Games That Are Good/Bad Value for Money?

[Moonface]

When it comes to games you've played or look at buying, how do you judge them when it comes to the value for money they gave you? For example, is there a game you paid for that gave you far more value than the price, or vice versa? Do you judge the value of a $60 platformer (or whatever other genre) against other games within its genre, or do you compare it to what $60 can get you from any game in any genre?

Off the top of my head, the two most notable games I've played that are/were worth far more than the asking price are Terraria and Minecraft. The price of the latter has gone up a lot since I got it, and that's because of the amount of updates the game has received since my initial purchase, but even if I bought it today I think I would eventually have the same feeling because in 5 years from now Minecraft is going to have considerably more content than it does now and it never costs anything. Terraria's development is (finally) finished at this point, but right now it's going for $10 and it is easily worth quadruple that, if not more.

When it comes to judging a game I'm going to buy, normally I either compare it to what other games in the same genre offer, or if I think it at least has enough content and work put into it to feel like a justified price. Most of the time when I don't think a game is worth full price is because I'm not sure if I'll like the game, or it's something like an Ubisoft game where even though they put in a lot of work, the games just don't feel like $60 titles to me for some reason. It might be because I know those games will quickly decrease in price and because Ubisoft has a track record of putting out okay games but not consistent bangers.

[ShiraNoMai]

If the game respects my time and really sells me on what they set out to do, I'll feel every cent put towards that purchase.

I think the biggest offenders to this are companies that tell devs "hey do the bare minimum so we can repackage and sell for full price". It's not the devs fault it came out that way, but the head honchos have deemed it to be ideal and will more than likely make that money they sought out anyway. That's just disrespectful. Suppose the FIFA 2022 game this year is a good example of that

[Kyng]

I think the best value for money I've ever got from a game was probably from Crusader Kings II. I bought it on sale for £8.74, and so far I've logged 978 hours on it. Admittedly, I've since spent close to £100 on DLCs/expansions - but, even with all of that, I think still represents good value for money, given the sheer amount of time I've spent playing it.

It is possible that Railroad Tycoon II, Civilization V and Minecraft have given me better value for money in terms of "amount of money spent per hour played". However, the first two were birthday presents (which don't really count because I didn't spend anything on them), and the last one doesn't have my hours logged anywhere.

[Nightingale]

Deus Ex retails for about $10 on Steam and I have beaten it around 8 times now, even thought the overall experience lasts 25-30 hours and there are are multiple endings and branching paths to explore. That's STUPIDLY GOOD VALUE.

I paid around $500 for a sealed copy of The Last of Us and still play it, after unlocking everything on every difficulty. To put it on perspective, a *new* game would cost me about triple.

Minecraft... don't remember the pricetag, but I have been working on my city since 2018.

[Moonface]

I paid around $500 for a sealed copy of The Last of Us and still play it, after unlocking everything on every difficulty. To put it on perspective, a *new* game would cost me about triple.

Please, please tell me that $500 is a typo.

[Nightingale]

I paid around $500 for a sealed copy of The Last of Us and still play it, after unlocking everything on every difficulty. To put it on perspective, a *new* game would cost me about triple.

Please, please tell me that $500 is a typo.

It ain't.

$500 Argentine Pesos equal to about $4 US Dollars.

[Moonface]

I paid around $500 for a sealed copy of The Last of Us and still play it, after unlocking everything on every difficulty. To put it on perspective, a *new* game would cost me about triple.

Please, please tell me that $500 is a typo.

It ain't.

$500 Argentine Pesos equal to about $4 US Dollars.

Today I learned that America and Australia are not the only two countries that use the $ sign for their currency. I thought you had spent $500 USD on the game.

[Nightingale]

Yeah... I'm not that thick XD

[Moonface]

So to name a game that I got that was actually not good value for money, it would be Tetris Effect. Sure, the game is absolutely stunning to look at, but I started the Journey mode (the main mode of the game) at 10:45pm and it was entirely finished by 12:13am. The game cost me about $30, and it just didn't last very long for that price. Especially a game like Tetris which should be easy to make modes and such for, but the game was so focused on pretty visuals that it was basically quality over quantity. But even though the quality was very good, the length makes it only worth a rental.

It actually makes me think of getting those plates of expensive food but you get the worlds tiniest portion. Yes, it's very good but I'd rather get something a little less quality in favour of more quantity. This game is one of the rare examples I've encountered of quality >> quantity being too much.