What triggers you to play through games twice?

This is something that's been on my mind for a while. For as long as I've been playing games (which isn't that long honestly) I've never played games consistently. I can't even begin to imagine how the GB reviewers do it, that is; play a game, write about it and then forget all about it.

But then I realized that I only played through some of my favorite games once. Even more perplexing is that I've played through games I loathe multiple times.

Sometimes I'll give a game it's due and run it on "impossible" difficulty or whatever, and it sometimes becomes something of a ritual. I finished 4 of the 5 halo games on legendary, completed 3 out of 4 of the CoD games since MW1 on veteran, beat Gears 2 and 3 on insane, etc. In those cases I understand the reason behind multiple playthroughs. Then I look at stuff like Mass Effect 2, RDR, Alpha Protocol, Dead Space, the Splinter Cell games and any other campaign based games and see no pattern at all. I'm just a dude with enough disposable income, gaming isn't my job, I have enough free time at the moment and I kinda like achievements. As a kid it's understandable to replay through stuff over and over until the next holiday or birthday rolls around but as an adult it's a very different story.

What is it that makes the community play through stuff 7 times ( like Patrick and RE2)? Challenge? Fun? Achievements/ trophies? Nothing to do? 60 dollars?

Achievements and/or for the pure fun of it.

new game plus

Choices in the game. However, I doubt Im going to play Fallout 3 again because the voices and character faces really bug me

Nothing. I've yet to find a game that gave me a meaningful reason to replay it again. "Ooh, you can get the slightly different ending if you invest another thirty hours" or "now you can play as a jerk!". Just not meaningful enough reasons. Especially when there is always a stack of games that I need to get around to taller than I am.

Trophies help. I plan on replaying ICO maybe 2 times, and SotC at least 4 times for that reason. Though it wouldn't explain why I played Persona 4 three times. Ss and Gs?

Mostly for story purposes, if there are obvious things I don't get to see in the first (or first few) play throughs (like the choices in The Witcher 2) or if there was a revelation at the end that would give you a different perspective on the events from the earlier parts of the game (although this is much less common)

I replay games for the atmosphere. I just finished El Shaddai, and I'm planning on replaying it to get another shot at everything.

I've also replayed this generation Alan Wake, Force Unleashed 1 and 2, Deadly Premonition, Mass Effect 2, Shadows of the Damned, Nier, Fable 3, Dead Space 1 and 2, just to sunk in the whole mythos.

I often play games I played as a child again and again, but not new games.

Extreme boredom.

@Hizang said:

I often play games I played as a child again and again, but not new games.

why?

mindset or just random inklings. I don't have Dark Souls yet (we're all sold out, oddly enough) so I figured I'd pop in Demon's Souls even though I beat it already. I still have to beat Crack in Time but I haven't touched it in months until one day where I'll be like "I should play that"

@Vinny_Says: Mostly Nostalgia I suppose, I love cracking out a N64 now and then and playing Super Mario 64 or Banjo-Kazooie.

If it's a good game.

Either it's because there's stuff I didn't explore or do the first time (major choices in Mass Effect/Dragon Age) or it's because of nostalgia (Monkey Island-games, Rayman, Dungeon Keeper).

If it's fun enough to go back to, if I'm bored, if I'm feeling completionist-y, if I'm feeling nostalgic, or if I want to give a game I didn't like another chance.

To make different choices like ME To try different classes like DA2 To min/max the shit out if everything like FFT To enjoy the ride like Portal To feel like a BAMF like RE5 To have an unbelievable amount of fun like Bayonetta

Whenever I play through a game again it's because I found it really fun and want to experience it again. Sometimes it's right away, other times it's 6 months down the track, other times it's because a sequel's hitting and it's a good excuse to revisit it. If it's a game with different choices to be made or a new game+ those are also great reasons to replay it.

I also like to keep the games I love relatively fresh in mind.

My OCD achievement hunting coupled with having the Vinny fever where I dont feel done with a game unless ive collected every last collectable. 

Most recently i dived back into codMW1  just to farm the veteren achievements......I never want to play 'no fighting in the war room' EVER AGAIN!
 
I had to stop played Fallout 3 because id scavaged soooooo much crap and traded so much shit to all the traders that id completely busted all the shops in the wasteland by level 15.  I had ALL the caps

I rarely go through games twice, even games in which choice plays a part.

I'm cool to hear from other people about what they did differently and what happened because of it, but I feel like doing it myself is kind of spoiling it. It's never as good as the first time.

Only games I play after I've finished them are open world games with a decent variety of side-stuff to do. I've played more Saints Row 2 after "finishing it", then I played to finish it.

The only time I'll replay a game is if I haven't played it in a few decades - most likely that it's just become available on GOG or Steam - or if I'm trying to convince someone else to play it. Outside of those reasons, I'm not interested in replaying any games.

@Vinny_Says said:

What is it that makes the community play through stuff 7 times ( like Patrick and RE2)? Challenge? Fun? Achievements/ trophies? Nothing to do? 60 dollars?

To be fair, a single playthrough of RE2 is like, 2.5 hours.

There comes a certain satisfaction from knowing a game inside out. If a game is fun enough, I tend to want to really master it. I'm sure I got this from being an old school gamer when all you had were games that you'd beaten a dozen times and games that were impossible for you to beat. The game becomes beating the game while making as few mistakes as possible.

the only game i played through twice was half life 2, and that was because 100% of that game is awesome. Some games i think i would like to play again, but then i remember the escort level, or the under water level, or the shadow temple, as seen in Zelda ocarena of time. And i really do not want to play a game again if im not going to be having fun 100 percent of the time, because i could be playing all my new games that i still haven't played and be having new experiences, if not fun.

@Vinny_Says: Mostly Nostalgia I suppose, I love cracking out a N64 now and then and playing Super Mario 64 or Banjo-Kazooie.

@Vinny_Says: Wow, this is a really good question! I'm playing through Persona 3 Portable at the moment and it's slowly becoming one of my favourite games of all time - I really want to play through it again but not sure if i'll feel that way by the end. Same with a lot of games, so many times I'll be coming up to the end of a game and think 'Can't wait to get straight into another playthrough of this' but when I start that new game plus or on a harder difficulty - it just doesn't feel the same as going through the first time. So to answer your question, nothing so far has made me want to replay games - but part of me kinda wishes I did!

The game i've replayed the most in my life is Doom/Doom 2/Final Doom. I'm not sure whether it's nostalgia driving me but I pretty much play that game every year. It's just so consistently fun and challenging.

Is the story entertaining?

Does it have alternating paths/choices?

Do I have any interest in those alternating paths/choices?

New game plus? ( I enjoy feeling over powered.)

How technical is the game?

Usually those are the reasons I would play through a game. For instance I played through Uncharted 2 a couple times because I thought the story and characters are great. Then there's stuff like Bayonetta where the combat systems are technical enough that it's rewarding to continue playing it and be proficient at the game.

Different things for different games. Sometimes achievements. If it's a story games with different parts it's usually because I want to see alternate endings etc. Sometimes I just like a game so damn much I want to have the same experience over and over. For example I've put somewhere around 600 hours into the original KOTOR.

Man, sometimes I want to want to play through a game again but can't bring myself to do it. Which sucks. For example I want to want to play through alan wake again and then move into the dlc. But I just can't bring myself to do it. It's weird.

A mix of Fun, Story, and even more Fun.

The list of games I replay quite a bit is huge, even if I buy new games I'll still go back to old ones. I don't play them over and over again all together though, I'll just randomly get one to replay and stick with it for a bit before moving to another. I just hopped back into Mass Effect to try and finish up my "best" male Shepard to bring to ME2 and then 3 later on. I even started Lady Shepard but I want to finish the other one first.

Also, since Minecraft doesn't really "end" (unless you play only Hardcore mode when the patch comes out), I play that a lot.

I never replay games.

But when I do I only replay best game ever made.

Half Life 2 - 16 times, at this point its an annual thing. Such a great way to refresh yourself from todays brown or grey shooter man garbage.

The game that I've replayed the most is Mass Effect. It's an incredible game but the main reason I did so was because I wanted to max out the level for my main Shepard (Which required two playthroughs for me) before playing Mass Effect 2 and then I decided to create a Renegade female Shepard. So that's three playthroughs. Now I've played two and a half playthroughs of Mass Effect 2 (the half belonging to FemShep and I never really went back into it, maybe I will when Mass Effect 3 is near launch).

Since the PS1 hit, replaying games has not really been much of an option for me. In the NES days, though, you could sit down and burn through a game in an hour or two, most of the time. Replaying a 10 hour campaign doesn't strike me as a fun proposition when there are so many other 10 hour games I've yet to play. Still, though, back in the day, I played through and beat Bionic Commando on the NES at least a dozen times (probably more, to be honest). I could go through the entire game, every single level, in 45 minutes. That was fun.

Customization, dialogue options and skill trees.

Achievements/Trophies, multiple story choices/endings, more than one playable character, coop campaign.

I played Max Payne 2 like 5 times, it was a game that every time I was out of games to play I said 'fuck it let's go back and revisit good ol' Max', very short and fun game. I played Mass Effect 1 with a Soldier on pc back when I was a pc gamer then I bought a 360 and played it again right before getting into ME2, this time with a vanguard which was the class I wanted to import on ME2. Then I went bananas and bought ME2 for the PS3 and started a female/renegade playthrough, still didn't finished I was right before going to hit the omega 4 relay but exams and family problems kept me away from gaming during some months.

Other games that I played a lot of times are the ones that have splitscreen coop, whenever I have a gamer guest at home I know we can start a playthrough of Kane & Lynch 2, Halo Reach, Army of two 1/2 or any game like that, it doesn't matter that I have already played them several times, it's the fun of shooting dudes with a friend.

If it's Mass Effect then it's to see all possible outcomes and conversations, but if it's a shooter or something then it's either just for achievements, or to help a friend.

EDIT: Actually, that's not entirely true. Halo's a shooter and I've replayed its campaigns many times for fun.

Because the Soul's games dont get Really hard till u play it a second, third, fourth and so on time :D

Haven't done it in years.

I wish I could play a game twice. I honestly think I would have to have a dedicated friend run it again with me. Gears of War 3 is a great example for me as I loved the campaign but I want to go back on insane but something about me is not allow myself to complete it alone.

I played Shadows of the Damned again because there's not a lot of dialogue that I have to wade through, and I find the scenarios really neat looking. I played through Dragon Age Origins twice because the choices felt different, and the characters would occasionally speak to me differently depending on my character's origins. Those are the only two I can think of.

Oh and the GTA games. Those are just fun.

I played the original Silent Hill through four times on the Playstation. Not particularly for the different endings (although they were nice!) but because I wanted to see bits again. There were bits in the game that were INCREDIBLE but you were kinda forced to run through and miss bits. And, with games like that, it's not like you can just skip to that level or whatever. Plus, you could get through Silent Hill in like five or six hours if you knew what to do. I watch movies over and over again, so a five hour game (in two or three goes) isn't THAT far removed from that.

SO GOOD.

A lot of things, not achivement/trophies though. Mostly the story

Really depends on the game. In an RPG or action game with RPG elements (Borderlands, Dark Souls, etc.), if I like the way characters are rolled out and specced, I might try something different for a different playstyle.

If it's something super linear that I simply had a lot of fun with (Heavenly Sword, Arkham Asylum, Uncharted, etc.), I'll play it again *eventually*.

Story options never make me play a game twice. The story I got was, in essence, the story I wanted because I made the choices I wanted. I like to leave it at that.

Trophies never do the trick. I could care less about them.

Autism and Aspergers.

Not to offend anyone.

New Game + and an Engrossing Story. Alternate paths help.

I too have played all the Halo's, Gears and COD's on the highest difficulty. One of my main reasons for going back through a game is achievements. If it is a game such as Mass Effect or Fable with options in the story then i will run through again just to see the evil side. For games that are linear but are also games i adore such as the Uncharted's and Batman, I usually leave it about 6-12 months before i go through it again, just so it doesn't feel too familiar.

New Game+ and how good it was.

@Dimsey said:

I rarely go through games twice, even games in which choice plays a part.

I'm cool to hear from other people about what they did differently and what happened because of it, but I feel like doing it myself is kind of spoiling it. It's never as good as the first time.

Only games I play after I've finished them are open world games with a decent variety of side-stuff to do. I've played more Saints Row 2 after "finishing it", then I played to finish it.

I couldn't get into that game. Played maybe two hours of it then I got bored :(

Same with GTA IV.

When a sequel is coming soon, easy achievements that I've missed, has a great story or atmosphere that I want to see again, or just being particularly bored.

Boredom or if I really liked the game

If I can use different characters to play I'll play again, otherwise if it's short and fun I'll play it again. Oh, and Pokemon can't forget Pokemon.