I would argue the previous CelebrET’s are more complex design-wise than The Herbalist, the Harbinger has unique mechanics relating to Ether showing up, the laser sequence, the virus outbreak, the cure weapons, the extra guards etc, not to mention making a working elevator and an entirely new part of the map made out of whole cloth. By all rights, that should’ve been more expensive!
The Splitter revamps the ICA Facility, adding new rooms and assets, making it feel vastly different, The Infiltrator, despite the small play space, has plenty of complexity within; a toxin mechanic, an ongoing fight, a scheduling mechanic, multiple fighters to keep track of, and likely other stuff I’m missing. Even The Wizard added more fighting motion-capture and the fighting moves objective!
By comparison, The Herbalist is more expansive in some ways, it does feel like a cut-down Landslide, and I mean that in a good way, but that the kills are pretty…basic. The one outlier that strikes me as different is crushing Snoop in the underground facility. But is that worth the extra cost? I’d argue not.
Arti, On Stream: That’s subjective, but it is more expensive because we want to add more stuff to it. We felt like it it could be a bit more content in it. So we are increasing the amount of items set into in it and also dedicating more development time to have the special assignment with custom challenges, and in the end this is what we came for this is the price that we aligned on that could be possible for future DLCs.
I’m sorry Arti, I really am, but I dislike the reasoning given on-stream as It just contradicts what has already been released in the past, and at a cheaper price point. Adding a SpecAss and challenges sounds comprehensive, but the challenges are not all that complex. I think they’re all assassination challenges that are expected for the player to do, nothing too esoteric at all. The ETA is expected, and as mentioned, converting a contract from ET to permanent mission with saving is not hard at all (though accounting for the saving issues is, I wanna make that clear).
So from my perspective, the price increase amounts to adding an extra item, the only objectively new thing added that adds extra dev time from before, for a steep price increase, which seems a little much. If this were a fiver instead of £7, I wouldn’t be so annoyed (I may have even said that the price is worth it, considering what was added going forward). But that’s not what has happened. Going from £4 to £7 just doesn’t sit well with me, and I’m using what I know to come to that conclusion, which is very much objective fact and past experiences informing my current subjective view.
But that hasn’t been the case for over two years now. There have been quite large modifications to the maps the CelebrET’s inhabit, even if it’s just one part of it. And to IO’s credit, at no point do I think they just added a new target in a largely unmodified map. There has been effort put into them.
Maybe the later CelebrET’s really will be more complex, and much closer to a main mission. But to my eyes, it just feels like an excuse to charge more for…not much more added.
now this did surprise me as I thought it was a pretty cool skin, especially with the cool red bits on the handle.
