Grand Theft Auto IV
Grand Theft Auto IV was indeed grand, as it was the first entry in the series to take advantage of the PS3 and Xbox 360, but it wasn’t without its issues. The annoying social aspects, particularly Cousin Roman, and limited features of the base game were enough to excite fans but not to keep them around forever. That’s where the expansions came in to shake things up and help GTA IV hold its spot in GTA history.
The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony brought new life into GTA IV’s Liberty City. The first expansion placed players into the shoes of a motorcycle gang leader, and while that was cool, it also added weapons, vehicles, and activities (although not all were available to Niko). The addition of mission checkpoints also took out the chore of returning to a failed mission.
It was The Ballad of Gay Tony that really busted the game wide open, though. While Rockstar definitely took their time creating Liberty City for GTA IV, they didn’t exactly fill it with things to do – which certainly doesn’t fit New York City, fictional or otherwise. The Ballad of Gay Tony filled the streets with life by adding base jumping, drug wars, night club management, triathlon races, and even an underground fight club. When combined with the new playable character, scores for missions (adding replayability), and all of the new gear and vehicles, this expansion created the best version of the game possible.
Destiny: The Taken King
When Destiny initially released it wowed players with its incredibly tight mechanics, challenging missions, and pretty visuals. Unfortunately, after the honeymoon period ran out, the cracks in Bungie’s latest project began to show. Progression had issues, the loot system was pretty broken, class mechanics didn’t promote teamwork, and the bosses were little more than bullet sponges. While players were enjoying themselves, it was becoming clear that the issues Destiny was suffering from would eventually kill the game.
Thankfully, the developers caught on to what was happening and started working on a way to turn it around. That something came in the form of an expansion – The Taken King. The Taken King was more than just a collection of new activities, enemies, and gear. It was a complete overhaul of everything that Destiny had been up to the point.
The first thing fixed was the story. Now there was a way to follow the quest lines and appreciate everything working in the background. A narrative thread was added so that players knew what was going on, rather than drowning in hidden plots and histories.
Next were the Guardians themselves, the very characters wielded by players. New abilities changed team dynamics and offered an updated layer of strategy that tied in perfectly to how bosses were now handled. Gone were the bullet sponges, fights required intelligent teamwork.
Even background features such as loot, the obtaining of exotics, and experience were adjusted, along with some more weapon tuning. Bungie took everything that Destiny’s fanbase had been saying to heart and brought the game a lot closer to what was promised when first unveiled.
StarCraft (Brood War)
There are very few expansions that did more for a game, and even for an entire industry, than StarCraft Brood War. How many expansions can say they are permanently embedded in the cultural identity of an entire country? Even before Brood War was released way back in 1998, StarCraft was an excellent RTS game. However, this expansion took things to another level.
The stability Brood War brought with its new units and balance changes created fertile ground for an esports explosion in Korea. Its popularity in the country was so strong, that it is considered by many to be the beginning of modern esports. The game drew fans to internet cafes that are still regularly used in the today. Brood War competitions were broadcast on television in South Korea, which is impressive even by today’s standards; and if you think describing to a non-gamer the appeal of watching Twitch is hard in 2016, imagine explaining early 2000-era Brood War tournaments that drew in tens of thousands of people.
Brood War was so solid that Blizzard didn’t feel compelled to release a successor until all the way in 2010. And although the sequel has been controversial and polarizing for Brood War purists, StarCraft II in a lot of ways continued Brood War’s legacy in popularizing Twitch, the now standard app for watching video game competitions. Even still to this day though, Brood War competitions exist in Korea and you regularly find ex-pros and fans online playing and streaming.
Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Sonic hasn’t had an easy time when it comes to video game releases lately. There was once a period where the blue blur could do no wrong as he warmed our hearts with his “gotta go fast” attitude and intense platforming gameplay. During a period when Sonic was a very real contender on the platforming scene, one of the games on the Sega Genesis actually received an expansion.
Now you may be wondering just how did one of those blocky cartridges get an expansion? The answer to that is Sonic & Knuckles, and it led to one of the best Sonic the Hedgehog video games ever. Thanks to the “Lock-on” technology of the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge, players could dock Sonic the Hedgehog 3 on top to mix the features of both games in order to create one large experience.
This combination allowed players to enjoy the entirety of both games as Knuckles, which came with some altered level design to put his gliding and climbing to use. You could also play as Tails through Sonic & Knuckles this way (finally). But the real reason to lock these to happy cartridges together was to gain access to Hyper Sonic, Hyper Knuckles, and Super Tails. Yeah, there was just a load of awesome here that really expanded on something great.
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
We’re going to be straight with you, A Realm Reborn is not technically an expansion to Final Fantasy XIV, even though it was birthed from the scorched remains of that ill-fated game. You see, when Final Fantasy XIV was first released, it was instantly hated by nearly everyone who touched it. Bad UI design, weird mechanics, and other issues plagued the game and led it to be ripped apart by critics and Final Fantasy fans alike.
In order to fix the ailing title, a new producer/director was put into position – Naoki Yoshida. He realized that the only way to fix the game was to completely rebuild it. While most developers would have just cut their losses, the team decided to try reviving the game and give fans the experience that was promised. After years of development, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn was… well, reborn. It incorporated the large world of the initial release and expanded upon it in new and exciting ways.
The UI was overhauled, the world’s structure was altered to better promote exploratory gameplay, combat was changed to be more engaging, and progression was reduced from being so much of a grind. Pretty much everything that was wrong the first time was fixed the second time around. Square Enix went above and beyond, and Final Fantasy XIV was all the better because of it.
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