In this day and age, it’s hard to be a lone ranger in the gaming community. So many games support multiplayer because, in fact, they would be lambasted for not having it. Sometimes I miss the days of long ago where I could play a game with no outside disturbances, no invites, just me and the game for hours on end while I have my own unique experience with it.
Over at Destructoid, there’s a cool article exploring this very topic. For people out there that don’t always enjoy multiplayer, it gets harder and harder to be a gamer in this day and age. I think it’s a terribly interesting topic, because it seems like the single player experience is even looked upon negatively by reviewers. “No multiplayer? No buy.”
Just recently I saw that Mirror’s Edge had been given negative scores by several gaming outlets because it didn’t have multiplayer. I mean, really? What did they want, 8 person slayer across Mirror’s Edge rooftops? Give me a break.
I think one of the coolest things about the article is the way that it talks about how playing a rich single player game without any outside interpretations (co-op, etc) is like reading a good book, where you’re making your own judgments. She even speaks about how playing it while not being connected to the outside world when you were younger, really made the game your own. Looking back on how I experienced MGS and FFVII on my own for hours at home, without having anybody to talk to about it all the time really changed the way I felt about the game. That’s probably why I’m so nostalgic about it.
A lot of times, I’ve got to sign in as “offline” on XBox Live because I just want to play a single player game without being disturbed. I love multiplayer, but the pull is so strong that it keeps me from sitting down and enjoying games I used to be able to play through all the time.
So what about you guys? Do you mind the multiplayer connections we’ve got available to us during single player experiences? Or am I just being crotchety and hermit-like?
Source- Destructoid
Speaking as a gamer who likes single player games better than multiplayer ones, it is getting harder and harder to find games that are focused around solo action. Worse, many games put single player on the back burner, preferring to buff up the multiplayer aspects of the game. COD4, for example, sports a single player campaign that, while exciting, engrossing, and well done, was simply too short. That said, I don’t hate multiplayer games – some are truly exceptional, like TF2, and I enjoy those games greatly. I just find more appeal in a strong solo campaign.
The perfect example fot that is Far Cry 2.I mean great new things like realistic fire and jaming weapons but crapy story and lame respawning numbnuts of enemys and boring slow cars. Seriously instead of puting in a shity Multyplayer it would have been nice if they worked more on the single player. I allways say if single player sucks i not even bother to play it multiplayer.
I prefer to play solo and MP is when I want quick fixes of games. Last night, I played Bioshock for 2 hours. Being immersed in a game like that is much more rewarding.
Thats pretty sad about ME, just because multiplayer is non existent doesn’t mean a game is bad. What, so now should I worry the next Elder Scrolls game will take bad rap?
Multiplayer does not make a game. People still wonder why I sold GOW and COD right as they hit their hay day in multiplayer. GOW was great single player, but multiplayer only lasted so long, same with COD.
Sad, because I would rather the single player be amazing more than the MP more often then the reverse
i always feel sad when i play a game no one else plays. when i played bioshock, me and a freind played it throught at roughly the same pace but we both found different things like an audio diary or brenda and charlie in the resteraunt.
i have to say, it depend on the game. GTA had so much to do the multiplayer seemed almsot, and i mean this is the best possible way, like overkill. cod4 on the other hand had a pretty lame singleplayer. one man defeats all of russia. the multiplayer was why i became addicted to it.
You’re right, Eddy. We’re seeing less and less games that have a GREAT solo story mode. While I don’t mind games having a singleplayer mode as well as a Multiplayer mode and I’d actually like to see more Co-op, you have a point where games didn’t have to make me so connected with other humans. I wish more epic single player games would come out. But hopefully they’d have an Easy difficulty where it was actually easy. Sometimes I don’t feel like getting my ass kicked, I just want to experience the story. This is a big problem with a lot of games, although usually this happens to games with story modes thrown in there while they focus on multiplayer. Those games expect you to be hardcore and not care about the story. So then why put it in? Doesn’t make sense.
Anyway, on another related topic, apparently linear stories are the bane of mankind nowadays. Your game HAS to be open-world. Open-world is nice and I understand that people would rather see something new – which would be an open-world adventure – but ultimately it’ll be the open-world games that become the tired old genre. That’ll probably be down the road, but I just hope that there’ll be a company who realizes that was used to be hot can have a very EASY time resurfacing in a sea of conformity and mediocrity as everyone attempts to cash in on the latest fads – which is FPS and open-world games right now. Maybe I’ll just leave that to the Japanese, but then again I can’t stand American voice-talent for Japanese “Anime-Games”.
I had an experience with a “No multiplayer? No buy.” situation. It’s really hard to find a really good single player game.
But, I have no problem buying mirrors edge, cause of it’s awesomness.
wow, thanks for this post, seems you gyse are always pulling things out of my brain and putting them online. im not going to lie, im a huge nerd when it comes to single player. the only multiplayer ive ever liked is cs. i agree with the good simgle player is like a good book. ive played through halo (all of them) about 20 times now, and im on my 3rd run of gears of war 2. some people say it gets boring, but i cant get enough, i love felling like youre part of something bigger, and not have to hear all the other people arguing. its just something you can get lost in and i find that were loosing that. not cool. plus on the cossack point of non linear games, i agree. i actually like a linear game, not to the point of an on rails shooter, but like gears one. it makes it feel like your doing something for a reason, and not just “wandering”. great post.
I agree with this article completely. I can’t even begin to describe to explain how annoying it was to play Gears 2 and have constant game invites coming to me. I would have signed off but I wanted to keep updating my score on Live every time I got an achievement.
See, on the PSN, you don’t get that, which I like. it’s just a better fit for me because I have limited time for gaming and when I want to play something, i don’t want to bothered with invites.
Everyone would want a piece of this!
i am one of the dieing few that doesn’t have online and i own an xbox 360 the good thing about multiplayer is that u have another thing to do once the game has been finished because i have finished halo 3 on legendary and i can’t play the game anymore because it just boring without online
You should hurry and get you 360 online, dude. Your missing a lot without online. It’s a totally different world out there. 😀
Quick recap of great single player games:
Bioshock
Gears of War
Fable
Uncharted
GTA IV
Prince of Persia
Mirror’s Edge
Legend of Zelda
Final Fantasy
They are not as rare as you think.
[quote comment=”2313″]Quick recap of great single player games:
Bioshock
Gears of War
Fable
Uncharted
GTA IV
Prince of Persia
Mirror’s Edge
Legend of Zelda
Final Fantasy
They are not as rare as you think.[/quote]
but they do get more critisim for being good in a different area of gaming.