good. The developers knew what to expect, what shortfalls to address within scope, and were just able to concentrate on the content.
Some DLC is like that, but a lot of time it's just farmed out to other small teams that may not have the same familiarity with the base game (while the main developers are already set to work churning out the sequel or their next full game).
The dlc not not working by itself does not disqualify it from being better. The thread does not say what's the best standalone dlc.
I think part 2 is the best last of us it does not hit the same without playing the first game but that does not make it worse.
Where I'm coming from is I don't feel that Left Behind can be divorced from the The Last of Us proper. It's pretty much like a deleted scene from a movie that would be included in a directors cut.
I wouldn't even say left behind is straight better. It feels comparable in quality but kind of suffers little from feeling like it's trying to stuff Ellie's entire childhood into one day. The character moments are good though and left behind gets a rare claim to one of the best kisses in games (which Naughty Dog kind of owns in general huh). The modern sequences are ok, nothing too special.
The obvious intent is to play left behind after TLOU which is weird for me in terms of pacing, unless you wanted to put it with winter when it occurs in the present. I'm generally pretty conflicted about it.
Duke Nukem Forever: The doctor who cloned me.
The DLC was much more enjoyable than the main campaign. It was shorter, had much more combat than the main game without all the padding that made the first game more tedious than it actually was. Had also more variety and the scripted sequences were quite better directed than in the first game.
Still it was a subpar game, but much more enjoyable than the main game.
The DLC was much more enjoyable than the main campaign. It was shorter, had much more combat than the main game without all the padding that made the first game more tedious than it actually was. Had also more variety and the scripted sequences were quite better directed than in the first game.
Still it was a subpar game, but much more enjoyable than the main game.
Dark Souls 2's DLCs, all three of them are just absolutely some of the best content in the series. I love them so much. I find DS2 pretty dull, ranging from pretty okay down to pretty bad and a few random great things like a few characters. But I have played through it several times just as an excuse to play the DLC again.
@OP I feel like honestly there are a ton of games where maybe the DLC wasn't "BETTER" per se than the main game, but the smaller, tighter focus, and the more room to experiment with some new cool ideas without having to run them into the ground, can make for some of my favorite gaming experiences ever. Every FROMSOFT DLC has been this way for me, and other things too.
Forza Horizon 1's Rally DLC is definitely not better than the main game, but it's also really really fun.
Shadow of Mordor's Bright Lord wasn't "Better" per se and I don't think I really needed it to be a full game, but having a shorter experience to try out the new powers and follow that DLC and hear sauromon and the elf square off back and forth puffing their chests lol was really fun.
Halo 3 ODST absolutely would normally have been a DLC, but was expanded a bit into a "full" small type game to fulfill a contract. I mean, look at the name too. Look how short it is compared to the others. They had to make firefight to help justify it as a full package. And it's really fantastic. Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon is another game that absolutely would normally be a DLC, but was kind of a "standalone" DLC instead. It's absolutely fantastic. Great, short, tight experience that doesn't overstay it's welcome. It's cheap often and easy to recommend. Wolfenstein The Old Blood is another similar situation. There's a fair amount of these I think. Maybe they bend the definition a bit but I think the general concept is satisfied. But again even if not the core point of how a tighter, more experimental set up can be very successful is worth recognizing.
EDIT: And I think one important point about them and why I separate them from other "AA" games is because like, ....hm. Not sure how to approach this, but basically the topic on my mind right now is like, ya know context informs experience. Emotional experience, remembered experience, intellectual, etc. With an AA game like, it is a single, tight, focused experience. And that's cool, and very valid and I think a lot is done well with this. I wish Ubisoft would do more of those because they had some good ones. But the reason I think my examples above stand out as a bit of a separate category, along with others like Minerva's Den, and others like that, is because they are all empowered by being a part of something bigger. Same with the Dark Souls 2 DLCs I'll talk about more below. I don't even like the main game all that much tbh, but because of the added context and established aspects of Dark Souls 2, adding the DLCs onto it mean that I have already spent a full game becoming immersed in this world and getting on board with the game. I'm used to it's ticks and everything. So having this fresh tight experience with the context I'm coming with, cuts away a lot of the fat that a full game would have to deal with. Similarly with Wolfenstein Old Blood I'm already invested in and attacked to B. J., and his sidekicks, so having this shorter prequel is really satisfying. I'm already emotionally immersed here. Same with ODST. With Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon, I've already fallen into all the normal mechanics and internalized them, so all the new stuff really stands out and that's what I remember out of that experience, which makes it feel even tighter. It can spend less time introducing me to all that stuff and just, go. Idk that entire idea is intriguing to me right now.
Like again, Dark Souls 2's DLCs are a great way to explore this.
The first doesn't have any unique overarching mechanic, but it is really focused and well paced. Just overall very well done. There are the dead knight armors though. I like that a lot. I also love that you can kill them with magic, if difficult, before you figure out the mechanic. It makes taking down one so you can slip through and do whatever you're wanting to do much more exciting. It's great fun.
The second however introduces an overarching mechanic that spans the whole DLC:
I think when you have a shorter, tighter experience like this, you can dedicate more time to well crafted systems like this that maybe wouldn't make it into a full game. The idols you have to destroy have several purposes, including granting you gear, affecting the final boss, opening up new areas, etc. I think without this mechanic the level design would just be okay and not near as memorable. But the idol mechanic, even if you find it on it's own maybe not that interesting, which I totally respect, you can at least recognize the way in which it directs the levels and pacing. And they do really go out of their way to vary it up. Sometimes it heals a miniboss. Sometimes it gives you really fast curse but dammit the asshole you were fighting ran down there >:(. Sometimes it just blocks a path. It's a lot of really well thought out things that aren't just there. They give life to the entire experience. If this DLC had existed in the main game, I mean, just judging by how most of the levels in Dark Soul 2 and how they aren't near this elaborate or have this many touches, I think it would have been so neutered to perhaps even have made me never have cared about it at all.
The third DLC is just fantastic.
Now, it does have some of the tedium I don't like in Dark Souls 2. And that definitely drags it down (like, some forced trap fights and stuff), but still, overall it's pretty great. This time rather than having a bunch of unlockable enemies, and instead of having a bunch of a mechanic reappear in many different forms giving cohesion to the level and building up to the final boss, instead, this time you are unlocking ALLIES. You can fight the final boss absolutely at any time you want. And in fact you should, since the enemies drop decent items that become pretty difficult to farm once you've iced off all portals. And you can stop at any time you want and go fight him. The levels are worth exploring though, for some pretty neat gear. The Outer Limits is perhaps not everyone's favorite level lol. But I love that they were able to try a more bold, unique idea like this in this smaller, more focused package.
I think this trilogy of DLCs should just, seriously be studied by game designers. Such a fantastic experience. And as someone who finds game design really fascinating, very fun to analyze.
wow. I like the entirety of DS2, warts and all, but the DLC and how it was released was GOAT. I'd also say the first expansions gimmick was "puzzles" in a sense, with platforms, respawning ghosts, etc. A bit Zelda-esque.
But honestly my fav part of the DS2 dlc were those optional areas (hero path? i forgot what they called them) that were supposed to be co-op'd (you could be high level and stomp them, but....) that glimpse of a balanced "mmo"esque feel and the dlcs being released so close in time made me realize thats what i'd want from an mmo, somerthing to dip into every few months and get lost in for a aw eek or so
I can't think of another DLC (well, ok, this is technically an expansion in an era where they're all now called DLC) that so thoroughly supplants the base game. If you're playing XCOM 2 and not using War of the Chosen, you're either playing Long War or straight up playing it wrong.
WotC adds the titular Chosen and a plethora of other changes and additions, changing every facet of XCOM 2 and improving it all. It's fundamentally better in every way, feeling more like XCOM 2.5 than just some DLC. It really is that good.
There it is! The winner! I've never experienced DLC that changed the core game for the better as well as this did.
Personally a huge fan of the Dragonborn dlc for Skyrim. Specifically I think the main questline for the dlc is some of the strongest stuff in all of Skyrim (dawnguard is the only thing that tops it imo). It's extremly moody and it's slight cosmic horror vibe makes it an extremly memorable experience. Gives off great vibes and I firmly believe it slaps harder then just about everything in the base game. The first Dragonborn alone is a more engaging villain for players then Alduin.
That is a really interesting way of looking at that. I totally get what you mean though.
I did solo them all though just to prove to myself I could. These games sort of get you addicted to beating what seemed impossible before. Beating Blue Boy solo was so fucking satisfying. Once you learn his delayed attacks he's a big ol chump.
Jaws of Hakkon and Trespasser for DA: Inquisition.
Trespasser for reasons that's been stated more than enough, but I've always really liked Jaws of Hakkon because I feel like BioWare nailed the new explorable area in terms of content and rewards to find and earn, and the overall main story and side stories are quite fun to see play out.
If we get these large explorable areas again in DA4, I hope they look to what they did with the Frostback Basin in the DLC for inspiration.
Trespasser for reasons that's been stated more than enough, but I've always really liked Jaws of Hakkon because I feel like BioWare nailed the new explorable area in terms of content and rewards to find and earn, and the overall main story and side stories are quite fun to see play out.
If we get these large explorable areas again in DA4, I hope they look to what they did with the Frostback Basin in the DLC for inspiration.
Came in to say Minerva's Den, so I will pop out by saying Trespasser. Ending was the most intense I'd ever felt anything while playing a BioWare game, except maybe facing Sovereign in ME1 and that was for a slightly different reason.
(oh yeah! Blood Dragon's a good mention here. 3 is prime UbiSoft-style open world. Blood Dragon is too but it has SO much style and love.)
(oh yeah! Blood Dragon's a good mention here. 3 is prime UbiSoft-style open world. Blood Dragon is too but it has SO much style and love.)
From seriously needs to make a kitched themed DLC because all their DLCs are chef's kisses all around.
...wait okay that was a joke but that sounds awesome. Like a huge, huge royal kitchen for colossal giants you get to explore and traverse through.
Yup. That trailer was dope has hell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60_qBTMpVxk
And the DLC amazing, redeemed GTAIV for me.
AND IT'S BEEN TEN YEARS
It might be before the days of DLC but i would say that Starcraft: Broodwar is the most iconic expansion ever made. The new campaign was great but most importantly the added units and maps helped make the game get so good that it paved the way for competitive gaming and is still so good over 20 years later.
