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| [Aug 29, 2012, 10:01 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments |
An article on Polygon offers an extensive look at Spec Ops: The Line, Yager's recently released third-person shooter set in a windstorm-swept Dubai. This offers a detailed exploration of some of the game's themes (warning of spoilers for those who are yet to play), and hears from lead writer Walt Williams on the topic. An interesting aspect of this noted by VG247 is Williams referring to the game's multiplayer support as "a cancerous growth" forced on them as a checkbox item by publisher 2K Games: Against Davis' wishes, development on the multiplayer component proceeded and was farmed out to Darkside Studios. The result, according to Davis, was a "low-quality Call of Duty clone in third-person," which "tossed out the creative pillars of the product." "It sheds a negative light on all of the meaningful things we did in the single-player experience," Davis said. "The multiplayer game's tone is entirely different, the game mechanics were raped to make it happen, and it was a waste of money. No one is playing it, and I don't even feel like it's part of the overall package — it's another game rammed onto the disk like a cancerous growth, threatening to destroy the best things about the experience that the team at Yager put their heart and souls into creating."
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| 31. |
Re: Spec Ops: The Line MP Knocked By Dev |
Aug 29, 2012, 23:03 |
Jerykk |
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2) But your choice of a 6 hour game with multiplayer or a 12 hour game without isn't typically the choice. What if it was an 8 hour, stellar single player or the exact same game spread out over 12 hours by adding filler to the story, putting in levels that feel out of place, etc.? Some games just don't extend well, and while they're a blast for 8 hours they start losing their welcome after that. Would you rather they extend it? For lots of games more isn't better. No matter how much effort is put into the more added, more just isn't better. Some games shouldn't overstay their welcome.
If a game has strong core gameplay, diverse and interesting level design and sufficient variety, extending it shouldn't be a bad thing. Extending a game is only problematic when you lack the above things. Alan Wake, for example, feels like it goes on far too long because there's no variety or depth. Deus Ex, on the other hand, doesn't overstay its welcome because it has plenty of depth and variety.
On another note, the reason why publishers insist on tacking on multiplayer is because they want to delay second-hand sales for as long as possible. Even if people only play the multiplayer for a week, that's enough of a delay to make the publishers happy. If there were no used sales, publishers wouldn't feel the need to resort to stupid methods to prevent them. |
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