Covered #12: Co-op Elation

[Colonel Red]

Those of you who have me on your friends list may have noticed that I’m not on Xbox Live so much these days. Don’t worry – it’s not because I don’t care about you anymore. Despite the wealth of great Xbox games that I have sitting on the shelf and all you guys on BXB crying into your controllers waiting for me, there’s one thing that the 360 just cannot compete with: my best mate.

He has a PS3. He doesn’t have a 360. It’s probably no coincidence that despite owning each current platform, I spend most of my game time on the one console we share. So what is it about friendship that makes me neglect some of the best games of this generation? As good as the 360’s catalogue is, I am increasingly finding pleasure in traversing game worlds with collective objectives. Not with abstract personalities that I only know online, but with real, tangible people.

As in life, the things we do are affirmed and validated through mutual experience. There are all manner of challenges and tasks in the realm of videogames, but conquering them has traditionally been a solitary pursuit. Of course, I’m not forgetting Double Dragon, Gauntlet and the countless other multiplayer games that have always been around. Yet arguably, multiplayer games have often been stripped of any personal perspective, reducing the experience to something akin to conjoined twins.

The sharing of one screen is the most obvious cause. Exploration and interaction are substantially impaired by the single-screen solution; your objectives must always be the same and wandering off the screen is usually punishable by death – in a sense, all players are extensions of the same experience, controlling avatars that are distinct only in appearance rather than functional intent. Like when the Power Rangers join up, but less gay.

Split-screen? Yes, there is that. Ostensibly it offers to accommodate the individual freedom I’ve been talking about, but does it deliver? Not really. It’s a crude solution that, while untangling you from your cohorts, it sacrifices your clarity of vision – not the extra pair of eyes intended, it is often more like sharing a pair between you. This does nothing to help facilitate your suspension of disbelief – since videogames make their connection primarily through visual means, the imposing perspective of another player is detrimental to your own experience.

What’s exciting about modern co-operative games is that the personal experience can be preserved without such compromise. In recent years, co-op gameplay has grown and flourished in the online infrastructure that we now take for granted. MMO-style games in particular show that a game can live beyond the completion of its narrative arc or its value as a technical example of hardware potency, as long as people want to play it together.

On consoles at least, Phantasy Star Online was one of the first games to incorporate traditional personal goals with the option to meet others and work together. You need not have had the same aims – maybe you were after a rare weapon and your team-mates were just levelling up. Maybe they would help you, or maybe they would leave you to fight elsewhere. Despite being a single-player experience of dubious quality, the online mode of play created a narrative of its own.

Following this path, Realtime Worlds showed us what personal and co-operative endeavour could be without any significant narrative at all. While Crackdown followed the lead of Grand Theft Auto in offering a cityscape sandbox, it riskily abandoned the rich but scripted characterisation of Rockstar’s franchise in favour of a purely collaborative and freeform experience. The result was a game which, although requiring more than one player to be truly fun, let you into a world which was at once open to camaraderie, yet very much your own.

That’s not to say that narration is out of place in multiplayer experiences. The Gears of War series and, to a lesser extent, Resident Evil 5 have been successful in marrying a story (the admittedly questionable quality of which is another story in itself) with shared goals. The difficulty is in finding that balance between the constrictive flow of narration and the freedom of a co-operative experience, without compromising on personal choice.

No game has yet achieved this. Marcus and Dom might sometimes take different paths, but they’re never very far apart. What if someone else could play Gears of War simultaneously, but from a completely different perspective? What if someone could play as Dom’s wife? The ultimate co-operative experience is one that imbues the player with a credible and compelling character, yet offers parallel narrative strands for other players, enriching the experience for everyone.

It’s a lofty ambition. Even with the experience and resources behind someone like Infinity Ward, for example, they are neglecting to include co-op play in the next Call of Duty title, Modern Warfare 2. Until there is the bravery and will to commit to co-operative play as the central focus of game design, we will not see its full potential. But who knows: with the likes of Left 4 Dead 2 and many others on the way, that potential may not be so distant.

[DogEyedBoy]

Modern Warfare 2 will have co-op play.

You really think Gears of War does a better job of co-op than Resident Evil 5? RE5 was made for co-op, and it uses that to a greater extent and to greater effect than GoW ever does.

All I've really got to say on the topic of co-op play is:

Borderlands!

[Colonel Red]

They've U-turned on Modern Warfare 2, have they? What have they said now?

I really enjoyed RE5 and the best bits were probably better than Gears in terms of the co-op design, but the QTEs? They're bad enough without waiting for your partner to get through the bits you have no control over. That's the worst co-op idea ever.

They've U-turned on Modern Warfare 2, have they? What have they said now?

I really enjoyed RE5 and the best bits were probably better than Gears in terms of the co-op design, but the QTEs? They're bad enough without waiting for your partner to get through the bits you have no control over. That's the worst co-op idea ever.

QTEs are hardly a big deal in RE5 they never stray from set button combinations. They change which order you have to press them each time you have to attempt it again but hardly a game breaking mechanic. The game works perfectly and it delivers a rich and consistent co-operative experience more so than gears does.

Borderlands!

That game is going to rock.

[Noir]

Excellent article! In short, Live kills the PS3 for me.

[Janus]

Red, I think your best friend hasn't really earned that moniker if he forces you to play on inferior software! A real best friend would buy a 360.

[Colonel Red]

Red, I think your best friend hasn't really earned that moniker if he forces you to play on inferior software! A real best friend would buy a 360.

You fanboy! After much badgering he's promised to definitely get one at Christmas. I'll try to get him registered here at BXB as well.

Until that happens, who wants to help me out with the 360 co-op games I've been missing out on? I have Gears, Gears 2, Left 4 Dead, Fable 2, Halo 3 and Crackdown that need some co-op sessions done. I have become a Live recluse: draw me out!

And discuss my article, please, I spend enough time writing it. It's about time one of these threads went above 5 pages so I can get that BXB achievement.

QTEs are hardly a big deal in RE5 they never stray from set button combinations. They change which order you have to press them each time you have to attempt it again but hardly a game breaking mechanic. The game works perfectly and it delivers a rich and consistent co-operative experience more so than gears does.

You seem to have missed the point.


Red, I have Left 4 Dead and both Gears 1 and 2. I don't think I am even passed level 2 on Gears 1!

I didn't miss the point thank you very much. I'm commenting on the fact he marked down RE5 co-op because of the QTE. The QTE's work perfectly fine and are hardly challenging and button combinations hardly ever change. Just don't suck at games and you will be fine

[DogEyedBoy]

I wouldn't call Fable 2 a co-op game, co-op in Fable 2 sucks balls.

[Born2beSlicker]

Red, I think your best friend hasn't really earned that moniker if he forces you to play on inferior software! A real best friend would buy a 360.

You fanboy! After much badgering he's promised to definitely get one at Christmas. I'll try to get him registered here at BXB as well.

Until that happens, who wants to help me out with the 360 co-op games I've been missing out on? I have Gears, Gears 2, Left 4 Dead, Fable 2, Halo 3 and Crackdown that need some co-op sessions done. I have become a Live recluse: draw me out!

And discuss my article, please, I spend enough time writing it. It's about time one of these threads went above 5 pages so I can get that BXB achievement.

I've got Halo 3 and Gears 1&2. I have all the campaign achievements for the games, so I can back you up.

Halo 3 is a 4 player coop game mind you so you can recruit a squad.

I didn't miss the point thank you very much. I'm commenting on the fact he marked down RE5 co-op because of the QTE. The QTE's work perfectly fine and are hardly challenging and button combinations hardly ever change. Just don't suck at games and you will be fine

Some of the QTE's at the end (esp. those on the plane with Wesker) are HORRIBLE and took me and my mate about 30 attempts to get right.
Long sequences of QTE's where one person failing screws whole sequence up and triggering a restart? = FAIL

[DogEyedBoy]

30 attempts! You've got hands right? You're not trying to operate the controller with some stumps and a complex system of levers and pulleys?

If I remember correctly there are only two variation of button combination that come up, even if you've got the slowest hands in the world surely memory would kick in before the 30th attempt? You can even press the wrong button and still get a pass if you press the right button before time runs out.

What difficulty were you playing on?

Kasai's totally missing the point about QTEs. Dogeye might be, unless he's just commenting on difficulty rather than defending their inclusion.

Red, about your MW2 co-op question, I think that they've decided to keep the Campaign single-player (thankfully), but are including a secondary co-op set of missions alongside.

[DogEyedBoy]

I can take or leave QTEs. They've never bothered me, but then I've never really enjoyed them either.