Genre Discussion - Multiplayer Co-op

Multiplayer - Co-op

            Multiplayer co-op is an amazing genre and my personal favorite sub-genre, but is difficult to get right in today's world of game development. When I was growing up my family primarily played single player point-and-click adventure games, but the wide-spread adoption of the internet changed the way I played games; as well as how the industry as a whole developed games. When games first featured co-op it was endearingly called "couch co-op" because in order to actually play cooperatively, all players had to be together, in-person. By taking advantage of online capabilities, players no longer need to be together in one place in order to play co-op and thus, created a larger profit margin since each player needed to purchase a copy of the game in order to play together. As I said earlier, I love multiplayer co-op games because I would much rather play with someone, rather than against them; especially if I'm playing with friends. As an adult, most of my gaming purchases revolve around online co-op because I longer live in close proximity to most of my friends so online co-op is an extremely fun way to stay in touch. In fact, I find most games that feature co-op within the last eight years are only fun when I play it with a friend.

            The definition of a "good co-op game" is very subjective since most, if not all, games include multiplayer co-op and the experience depends very largely on player interaction. Of course, a good co-op game is not entirely in the hands of the player. The success and popularity of a multiplayer co-op game revolves around the designed pacing, objectives, and customizable options the player has. Additionally, having a robust match-making systems also signifies a good multiplayer co-op game. Players need to be able to create their own lobbies or find their own by categorizing what they are looking to do to a "T". Furthermore, good multiplayer-cop games always seem to include levels that are extremely unique from one another. As such, level design plays a huge part in whether players find a co-op game fun or not. Special consideration needs to be taken by developers to give players multiple objectives, routes, or scenery to "live in" while playing the game. In the following best examples, all three games (series) feature realistic feeling levels that could be places in real life. The take away from that, is when it comes to level design, developers should focus on realistic environments in a game environment even if the game scenario is far-fetched (i.e. apocalypse, space ship, alien world, etc.)

            While I have never had a bad co-op experience playing with a friend due to the design of the game itself, the best in show for games that were specifically developed for multiplayer co-op are: Payday 2, the Left 4 Dead series, and the Gears of War series. Payday 2 is a FPS game designed entirely for multiplayer co-op play, as every player is on the same team trying to complete various heist missions. The levels are all uniquely designed for each mission scenario and feature a meta game of giving the players the option to complete each mission completely stealthy, partially stealthy, or "go loud" or "guns blazing". The match-making system is very well done and robust as players can create public or private lobbies, set level caps, and multiple difficulties for each mission give another indication of recommended level. When a player searches for a game, they can also filter by all of these criteria. The co-op experience is also supported by voice/text chat and an extremely strong community-developer relationship. The Left 4 Dead and Gears of War games also feature these great mechanics that make them some of the best multiplayer co-op games. Left 4 Dead also takes the idea of cooperative to another level. While the game's A.I. is good enough that it is not required to have other players, playing with other people in Left 4 Dead creates an entirely new narrative to the story where players can share in their misery, or revel in their success as they battle through each level. A similar experience is created in the Gears of War franchise, where players are given the immersive feeling that they are part of a small squad of soldiers in war. Thus, it is extremely advantageous to play with someone else as you can coordinate your efforts to beat each level. 

            I have never personally played a game where I thought "the co-op in this game sucks". However, I have had experiences where I loved playing a game in single player, then I played it cooperatively with a friend, and then I found it impossible to go back to playing single player because I found no joy in the game without playing with friends. The game that comes to mind when I think of that kind of experience, is Dead Island. Dead Island featured drop-in, drop-out co-op but the only option for finding a multiplayer match outside of having a friend invite you directly to his game, or vise-versa, was just hitting a "join multiplayer" button. The game would just automatically throw you into the closest open game to you with a host that was in the same "physical" game location to you. So theoretically, a level 5 players could be thrown together with a level 20 player just because the level 20 player went back to the starting area for whatever reason. Another hindrance to this system was that it would pause the game for the host and any active players when a new player would join the game. However, one of the main game features was that there was no real pause system since Dead Island is a survival horror game. The loading system caused huge disruptions in the gameplay flow and would often result in lag-induced deaths of current players. As a counter-point and final thought, I found Dead Island to be one of my favorite games of all time. The overall mechanics, inventory system, items, quests, and level design were some of the best I have seen in my entire life despite the poor execution of the drop-in/drop-out system and the single player was only ruined because the game was just way more fun with a friend and they got four copies out of us, so kudos to Deep Silver.



Derek holds a Bachelor's Degree in Game Design and has two and a half years of game development experience. To view other work please visit www.dereksinex.com or his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/JDKevlar