Are pets overrated in games?

[Zed Clampet]

In something like Fallout (Dogmeat is probably the most famous game pet) or Far Cry where your pet fights for you, I suppose they are okay. Most of you don't play games like some of the ones I play, but games like House Flipper or Ranch Simulator make a big deal about their pet updates, and then you end up with dog or a cat who just sits at your house all day, or just follows you around getting in the way. Do you like to have pets in games? What kind of functionality should the pet have to be fun. For instance, in Call of the Wild, your bloodhound can track and find your kills. That's extremely helpful.

 

[D10S]

Loved how mutant road to eden featured animals as playable protagonists.
Yes, I like to have pets in games. Rdr2 had animals you could pet, so nice. Ubisoft games have had cats/dogs you can pet for a long time.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Loved how mutant road to eden featured animals as playable protagonists.
Yes, I like to have pets in games. Rdr2 had animals you could pet, so nice. Ubisoft games have had cats/dogs you can pet for a long time.

Why do you care if you can pet them?

 

[D10S]

Why do you care if you can pet them?

the more you can interact with the world, the more immersive it feels. plus the animations are nice.

 

[Zloth]

The dog (or cat, you can change it in the settings file) in NetHack is great if you can keep it going. Dungeons are a dangerous place for a dog. The dog will help you fight monsters, naturally. It will also pick up random stuff and drop the stuff in other places - which can be fun in shops. It will eat food, too, in a dungeon where starvation is a real problem, but, if it doesn't eat some food you think it probably should be eating, you can take the hint and avoid some poisonous carcasses. Later, you can polymorph your dog and it will stay loyal to you. If it turns into, say, a dragon then you'll have a mighty beast at your side! (A mighty beast with a mighty apatite!)

Do NOT eat your dog if it gets killed. Especially do not kill your dog on purpose and then eat it!

 

[Brian Boru]

your bloodhound can track and find your kills. That's extremely helpful.

This. It's a pain when there isn't a mini map marker and there a dozen corpses scattered on both sides of the road, in the grass and the trees and down the slope…

Ubisoft

I don't have wide experience with other devs, but I love how Ubi do their wildlife—truly excellent.

you can pet

Nice for a photo, and occasionally otherwise, but mostly a pain when they're near where you're looting and you have to focus on whether the E key shows 'Pet' or 'Loot' or 'Swap weapon'—but of course that's a commentary on abysmal UI design, not on pets. Sorry, grr, meow, woof.

What kind of functionality should the pet have to be fun

'Fun' gets old pretty quick for me—I mean the cutesy stuff built-in—so for me, fun mostly = useful.

Locating kills as you said, and the other big one is reviving me when I'm dying. What I haven't seen which would be great is doing all the nearby looting! Boomer in FC 5 can get you extra with one of his upgrades, but not do the basic loot.

The Owl in FC Primal is a neat tagging system, but they should have made it possible to fly on-high like an AWACS—or provide a hawk for that 🙂

A QoL thing would be to have them stay 5+ meters away from you when possible—as you say, getting underfoot gets to be a real low-level constant pain, to the degree I often play without buddies.

 

[Colif]

torchlight did pets well. You could have them fight for you or buff you, or they can also collect items off ground for you, or their best use. sent to town to sell/buy crap. They were a way to empty inventory without constantly going back to town.

 

[Pifanjr]

I'm fine with pets you can only pet or maybe even look at, they make for decent decorations. Like the space hamster in Mass Effect.

Pets in real life often don't do much more than just wandering around the house or sitting in their enclosure for most of the day either and people still like having them.

 

[Colif]

Pets in real life often don't do much more than just wandering around the house or sitting in their enclosure for most of the day either and people still like having them.

I had fish, the last place I wanted to find them was outside their enclosure. After finding a few like that I ended up putting a glass top on tank, not many got out after that. Some can survive out of water, but not many.

 

[BeardyHat]

torchlight did pets well. You could have them fight for you or buff you, or they can also collect items off ground for you, or their best use. sent to town to sell/buy crap. They were a way to empty inventory without constantly going back to town.

Definitely one of the better implementations of pets in games.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance had a decent dog. It would hunt on its own and bring you rabbits, which would have been helpful if there weren't already random pots all over the world to eat from.

More importantly, you could Sic him on enemies and he'd bite their arms and hang off of them so you could beat them about the head with your mace while they're distracted.

 

[Colif]

i played Torchlight 2 for a few hours

and in that time I used lots of mods and some of those pets were fun.
scary part is that it took me 10 years to play that long on it and only 6 weeks to beat it playing Grim Dawn... tl2 has no chance as new expansion for GD next year.

Guess I just wasted more time in it, Achieved way more in TL2.

 

[BeardyHat]

i played Torchlight 2 for a few hours

and in that time I used lots of mods and some of those pets were fun.
scary part is that it took me 10 years to play that long on it and only 6 weeks to beat it playing Grim Dawn... tl2 has no chance as new expansion for GD next year.

Guess I just wasted more time in it, Achieved way more in TL2.

I'm not really an ARPG fan, but I have played most of the major ones for a few hundred hours between them, but T2 is probably my favorite between it and Grim Dawn.

I really enjoy the slow pace, something more akin to the original Diablo, which feels like time forgot gameplay wise. I love the slow movement, danger around every corner, only a trickle of items you receive and the lack of "Run, Run, Smashy-Smashy" in that original game.

Again though I've played T2 for 27 hours and GD for 54, so my opinion is not of the highest caliber.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I enjoyed Grim Dawn 2 when I put a few hours into it. My only problem was that it was my first ARPG, and it explained absolutely nothing, so I spent a lot of time experimenting. Will go back and finish it some day.

I've got Torchlight 2 installed, but haven't tried it yet.

 

[Colif]

its lack of explanation still exists. It doesn't even point where you meant to go. Took me a while to remember... will again. Although its only a year since I last played.

there is no Grim Dawn 2 yet, they still adding to GD 1.

Grim Dawns story is longer than TL2. You can finish tl2 in about 2 days... and start again on same character... GD is longer and does offer same replay after end thing but it takes me longer... I seen people finish entire game in a few hours but I hate them 🙂

 

[Brian Boru]

Grim Dawns story is longer than TL2

Tru dat.

 

[Colif]

I clearly do too much side content in GD. Does that figure include all the expansions? As I spent half my time in them when I played, mainly as it was new and differrent for a while anyway... I played through one expansion on every character, only one character actually finished it. Just...

 

[Brian Boru]

Does that figure include all the expansions?

Should be just the base games, that's where I got 'em on Steam.

HLTB seems to agree—GD and TL2.

 

[Colif]

TL2 moded had no end. they had endless dungeons and plenty of random ones. You could play it for... um 8 years and not get bored. Though tbf I did have breaks in that time, coming back everytime I got a new PC. This PC was no different.
It never got expansions.
GD has Two expansions so far but I never actually got into one as it happens after main story and I never did finish it. I don't like ends, more likely to just start a new character... until well, you can't do that cause you hit Steam save limit. Lucky I don't remember anything now so deleting some of them to make another won't hurt as much, Just need to not delete one who furthest in.

 

[Zloth]

I just got a pet cat in Cyberpunk. It's some sort of hairless cat - looks pretty freaky to me.

Apparently, in the year 2077, laundry baskets come with features that let it act as a self-cleaning litter box and automatic cat-feeder. I probably don't want to know how those two systems may depend on each other.

Or maybe the cat just feeds off my soul?

 

[Colif]

its a very dark photo

 

[dxchase]

I enjoyed Grim Dawn when I put a few hours into it. My only problem was that it was my first ARPG, and it explained absolutely nothing, so I spent a lot of time experimenting. Will go back and finish it some day.

I've got Torchlight 2 installed, but haven't tried it yet.

Its worth going back. Might be kinda jarring with the graphics which are outdated imo, but they have made some good QOL changes over time (you can now dodge with spacebar). Yes, explanation is still bad like @Colif said.

I would also try out the expansions, they are planning another expansion sometime this year i believe, so there will be fresh content coming to the game soon.

Tru dat.

Yea def. Just base story. The 2 expansions already out are roughly the same size and length, imo, as Grim Dawn is. Cant say i know too much about Torchlight





As for pets? I dont find them overrated i do mind what functions they have though. I like pets that collect loot for me and add storage etc., but i dont really like pets that just follow you around to look cute. In Diablo 4 though, there is no pet or pet options which i find lame because Diablo 4 is absolutely a game that should have pets.

 

[Colif]

it doesn't look that bad

game starting to come back to me looking at screenshots. think guy above is furthest in... I will have to load a few.

I will have to make space anyway just to make a character.
I wonder where in story this expansion fits in. One is available as soon as you end intro area. Other is after game ends.

torchlight 3 had pets too but the less said of that game, the better

 

[Iriiiiinaaaa]

Well, actually, I like pets in games, especially if they look cool and can be upgraded, and even better when they give you some kind of bonus in the form of superpower or additional slots for luggage