How To Do Online CO-OP The Right Way

It was September and Dead Rising 2 had just come out. Being huge fans of the original my friend and I bought it. I played the single player for an hour or two and enjoyed it, but I decided to join my friend’s game to see what was happening.

Jay Fox turns up on his bike. I remain quiet as the cutscene starts, but my friend immediately skips it, arguing that I should watch it on my own time. He’s right, whenever we’re playing together there’s no chance of us getting involved with the game’s story. We’re too busy being like the grumpy old men from the Muppets and criticising everything.

Time’s running out; if we don’t get this Zombrex back to the safe house then Chuck’s daughter is going to turn into a zombie! Oh well. Also, check this out; I’ve just attached a lawnmower to a wheelchair! I run into a crowd of zombies like a madman and we both laugh as limbs fly towards us.

After a few hours we call it quits. We never do play DR2 together again. Why bother? You can get more out of the game by playing it by yourself. And that’s the point, we’ve seen a flood of games putting co-op into traditional single players, but none of it seems to add to the experience, and sometimes even detract from it.

What makes a good Co-operative game?

Co-operative play has seen a rise in popularity since online gaming has become so prominent in the current-generation consoles. Many games attempt co-op, yet only a few get it right.

The Left 4 Dead series has been hugely successful at this. What makes it so great is that it encourages teamwork and makes it part of the game. Maps are short, concentrated experiences designed with intention of being replayable. Valve also uses ‘Crescendo Events’, in which you would have to fight waves of zombies while covering your team mate who could be operating a gun turret, or carrying fuel for your getaway. Teamwork is key to survival.

Valve understands that to do co-op right, you had to make sure that you accommodate for the extra players and implement gameplay and map design that encourages them to work together. L4D2 critical and commercial success implies that Valve ‘gets it’.

The Problem

The problem is that developers often try to throw co-operative play into a single player experience.

Resident Evil 5 illustrates this example; it rushes the player through environments. Each new area is just an arena to mindlessly kill enemies, then you move on and repeat. By introducing co-op, Capcom turned RE5 into something like a soulless straight-to-DVD sequel which didn’t really understand what made its predecessor, Resident Evil 4, so great.

Ironically, this is what happens when developers try. It’s much too common for developers to throw in co-op as an afterthought. What this usually means is your friend replaces an A.I. It’s lazy, and it doesn’t work because the game isn’t designed for it.

Working together for the best result

Additional co-op campaigns can solve this problem, and is becoming increasingly common in games. It accommodates for the differences between single player and co-operative campaigns by having both. Splinter Cell Chaos Conviction and Portal 2 all offered this, and it’s no surprise that these co-op campaigns were great.

Games like Conviction and Portal 2 use co-op to complement the single player experience by providing context and background to the events. Equally, they allow for a harder and more ‘gamey’ experience by increasing the difficulty.

Yet there’s another approach to this, you can implement co-op and community aspects to enhance the single player experience. Demon’s Souls is one of the games being praised for doing just this. It uses a variety of methods to help the player through their experience. From leaving warning messages, to seeing the blood stains of where players have died to warn you of upcoming dangers. You can be direct and get players to help you, but on the same token others can force their way into your game and kill you for their own benefit.

Developers and Publishers need to understand that although co-op looks great as a feature on the box, if you hurt the integrity of the game by poorly implementing it then you risk weakening the whole package.

When developers carelessly merge single player and co-operative components into one, either the campaign suffers or the co-op does. I want co-op modes which are unique, and tailor made for the perfect experience. It needs to be designed specifically for playing with friends, and be a feature that must be played, rather than something which is toyed around with to kill an hour and then never played again. When that happens, both experiences are made better.