Whatever Happened to Co-op Gameplay?

Remember when you were a kid and there was no online gaming?  A time when players could actually invest time with each other in a game? Just you and your brother or sister or best buddy sitting in the living room playing Contra or Double Dragon side by side and yelling at them, “Come help me!  Save the health for me, stupid!  I want the special weapon!”  You could reach over and hit them if they deserved it.  You could see the look on their face when you defeated the boss character together and advanced to the next level.  And it was glorious!  Oh, how we miss the inclusion of co-operative play in a wide range of our games!


What ever happened to those days?  The main focus of most modern day games is massive online multi-player, but some of us long for the good old days when it was just you and a friend next to each other on the couch, killing every Nazi or zombie or mutated soldier that you see.  Army of Two had the right idea a few years ago, but the execution was not quite up to snuff.  What the gaming world needs is a return of 2-4 person co-op gameplay with their own unique stories, not running around from one online match to another to see who can get the most points.


It seems like some developers have gotten a bit lazy with their writing.  Since the demand is so high for quality MP the single-player campaigns are getting shafted.   For example, Call of Duty: Black Ops and Medal of Honor were two of the most highly anticipated games of 2010, mostly for their MP.  Because of that the developers had only about six hours of campaign play for each and focused the rest of their attention on the MP.  People basically payed $60 for a MP experience.  Now it is true that MP has an almost infinite replay value, but where’s the challenge?  There is no change in difficulty level; no Easy, Medium, Hard, or Insane in the MP realm, only try to be the best person to point and shoot and not get shot in return.  Yes, there is some small amount of strategy involved, but MP situations rarely require much team thought and players can go rogue if they decide their team isn’t doing their job.  The cooperative style of gameplay seems to be dying off again.  When we first bought our next-generation systems companies were playing up the Co-op play style, but as the years have gone on there are far too few games in which players can proceed through the story with a friend.  MP combat is booming in a big way, but we miss the good ol’ days of Toejam and Earl where one of you gets chased by the boogie man, while the other is running from the creepy dentist; the thrill of yelling at your partner, face to face, for falling off the edge of the world and needlessly dying.

This is a feeling that pretty much made Arcades what they were back in the day.  I remember going to my local arcade and standing in front of the Turtles in Time machine where I’d choose whatever joystick was Leonardo (Of course) and sink my quarter into the machine with a satisfying “clink.”  It would take less than a minute before someone else walked up and do the same.  By the time two minutes had passed, four people were at the machine bantering like they were the best of friends.  All too often in video games nowadays these kind of social moments are being missed out on.  Sure, we have a fantastic time killing each other in Battlefield and Call of Duty, yet those games lack any sort of camaraderie unless you have a team.  Many of us who grew up with video games as kids have turned into adults with the want to sit down on the couch and play games together with our friends, even if it is on our own couches from  the other side of the world.


What we need in the gaming world is a shift back to the way things used to be.  There is nothing wrong with massive online MP games, but the demand for co-operative campaigns is coming back.  There have been several arcade titles recently that are realizing this and making the jump (Lara Croft: Guardian of Light, Castle Crashers, & The Dishwasher to name a few), but these are baby steps.  Baby steps in the right direction, but baby steps none the less.  Ever wonder why companies are re-releasing old arcade games like Turtles in Time or X-Men Arcade?  It’s not only because of the nostalgia of those games, but because we can play them with friends both online and at home.

Just recently Rocksteady announced to us all that Batman: Arkham City would be devoid of multiplayer.  This would be a perfect opportunity to use a great deal of Batman’s partners.  I don’t see how Nightwing, Batgirl, Catwoman, Huntress, Robin, and Red Robin  could sit back and watch such a disaster unfold in front of their eyes and then suddenly say “Meh, Batman can handle it!”.  It’s a wasted opportunity so extend the game to open the playing field to you and a friend.


This isn’t the only game where the opportunity is squandered.  Guerilla Games pretty much puts you in a heated war versus the Helghast in Killzone 3.  In design you’re pretty much matched up with a partner throughout the entire game so it confuses me how another player could not have been in control of one of the soldiers.  It could have lead up to some great fist pumping moments with friends as you both shot your way through a heart pounding struggle.


Now there are a good number of games that DO promote a cooperative style: Gears of War, Resistance, Halo, even Rock Band, while games like Uncharted 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction include a separate form of co-operative modes.  Finally we have games that get the point but fall short of what to expect in the internet age.  Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is an amazing 4-player beat ‘em up, but unfortunately you can only play this game offline with your friends.  Which used to be great when we were all kids and didn’t have internet lines everywhere.  Nowadays we want the option to play on the couch AND online; either/or shouldn’t be the only option in any case as gamers have grown up and so has the world.  Technology has advanced so far in the past 20 years that there should be a solution to this.  Why pick one over the other when you can have the best of both?  The opportunity is there.  So many games and players are just begging to have a co-op option without making it an absolute necessity.  All we ask, as players, is that developers put a little more time and love into the idea and give us what we’ve been longing for for so many years: a return to the classic co-operative format so we can sit and enjoy a game the way we used to.  And maybe just punch the guy next to you when he snags your well earned weapon.


[Article co-written by Kevin “Games” Jones & Christina “RogueNurse” Weber]

The LV. Cap: LIMBO

“How low can you go?” is usually a question that comes to mind when the word “limbo” is brought to someone’s attention. Sweet Caribbean rhythms are played as ungraceful cocktail sipping vacationers attempt to contort their way under bamboo poles. Fun is had by all… this is not that limbo. This Limbo is dark and gloomy. It is neither heaven nor hell; it just is, as limbo is supposed to be.

Playdead Studio’s Limbo is made of the mind numbing challenges and puzzles of the games from the systems of the good ol’ days: The 90’s. The days when people threw their controllers at the TV in frustration of their own limits while taking on a challenge. Not because of the developers desire to implement challenges that can only be won over by repetition and sheer luck.

---

Limbo
Xbox Live Arcade
1 Player
Developer: Playdead Games
Publisher: Xbox Live Arcade
ESRB Rating: T For Teen
Price: 1200 Microsoft Points

---

Simple graphics accompanied by simple controls is the way this one plays. The story, or a lack there of, follows a boy who wakes up in the grasses of what seems to be purgatory. He has somewhere or someone he is trying to get to, and while getting there he is subjected to a series of odd hazard ridden encounters and trials. The depth of any chance of a story stops there. Though you may wish there were more to it, you may find it doesn’t really matter, nor do you remember to care. The many different silhouetted environments are exceptionally entrancing, though they are completely naked of texture. Each habitat stands out as a deep layered modest work of art.

Missing is an endearing composed soundtrack to match the ambiance of the universe. That factor alone will keep most players from being completely enamored by the game. With the world of Limbo being so noir in nature it wouldn’t have needed too much in the form of musical accompaniment.  Imagine Danny Elfman given nothing to work with but a xylophone and some soft pencil erasers; that would have been enough.


The first play though of Limbo is difficult enough to induce a conniption. You will die a thousand deaths, it is inevitable.  It is advised you keep all individuals you dislike, blunt and heavy objects, or sharp objects out of immediate reach.  Some of the simplest of puzzles will arouse immeasurable rage in those less patient individuals, but completion of challenges gives you a rewarding feeling. You will often find yourself releasing “Oooh’s!” and “I get it’s!”, as if you had just solved a perplexing problem in math class, when overcoming some of the more difficult problems.

Ultimately Limbo leaves you just there; in limbo. The entire time playing you may not be sure if you love it or hate it, it just dangles somewhere in the middle (Giggity). Limbo manages to hold a sense of intriguing adventure on a shallow ground of personality and simplistic beauty. You may find it hard to put down the controller as you will come to many points where you just have to best a puzzle whose only existence is to mock you, or so it will seem at times. Its smooth animation and art school gray scale style is never too much. If the Playstation classics Oddworld, Abe’s Odyssey, and Ico were to have a mute Xbox Live Arcade child, Limbo would be it. Surely this is a first of many from Playdead Games. In the end it is reasonable to say they are off to a good start, on the positive side of Purgatory.