So as of recent, I've been playing a heck of a lot of multiplayer games. Some online, some in the roast-chicken-crisps-fueled gaming room of Joshie's. But it kinda got me thinking with Josh's main complaints of Gears. Are games skimping out on the single player to fit in more multiplayer?
While I enjoy dying at the hand of my friends/random people, some times when it's raining and the internet is down you need something to get you through the day.
So I'll start with Gears of War. Now, I can't really say that much about the single player here as I did the main story on co-op. Twice. But co-op can't be that different from single player so I'll base it on that.
Personally, I quite liked the main game in Gears. It kept a nice sense of atmosphere without losing out on the shooting action and when you do it on the hardest difficulty, can actually be a challenge in certain areas. Yes, the characters aren't deeply developed HUGE hair story filled people but they're not supposed to be, it's a shooter. All you need to know is that they can take a bullet and somehow not die.
However, the story was kind of short. You could probably easily get through it in a day or two, especially on co-op. So if you're not doing it on the hardest difficulty you probably won't have to spend too many hours on it to get through it.
So where are you likely to be putting the hours in when playing? The online multiplayer no doubt. I know that's where my hours have gone into. Now while all they really had to do was make maps here, I do wonder whether if the story got cut down due to the multiplayer being the other half in their head. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh on a shooter for it's story but hey, not everyone has friends. And some people have really bad internet connections (why any one still has dial-up I don't know).
Halo is a good example. Playing the first Halo, I loved the one player and co-op story. It actually made some sort of sense, it all came to a conclusion and you kind of knew why you had moved to a new place. Halo 2 came about and I don't know if it was just me but they kind of threw those three things out the window. I had no idea really why we'd moved to a new place, we were just there and things needed killing. Sense wasn't really the right word, they threw stuff at you, you killed it. And came to a conclusion? It was a big ball-slap in the face. They basically just said to us "yeah you pretty much bought this game because we haven't made Halo 3 yet". It was a filler, something to keep everyone busy until they brought out the third game. Of course, Halo 2 had multiplayer which I imagine most stuck to like glue. I played a bit but I sucked so I wouldn't really call it "playing" and more "dying with style".
So then, Halo 3. The transitions between places was a bit smoother here, it kind of made sense why you had been placed where you were and this time, it seemed to make a lot more sense. I think they just made it to appeal to the part of my brain which likes it when the good guys and the bad guys are clearly displayed. Even though you make and break alliances pretty quickly in some places, you knew who the overall evil person or thing, was. Conclusion? I guess so. They kinda had to, it being the last one and all. But like Gears, the story is pretty short and on the hardest difficulty, it still can be done pretty quickly, especially on co-op. Some parts are super hard to make up for the rest which is pretty easy.
But when it all came down to it, I knew they knew it'd be about the online multiplayer. It kind of feels that they just wanted to do the story so they could finish it off.
Some of the proof comes from when you're looking at the majority of profiles and you see that a lot of people haven't even attempted the first chapter of the story, let alone complete it on the easiest difficulty.
Like I said, maybe I'm being a little harsh on shooters here. Developers know if they can get multiplayer in there, people will probably buy the game for that alone. And if I want a 'shooter' with a good story, I should play through Metroid Prime 3 again. Or if I want a single player game, I should go play an RPG.
Overall, I can't really complain. If they'd made the multiplayer worse on Gears in favor for a better single player, I'd probably be a bit annoyed. I know if they tried to make a game like Brawl all about the single player, it just wouldn't work.
Well that's me for this week. Oh and if you don't see Joshie around, he's been suckling on MGS4's teat and damn does he enjoy what he's drinking.
|
