Poll: Is Multiplayer Always Nesscary?

[L3m0n_L1m3]

No, a la Uncharted 2. Worst multiplayer I've ever played.

 

[Twad]

Depends, but i would not argue if more games integrated online COOP gameplay.

 

[teisjm]

As long as it isn't there as an excuse for putting out a bad SP part.

good SP is great
good SP with added MP is greater
good sP with added good MP is awesome.

 

[NamesAreHardToPick]

Multiplayer is unnecessary entirely assuming the developer is competent enough to create a great single-player experience. Games like Dragon Age and Assassin's Creed 2 prove that. Now, if a game's concept is based around multiplayer to begin with, then you can usually get a decent product out of that scenario as well. IE Borderlands.

I think the split between single player "story mode" and online "competitive mode" is old and busted. It's always very risky because the developer can only give half your attention at best to each side of the game and one or the other is just too likely to end up a piece of crap.

I only want one "mode" in any game I play. Borderlands does it right by having you play the same game with one person or four.

There was a PS2 game called S.L.A.I. years ago. It was an *amazing* online deathmatch-mode shooter where you drove little robots around and fired lasers and grenades and turned invisible and stuff. Unfortunately it had a huge story mode attached to it and you couldn't improve your robot's XP or weapons without going offline to grind a ton of money and make your purchases. The fact that the game had everyone playing offline so much meant that the servers were ghost-towns right from the start and what should have been an awesome online game community was just a handful of people who got together on thursday nights to blow eachother up. One of the greatest shames in the history of gaming.

I hate the new trend of "always co-op" games like RE5 and Army of Two. You always have enough friends around to enjoy a good single-player campaign. A good two-player campaign? Not so easy. The partner AI *always* sucks compared to a live teammate but you have to keep the character around to get through all the multi-character puzzles. You're missing out unless you have a buddy who's interested in the same game and free to play at the same time. Worse, the "multi-player" in these games isn't big enough so the developers add on some generic 8-man deathmatch mode or whatever and re-introduce that whole split between the "story" and "competitive" parts of the game for an additional level of failure.

Although I haven't played it, I personally love the sound of Demon's Souls' concept. A single-player experience wherein you have limited interaction with other players seems like it could be a great future for all games if done right.

Demon's Souls, I hope, is the future of "single-player" gaming on networked consoles that remind you that you are sharing an experience with a lot of other gamers, and try to be as innovative about their use of multi-player interaction as they are about single-player gameplay mechanics or story-telling.

 

[Travis Austin]

no, because its just a way for the developers to skimp on the singleplayer