Hey everyone,

I’ve been thinking about cheat codes in video games and how much they’ve changed (or disappeared) over the years. Back in the day, games like GTA, Mortal Kombat, or Contra had cheat codes that added fun, replayability, and sometimes pure chaos.

But in modern games, especially online ones, cheats are usually frowned upon or outright banned.

Do you think cheat codes should make a comeback in single-player games as a feature for fun, nostalgia, or accessibility?

Or have we moved past that era with mods and DLC replacing them? Curious what you all think!

 

thanks in advance for any help

 

Cheat Codes are long gone. You can use trainers now which is the same thing. Instead of typing you can just use the single button.

 

What are you talking about? We have access to the dev console in game. The level of cheatism has never been more granular as right now. Like "I want this stat upped by 0,005" "gimme this only object" etc etc.

 

But that is because, like with some plugins and in general apps that connect to internet, it's almost impossible for your crack/cheat/etc not be discovered. Otherwise, in not online games, what the fellow user said:

 

If you cheat in online games, then you're scum and you deserve to be banned & shunned. There is some nuance to this however, like the multiplayer mods to Elden Ring etc. which are in principle indistinguishable from cheating, but you're only playing with your friends. But from the server standpoint you're running modified software so how can they tell? As such, you're liable to get banned.

Offline, who cares what you do? Plenty of ways to cheat, we have Cheat Engine and a whole universe of mods to change your experience (including making shit harder!) so no issues there.

 

What I want is unlockable weapons, maps, cheats etc to come back, like in Goldeneye. Adds a ton of replayability to a game.

 

! I THINK ABSOLUTELY !

Especially nowadays, when modern games tend to be quite expensive (and for good reason), it’s not uncommon to shell out a hundred bucks for something that promises and guarantees you two weeks of fun, till u realize that you're in reality was in about 4 hours totally done :/ What am I getting at? Well, if you find yourself needing to resort to cheat codes in a modern game these days, it is 100% GUARANTEED that you are dealing with a "Most-Wanted-Mega-Epic" hard to beat title with maybe months of fun. ...or even YEARS (cause you maybe after 4 years also use a cheat-code to finally see *not game* the 18 levels, before the endboss) That’s why I welcome the use of cheats now more than ever... AND BELIEVE ME, I KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT! ...currently i'm playing a modern game myself, and (the proof) I have absolutely no qualms about using cheat codes - NO on the contrary: I wan.. i simply have to! SEE FOR YOURSELF:​

you'reAch34t3R-2 ? th3N m4yTry-> AudiozMiniMemory (2 MB)

 

I used a lot of gameshark for GBA and PSX games when i was a kid but never really was into cheating (it killed my desire of keep playing) but getting acess to hidden content, missions, customization etc.

 

Modern games don't need cheat codes, their function is integrated into the game.

A lot of games, if they notice you're struggling (stuck, or died too many times at one point), they either lower the difficulty in the background, or literally tell you "Hey bro, we noticed you're a bit slow on the uptake. Would you like to turn stupid mode on?"

Or they have difficulty settings that include "Tourist mode" or "Story mode" where, if you're still struggling, maybe you should take up knitting.