Call me lazy if you want but I don't think someone should need to look up a guide on how to buy a video game without feeling scammed. I feel like I've been seeing this more and more lately with abstractly named tiered bundles, complete editions that don't contain everything, and remasters of games that feel like they should have been updates.
I've listed a few examples below but can you think of any others?
Examples:
The photo I attached is a buying guide for Hitman 3. A game that still confuses me. For those that don't know Hitman 1 and 2 can be played in Hitman 3 but the game is sold in bundles. I believe part one contains missions from the first game but the standard edition, the next level up, does not contain all the levels for Hitman 2 but does have all the levels for Hitman 3. The deluxe edition has all of Hitman 2 and a good chunk of the small DLC like cosmetics and challenge missions but not all of them.
Before Hitman 3 was rebranded as World of Assassination I believe you could avoid repaying for the games you already own (at least on Steam) but I don't think that's the case any more.
So as someone who owns the original Hitman I believe I essentially need to rebuy it as part of the deluxe edition if I want to play Hitman 1 and 2.
Intravenous for example was released in July 2021 and from my understanding is being remastered with features from the sequel, Intravenous 2 (released August 2024), as a DLC for the sequel under the name Intravenous IV2.
I know this is too simplistic a view but... if you run into this issue, don't buy anything.
If you really want to play that game still, sail the high seas.
100% this. Played quite a bit of hitman on the high seas version. One day I decided I was gonna buy it on the next sale (around the time freelancer mode came out since I figured I enjoy it enough and updates would be easier). Oh boy! Their pricing model is garbage and the "sale" makes it seem way cheaper than it actually is if you want the whole game. Gave up on buying after that.
I played and loved all of the Hitman games up until the World of Assassination trilogy because I couldn’t figure out what edition to get and all of the different editions felt like a cash grab.