Does anyone else think co-op should be a standard feature these days?

[bam23]

I just finished a session of a ton of coop games over LAN with some buddies and it was some of the most fun I've ever had.

Then we had this lengthy discussion about why coop isn't included in more games. Really, why isn't it? Most of the excuses that I hear about not including a coop feature have to do with the fact that they don't have a fitting story for more than one character (obviously there are games where coop would never work, but I'm talking about the ones where it does). This is what I hate hearing the most. There doesn't have to be any reference to the existence of the coop partner. What matters the most to me is that a second player could be playing with you regardless of what the story calls for. I like what Saint's Row 2 does. All cutscenes are from your character's standpoint regardless of who is the host or who is the partner. That is, both people will see the same cutscene, but with their own character in the starring role. We also played some Call of Duty: WaW. Yea, it's your standard fare CoD but when played with 2 other people all bum rushing heavily fortified bunkers with bayonets and smoke grenades only to die by a single stray grenade? Amazing. Then we started some SWAT 4. Very first map we played, I turned a corner into 3 dudes with AK47's and got us all killed within 5 seconds of starting the level. This was after 10 minutes of planning equipment and routes. The result? Laughter for another 10 minutes. More recent example in Borderlands. When I play that by myself I can last all of 5 minutes before I get bored-(erlands) to death. Seriously, coop can turn turds into gems.

I also hate hearing that it "breaks the immersion" stuff like that. Honestly, I could be playing Dead Space in the same room with 2 other people and be cracking up in laughter for 75% of the day. Immersion is the least of my concerns when I'm playing video games. Shutting myself out to the outside world and getting absorbed into the game might be fun for some people, but it's always much cooler to me to be sharing that experience simultaneously instead of talking about it afterward. That's why the coop games like Saints Row 2 and L4D always end up being the most played on my list.

Anyway, it's 3am and I'm too tired to be putting my effort into this, but you know what I'm getting at here.

TLDR. MOAR COOP.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8znzVVYjb0

 

[Stormy]

No really, it depends what the game is. And really for co-op to really be any good a lot of time and effort is going to have to be put into it. If people just throw stuff together in a few weeks chances are it will be terrible.

 

[Gargantou]

No really, it depends what the game is. And really for co-op to really be any good a lot of time and effort is going to have to be put into it. If people just throw stuff together in a few weeks chances are it will be terrible.

This.

 

[Dekstar]

I was up 'till 5am playing SWAT4 coop with my best friend recently. Incredible fun just getting owned every. single. time.
Then there's playing Trine with my girlfriend, which was above everything a bonding experience. The minute I get L4D splitscreen working with my controller, we'll be playing that too.

So yes, more games need it. Starcraft on the N64 had an inbuilt coop feature, with two people being able to control the same army. Should it come to the consoles, they should reinstate that.

 

[Darkside55]

All cutscenes are from your character's standpoint regardless of who is the host or who is the partner.

Reading this made me think about The Crossing. Then I got sad.

 

[StarBob]

Well... I like co-op games built around co-op. Gears of war was one of the early ones to do this. It makes you unhappy if you're not playing with an actual person because AI is never as good/fun. I don't want co-op to just be thrown into a game where it's normally a single person. Like HL2 co-op would be stupid. Now if there was a campaign where one person is Gordon and one is Alyx or whoever and you're doing two person physics puzzles and facing off against balanced enemies... that would be good.

 

[Paulaner]

In the first place, game companies should stop turning single player games into multiplayer games (C&C4, I'm looking at you). As for co-op, yes, when I'm playing a multiplayer game it's the feature I prefer. But I don't play multiplayer games, so I have yet to understand why I'm on this thread.

EDIT: Oh, yes, I'm drunk.

 

[Barnz]

Reading this made me think about The Crossing. Then I got sad.

FYI, The Crossing isn't dead.

 

[Darkside55]

FYI, The Crossing isn't dead.

You lie.

YOU LIE!

 

[Krynn72]

I also hate hearing that it "breaks the immersion" stuff like that. Honestly, I could be playing Dead Space in the same room with 2 other people and be cracking up in laughter for 75% of the day. Immersion is the least of my concerns when I'm playing video games.

Oh yes, lets have all developers make games just for bam23.

 

[CyberPitz]

Not really at all. I can't see how most games would be even more fun with coop. Really, maybe it's because I'm not big on the console so I don't play coop all that often, when I do play it, I'm not dying with excitement. So I'm playing a video game with someone else? This seems awfully familiar.

 

[bbson john]

coop is a way to hone your skills when your shitty partner keeps being a hindrance.

 

[Ennui]

Some games are coop, some games aren't. There are different mechanics at work. If all games were coop we'd be missing out

 

[Baserape>]

Multiplayer modes should be at the heart of every game. Split screen and online modes should be standard issue. Apart from the online side of things multiplayer gaming has not really evolved from the early 90's! imo

 

[bam23]

Oh yes, lets have all developers make games just for bam23.

:cheers:

No really, it depends what the game is. And really for co-op to really be any good a lot of time and effort is going to have to be put into it. If people just throw stuff together in a few weeks chances are it will be terrible.

A game built around coop is just dandy, but I could be playing Halflife2 coop mods or something and have just as much fun.

 

[Acepilotf14]

If it breaks the overall quality, or doesn't fit with the mood, no, I would rather not have co-op.

 

[Quixoticism]

Not a standard feature, but there definitely is room for more of it. When there's a game with a co-op mode that is usually my favorite way to play multiplayer.
I quite enjoyed the co-op for NOLF2 and Serious Sam.
Assault for the original UT had a very co-op feel that I still love playing to this day. Sadly, none of the other Unreals were able to capture the magic.

 

[TheOneFreeMan]

Multiplayer modes should be at the heart of every game. Split screen and online modes should be standard issue. Apart from the online side of things multiplayer gaming has not really evolved from the early 90's! imo

Apart from team-based multiplayer games like Counterstrike? And MMOs? And co-op games like L4D and Borderlands?

 

[the cow says moo]

I've heard two conflicting ideas about the subject of Multiplayer that seem to be opposites, and yet I think they work quite well together:
We're getting to the point where almost all games should have some form of multiplayer. Yet at the same time, all games should be able to stand on their own with just the singleplayer.

I also hate hearing that it "breaks the immersion" stuff like that. Honestly, I could be playing Dead Space in the same room with 2 other people and be cracking up in laughter for 75% of the day. Immersion is the least of my concerns when I'm playing video games.

You could very well be doing that when Dead Space 2 comes out and hopefully it'll probably be just as intense as Left 4 Dead :bounce:

 

[Paulaner]

Multiplayer modes should be at the heart of every game.

What? You know, there are those fancy things called singleplayer games. Games made to be played by a single person with storytelling in mind. Multiplayer is not an evolution in gaming, it's just another kind of gaming experience. I may be wrong but, in my personal opinion, forcing multiplayer into every game would dumb down the whole experience.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

Co-op is almost always fun, even when it's been implemented after the fact. One of the most fun times I've had is playing through all the HL2 games in Synergy with a friend. It was buggy, and glitchy, and sometimes laggy, but was pretty much always awesome.

So basically, co-op is about the people you play with more than the game you're playing.

 

[Asknoone]

No, nothing should be 'standard' for a game; if you want to play a co-op game, buy a co-op game - likewise if you wish to design a co-op game, do so from the ground up. It's not so simple as wedging whatever feature you please in to satiate all crowds, and it's certainly not acceptable to expect developers to build their games with intent of catering to the co-op crowd. No, that's not how it's done.

 

[MRG]

I wish more PC games came with Coop. I have always enjoyed playing coop based games with friends & family over LAN.

When not out fishing with my daughter or otherwise spending time with her, the two of us very much enjoy playing games together over LAN. Coop games like the awesome Serious Sam series entertained her the entire time it took us to play through all 3 games. ( SS, SS:SE & SS2 ) Watching me play the L4D series, made her want to play that one as well so I bought her L4D to start with & having beaten the game several times over now, she is trying to unlock every achievement & wants to play the game with me every day. I have tried to interest her in RPG's or 3rd person shooters, ( as I have more games that fall into those 2 genre's ) but at the moment she is only interested in FPS's.

-MRG

 

[Raziaar]

I think it should be required by law.

But that's just me. I ****ing love coop. Even if coop wouldn't make sense, I always pine for the option.

 

[Warbie]

If it breaks the overall quality, or doesn't fit with the mood, no, I would rather not have co-op.

Agreed. For co-op to work a game has to be built around it - or at least a gamemode built around it.

 

[TwwIX]

Hey, if you can make it fun and addictive. Go right ahead. Sadly, it feels like an after thought in a lot of these games. Then you have games such as GTA 4, which are practically build and more than perfect for co-op. However, Rockstar was too ****ing lazy to implement a proper game mode into the game.

Personally, i wish they'd bring back beat em up games. I'd love see a proper revival of that genre.

 

[Sliver]

Splinter Cell Chaos Theory is by far the most fun I have had with a game in the last year. Picked it up to play single player, but I've barely gotten 30 minutes in. The coop/versus is just too fun.

 

[Gargantou]

Shame you're stateside Sliver, I've been looking for someone to play through the co-op campaign in CT with me, but I guess it might be hard to match times since we live in such different timezones.

 

[bam23]

Splinter Cell Chaos Theory is by far the most fun I have had with a game in the last year. Picked it up to play single player, but I've barely gotten 30 minutes in. The coop/versus is just too fun.

Many fond memories of playing that myself. My friend and I were hanging from a ledge by our arms and shimmying across, he accidentally climbed on top and fell off on top of me (the ledge was too small to stand on), knocking both of us to our deaths.

There was another moment where we were still new to the game and while we fumbled with the controls I accidentally did that catapult move and threw him off a two-story building :bounce:

Anyway, what I've been meaning to say is that the coop doesn't have to be as refined as it is in Resident Evil 5, or L4D where . If it's as basic as it is in Serious Sam where there's essentially just another player there with you, my friends and I suddenly find ourselves playing it much more than I do play any of my single player games. It's all about having the shared experience.

 

[ríomhaire]

No. Case in point: Red Alert 3.