What games have you ruined with cheats?

I can't remember if it was a video or a recent Bombcast but the guys brought up cheats and how you can potentially ruin games with them. This immediately made me think of the original Starcraft. Way back in the day I essentially made that game no fun at all because of the cheats. I still remember some of them, Black Sheep Wall was for getting rid of fog of war and Show Me The Money was 10,000 minerals/gas. There was a tech upgrade and a speed build/upgrade cheat as well but they're escaping me at the moment.

They made the game super fun at first but completely killed any challenge and once the novelty ran out, it kinda sucked. I didn't have the willpower to not use them so the game lost any enjoyment for me and I quit playing. I learned my lesson with that game and have avoided even looking up cheats after that, I didn't bother with Warcraft 3 and now I don't have any inclination to use them really.

How bout you guys? Ever killed the fun of a game with cheats? Or what games did you make better with them?

How do you turn this on?

Still pretty fun though.

Contra

It's a heck of a lot different without the Konami Code.

Cheats are always the number 1 game ruin-er, not only on consoles but also on PC gaming as well, just like before in Cabal, where almost new character is a wall hacker and speed hacker.

I really don't know why people cheat and still expects that they have "earned the right" on that achievement or item.

Torchlight 2, there was this infinite items exploit out for the first couple weeks of release. I was too weak...so many items. I've yet to beat the game.

Cheats ruined Saints Row 2 online for me. The game is fun on its own and yet almost every time you get a random partner the dude is using cheats that just ruin the fun.

Pokemon Red. I bought one of those cheat carts because I was tired of doing the rare candy trick. Once I looked through the manual I ignored the giant warning saying "Use these at your own risk! They have been know to break the game!" I thought, ya sure, what's the odds of that happening? Fired it up and the cart was fried. Hundreds of hours of my very first Pokemon game was dead. And to make matters even better it fried the cart itself and the cart was never able to save properly again. So not only did I lose the most important save in the history of all time, I couldn't play Pokemon any more. So-much-rage that day.

idkfa

idspispopd

idgod

I don't think I've ever played Doom or Quake properly.

Skyrim because I cheated to give a shop keeper a bunch of money so that I could get my crafting skill up. Well when I got my crafting skill up I made the best weapons and armor. That made the game extremely easy and made scavenging and exploring worthless because I had the best stuff.

Not really anything since Starcraft that I can think of, Operation CWAL! Of course I went back and beat the campaign easily later having played the multiplayer for 10 years. I messed around a lot in Skyrim but broke the game without cheating prior to actually cheating (also never actually finished the game, though 170 hours seems like enough). I suppose if you consider frequent use of walkthroughs cheating I used to do that a fair amount, but haven't in like 10 years. If a game has collectibles I'll still look them up unless there's some intelligent system in place to make it not a huge pain in the ass to find them.

crusader kings 2

I can't play without 5000 ducats at all times now

I recently played the Last Remnant with an altered save, I made it to the midway point playing relatively blind then realized I'd have to grind for roughly 40 hours to beat the game and instead played with a slightly different save that led to grinding for 20 hours instead; it didn't really break the game or anything and most of the later fights still provided a solid amount of challenge (The Fallen still took 50 some tries without overleveling it).

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I item duped to get 100% chameleon. I thought it would be awesome, but it just allows you to wail on enemies that stand there without responding. Completely killed the gameplay.

Plants vs. Zombies for iOS. Played the living shit out of it for months, then they released an update that enabled some of the mini games. Only problem was you had to unlock the mini games with gold, but there were no good ways to farm gold. So, I bought a gold-pack (with real money) to unlock the best mini-game that I can farm gold with... only to realize I bought the money I needed anyway and didn't need the level anyway, thus, ruining the game for me.

I refilled my stasis meter using the code in the first Dead Space frequently to get through Impossible difficulty. Was still a challenge, but I did kill the tension on some of the bigger fights.

@FierceDeity said:

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I item duped to get 100% chameleon. I thought it would be awesome, but it just allows you to wail on enemies that stand there without responding. Completely killed the gameplay.

I did that without cheating and it was awesome. Although, I guess I could see how it would ruin the game if you were to do it before you had done almost everything.

On topic: I guess Warcraft III probably falls into this vein, for the same reasons discussed in the initial post. That, and maybe Star Wars Rogue Squadron.

I cheated so much when I was a kid that my entire list is too long to post. I wouldn't say I "ruined" the games for myself though, because a lot of them were story based anyways. I've since replayed most of the games now that I can better appreciate a good challenge though.

Buncha filthy cheaters up in here

None really.

I just have a different underlying philosophy when it comes to cheats in games. For me they are there to extend the fun and lifetime of a videogame after the original product "as intended" has gotten stale. Many a game's entertainment value has been doubled or more for me by toying around with various exploits, hacks, cheats, editors. Come to think of it I cheat in most games i play sooner or later (usually later). And yet i remain a type of player who loves a challenge. One day i'm finishing Xcom impossible ironman, the next giving myself oranges in Borderlands 2 cause i can't be arsed farming bosses thousands of times.

I remember using the walkthrough to play Grim Fandango all the way through and I regretted it greatly. I can't remember if it was laziness or the game was too difficult but whatever the case, it completely ruined the whole experience for me. I didn't even bother to take the time to figure out the puzzles myself. It felt like a game wasted. Normally, it feels good and rewarding to remember how to complete a game by heart but in Grim Fandango's case, it feels cheating and wrong. I wish someone could make me forget everything about Grim Fandango so that I could play it the legit way for the first time.

My biggest was probably Age of Empires II or Warcraft III, doing roughly what you did, @TheSouthernDandy. Still really enjoyed both games all the same, though.

I also think my family's use of the Rare Candy trick in Pokémon Red & Blue carrying over to Gold & Silver might be the reason I never finished a Pokémon game after Blue.

I don't think cheats have ever ruined a game for me. They make them fun!

Age of Empires 2, how do I turn this on? Just have an army of machine gun toting Shelby Cobras. Shit was awesome.

I think the biggest game ruiner was Starcraft. Once I used the cheats, playing normal was hard. I haven't used cheats really since then except for GTA when going on rampages. The main reason is because, as others have already pointed out, cheats just ruin the game. You think it's going to be really great and fun, but that feeling lasts about 5-10 minutes, then the game is ruined.

Well Age of empires I guess, though I was probably too young to learn to play the game without cheats. I loved the daddy and mommy cars. So it didn't really ruin it for me at all. If anything it helped me get into warcraft, like training wheels, eventually dropping more and more cheats until I became potent enough to beat all the computer difficulties without them. AKA, greed is good 1000+ then gradually drop it in increments of 100 until I could manage the insane.

I can only recall Titan Quest. I leveled up with cheats until I lost interest on playing.

I first played Baldur's Gate when I was 11. I played it again when I was 16 and suddenly realised what a great game I'd missed out on. This goes for IWD as well, actually. Cheated through both these games because I just didn't understand how they were supposed to be played. When I was a bit older and more able to graps the tactics required, I discovered a whole new world of awesome.

GTA 4, always helicopter and full hp made the game a little too easy....

Doom, after that I've never used them again.

Ruined? None. Cheapened? A fair amount, most notably Morrowind and Vice City.

@TheSouthernDandy: OperationCWAL was the updgrade/build speed. I wanna say TheDudeAbides let you skip tech trees. ThereisNoSpoon gave infinite energy. And of course, let's not forget PowerOverwhelming and ThereIsNoCowLevel

@Sinusoidal said:

idkfa

idspispopd

idgod

I don't think I've ever played Doom or Quake properly.

Yeah, I did that when I was younger. Funny, how when I went back and played them as an adult without the cheats on ultra violence and nightmare that I truly got to appreciate how fun these games where and how good the level design was.

@Slag said:

Contra

It's a heck of a lot different without the Konami Code.

Used the Konami code for this and Gradius III. Once again, went back and played them without the code later. Heck of a lot more challenging

@Psykhophear said:

I remember using the walkthrough to play Grim Fandango all the way through and I regretted it greatly. I can't remember if it was laziness or the game was too difficult but whatever the case, it completely ruined the whole experience for me. I didn't even bother to take the time to figure out the puzzles myself. It felt like a game wasted. Normally, it feels good and rewarding to remember how to complete a game by heart but in Grim Fandango's case, it feels cheating and wrong. I wish someone could make me forget everything about Grim Fandango so that I could play it the legit way for the first time.

Used a walk-through for Resident Evil 2 and Curse of Monkey Island when I got stuck on various puzzles. These I don't feel bad about because those puzzles got so abstract and obscure that I wouldn't be able to continue the game if I didn't cheat in these instances.

I played all the GTA games since 3 with cheats honestly made the game more fun that's really the only game I can think of but it made it a better experience for me can't think of any games that ruined it.

GTA III. Gave the public rocket launchers, couldn't turn it off. It was hilarious though, even if it did mean failing missions randomly through instant death by rocket!

@Animasta said:

crusader kings 2

I can't play without 5000 ducats at all times now

If you really wanted to ruin CK2, start and end every conflict by enabling charinfo and then using character IDs to imprison the person you're at war with! It forces a 100% war score in your favor, causing them to basically surrender immediately. You never have to fight a war again!

@Fredchuckdave @YI_Orange: Yeaaaah OperationCWAL that's it. Mass units, attack move. Lather rinse repeat.

I cheat if a game requires it to become fun or interesting on the PC. I don't do it thou on Xbox 360 as that normally disables achievements.

How about power overwhelming? or there is no cow level?!

In GTA San Andreas I would give myself every weapon type with thousands of rounds and cheat in cars and health and shit so much that the game broke and it became impossible to finish one of the end game missions. This was after I had sunk at least 100 hours into the game too. Thirteen year old me raged so hard that day.

Skyrim, Fallout: New Vegas and Age of Empires 2. Oh and this wasn't me, but when I was playing Saint's Row 3 and I was going for all the trophies someone entered my game with cheats and I didn't know that that would fuck up my trophy hunting...

All the PS1 Final Fantasy games were "ruined" for me because I used a Gameshark. At the time, I just saw the actual game portion to get in the way of the story. Gotta say my priorities were none too too straight then, but I enjoyed them nonetheless.

I'm not sure if this counts as a "cheat" but I completely ruined and eventually broke my Fallout New Vegas play through by teleporting and other nonsense with the console.

Starcraft and Warcraft 2/3. I've stopped using cheats now that I am capable of beating games on my own.

...Except for the occasional GTA cheat.

I dont think I have ruined any game with cheats. One thing I remember is using something that gave you all 10 in SPECIAL in Fallout but that was like my 10th or something run in the game and it make things cool. Imagining I'm some kind of super human.

Terraria. After getting most of the best items in the game, I cheated and gave myself a bunch of building materials, using a character creator. Just so I could build some cool stuff without seeking out supplies. It instantly ruined the fun of the game.

the first gta. contra, and properly a buch more

Medieval Total War 2. INFINITE MOUNTED ELEPHANT ARTILLERY!

@Turambar said:

INFINITE MOUNTED ELEPHANT ARTILLERY!

How does this ruin any game?

@Video_Game_King said:

@Turambar said:

INFINITE MOUNTED ELEPHANT ARTILLERY!

How does this ruin any game?

I think that would make pretty much every game better except for maybe...nope, no actually, it would make ALL games better.

Probably Doom.....  it was a game i didn't want to play without having the cheats.   I was young... scared as fuck... so i needed God Mode to get through!

I haven't cheated in games much since when I was a kid.

The games I remember cheating in were Descent and Quake. In Descent I used god mode to get past the first boss, and felt bad about how it said "Cheater" in the score area from then on. In Quake I turned on god mode, used "give 7" (I believe it is) when needed, and just blasted rockets at all the enemies up close. I also remember in Pharaoh using a cheat to keep giving myself gold... ruined the point of that game.

Like others have noted, going back to these games without using cheats, especially with Quake, has had me appreciate and enjoy them a lot more. Thankfully I didn't/don't cheat in the majority of games I play, but those are a few examples of where I did.