10 Creative Ways Video Games Fought Cheaters
9. Corrupting All Of Your Save Files - Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria
Dota 2's anti-cheat crusade feels incredibly generous compared to the utterly savage manner in which Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria ruins a cheater's day - in a game without any online functionality, no less.
The game shipped with an anti-cheat software called Gameguard which can detect when players are using cheats, and follows up by corrupting your save file.
If that's not bad enough, the corruption doesn't show up until late in the game, luring players into a false sense of security before having it continually crash. Oh, and it gets even worse than that.
If you're using multiple save files in an attempt to outwit Gameguard, you're also screwed, as the corruption will affect all save files on your memory card, as it's tied to the game's overall system file.
As such, to play a clean run of the game, you need to delete every Valkyrie Profile 2 save, including system files, from your memory card.
On one hand, that's one hell of an aggressive and creative way to fight cheaters, but on the other, it feels like cruel overkill for a game like this.