Single Player Games

Do you cheat with yourself?

Why do people cheat in single player games? A wide variety of reasons. At least once in a while, we've all taken advantage of GOD mode, max weapons, or max ammo cheats. For example, I like having the option to spend some time in a new game just to explore and test. I like to examine each weapon and study what happens when it fires (and not have to worry about splash, getting killed by some miscreant monster from behind, etc. Sometimes a cheat is the only way to leisurely check out the models of the character and the environment from different angles and distances.

Some cheats are just fun, like those that turn ammo into bubbles that go off when they float into an enemy or ones that let you just fly around and check things out from a bird's eye view. Sometimes you can enter cheats that put diapers on bots you kill or an easter egg that replaces a character's face with one of the programmer's. Those types of cheats are just added for entertainment and don't really hurt anything at all. I remember in the old DOOM days when the only way to find certain secret passages (for lame players) was to change the clipping mode.

What cheats have you used?

In Giants, it is great to be able to check out terrain as it deforms and tessellates. The lava creatures in Serious Sam are a sight to behold, and look very good up close. How great is it that you can activate GOD mode and just wander around the environment checking out all the cutting edge visual animations and effects?

Remember 7th Guest and that insane Microscope puzzle? It was so hard that the programmers built a "3 strikes and you move on" cheat right into the shipping game. Alice was very hard for those of us who were not good at jump puzzles, but you wanted to check out everything because the textures and environments were so totally cool. Fire up a few cheats and you are off to the races.

Speaking of races, I hate those games that force you to win a series of races before they will open up all the tracks and cars (So lazy! -ed). I'm so glad you can just punch a few keys and play all the tracks and cars you want! I remember how difficult it was to control the original Rollcage. It was great to be able to type in a cheat to slow things down and increase the grip on the road. Rollcage Stage II was easier to control, but we still benefited from the cheats that allowed people to open up all of the tracks and cars and check out the incredible special effects and level design without having to earn it the hard way.

Bottom line - if you throw $30-$50 on a game, you should be able to goof around with all you want - no harm, no foul. I don't think that cheating on single player games is a big deal at all, and in fact, it can really help you get the most out of a game. When you get a handle on things and have had your fun, you can turn off the cheats and start beating the game without any help.