The first-person shooter genre has grown in popularity over the years, more so than with the release of past games like DOOM, Quake, and Goldeneye. Halo: Combat Evolved revitalized the genre on consoles with its release on the original Xbox in 2001. It brought an intuitive dual-analog control scheme, something which has been a staple in shooters ever since, as well as the birth of the series’ household multiplayer suite.
One could say that since 2001, console first-person shooters have never been the same. You know what? They could make a pretty good argument about that, and for a number of reasons as well. However, let’s stick with one particular aspect of first-person shooters: multiplayer.
Sure, the Halo series may be known for its super-soldier geared up in futuristic space armor battling hoards of cult-driven aliens, but the main reason Halo is the series as we know it today is due to its immensely popular multiplayer. From the split-screen, couch potato versus mode found in the original game to the online, worldwide couch potato version found in recent installments, Halo not only brought a new light to console shooters, but also, multiplayer shooters in general.
And so, with the recent console generation, multiplayer has been given the “end all, be all” tag, where some developers are actually shoehorning multiplayer into their titles in order to make them “better” or provide “more value”. Now, single-player driven series like BioShock, Uncharted, Grand Theft Auto, and even Metal Gear Solid have brought multiplayer to the game in their recent iterations. For better or worse, multiplayer is taking over gaming as we know it.
Perhaps the biggest reason for this sudden change could be due to the highly successful Call of Duty series, and most notably, the titles including Modern Warfare and beyond. When Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was released in 2007, console-multiplayer was changed yet again. We were introduced to perks, an intuitive ranking system, and unlocks galore. Okay, okay, while I, among some of you know that games like Rainbow Six: Vegas had done this a year prior (and perhaps better), the game didn’t have the critical success as the Duty series, so people apparently seem to ignore it.
But, back on track here.
With the success of Call of Duty 4, the series managed to get more popular with each and every release afterward, and obviously developers noticed this. Since then, we have seen a lot of lackluster multiplayer-modes tacked onto core single-player games, and even just lackluster multiplayer games in general. It appears that everyone is trying to hop onto the online bandwagon with the feeling that they can re-write the books again, but not everyone has that ability.
Some games have even been delayed due to their release schedules being so close to that of Call of Duty, which is causing yet another trend of Q1 being the new Q4 for game releases. That, however, is for another article.
Since the recent spamming of multiplayer gaming, there has always been a core group of people, including myself, who have longed for another great single-player experience in a shooter. Luckily for us, it seems this has been slowly happening, and from the looks of it this trend doesn’t seem to be on the verge of slowing down any time soon.
Although debatable, we can probably start this timeline back in 2008 with the release of Left 4 Dead on the Xbox 360 and PC. While it did have a multiplayer portion, the single-player/co-operative campaign modes was definitely the highlight of the experience. Built as a co-operative experience from the get-go, Left 4 Dead had four buds hightailing it out of zombie-infested cities, villages, and farms towards safety zones where either the military or a civilian would grab them and escort them out. The game, made by Valve, was developed to be played multiple times with the assurance that no-two playthroughs would be the same. How did that happen? Why, through the game’s intelligent AI system that constantly rotated the placement of enemies and item pickups on the map with each and every playthrough.
If you don’t want to use Left 4 Dead as an example, how about Portal? Another title from Valve released the prior year, had players going through a rather short, but sweet campaign filled with puzzle-solving and cake eating. Purely single-player based, and had both the critics and fans gobbling it up.
Recently, more story driven shooters have been popping up, like 2K’s 2009 sleeper hit Borderlands, and the more recent Epic Games/People Can Fly shooter Bulletstorm.
Up next in May is Brink from Bethesda Softworks. Another co-operative, story driven experience, seems to be shaping up as one of this year’s best. Additionally, Prey 2 has been confirmed to be single-player only, with developers Human Head Studios asking, “who would pick the multiplayer mode of 'Prey 2' ahead of the one in for example 'Halo: Reach'?"
It seems that the gaming industry is seeing a trend of multiplayer saturation, and that people still want to sit in their rooms and go through an engaging, story driven experience. I play multiplayer shooters all the time, but I for one certainly don’t want every game to incorporate it just to add a bulletpoint on the back of the game’s box. The time used on a mediocre multiplayer mode can be more beneficial in shaping up a solid single-player experience, be it co-operative or not.
I do admire Human Head Studios' honesty in stating that Prey 2 multiplayer wouldn’t be able to go up against a high-profile title like Halo: Reach, but I also don’t think that should discourage other developers in the world. If the game is really, really meant to have a multiplayer mode, then by all means put your heart and sole into it. If you are only adding it just to add it, then please, leave it out.
