Resistance: Fall of Man had an epic single player storyline that was far greater and beyond the standard, “I’m in Mars and all I know is I’ve got a gun and I’m killing demons, no-one knows why, but I’m killing demons…*oops* I just farted.” Doom/Quake soldier storyline which has it’s place if you’ve just gotten out of traffic on the 101 freeway in the valley of the sun and you’re looking for a “civilized” way to take out your aggression. The major aspect that drew fans from around the world was the phenomenal “Co-Op Campaign mode” where you got to play the same storyline as two soldiers in split-screen team based style. That still is one of the most fun times I’ve ever had playing a game, because I wasn’t alone in a freakin’ room, and I could actually look at and converse with the person I was playing with in the same room *GASP*
Killzone 2 had been promised to have a patch added on post-launch to incorporate a 4-player campaign co-op. What happens? The game makers a month later come out and say, “It would just be too difficult to add in a co-op, and we don’t see a market for it.” The funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time was the 10 pages that immediately followed of fans ultimately PO’d at the sudden change. Here is the message that I’m getting from game makers nowadays, “We’re going to create multiplayer that will suit the average gamer because we assume they have no friends, play online with people who’s faces they’ve never seen before, have no siblings/cousins to play with, so we’ll screw over the rest of the gaming world that DOES have at least friends or siblings in a real life interraction setting.”
Here’s a message to them:
Any great Final Fantasy game has taken the company SquareSoft(now Square-Enix) at least 2-3 years to create, and any great Metal Gear Solid game has taken the same amount of time roughly. What’s the one thing these two franchises have in common? They’re legacies built on the basis of high quality product and competent game developers because they wanted to do the job right the first time.
I find the excuse, “It’s too difficult to do” a cop-out because some of the greatest games to ever come out were on the original Nintendo and guess what, they were co-op. Graphics have changed, technology has changed, but the one thing that should not change is the will and desire to give the consumer the best product possible. Believe me, you will make your money if you create a game that not only has a great single player storyline, but a great multi player experience as well with the added option of a co-op. Certain games just absolutely call for co-op, like Call of Duty, Battlefront, Resistance, Halo…you get the point.
If the console game makers are really wanting to know the secret to finally defeating the PC in the gaming war here is a hint, you can start by creating a solid and exceptional split-screen co-op option.
Online deathmatch or teamplay has it’s place, believe me I love it just as much as the next person, but it would also be cool to have the added option to be able to play with other people in a real-life setting as well.
Console game makers will never progress in the multiplayer arena if this is who they gear everything towards:
