Valve Done with the "Isolated Single-player Experience"?

[Apr 25, 2011, 2:12 pm ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

There's another interesting quote posted on Kotaku from Geoff Keighley's recently released iPad app, The Final Hours of Portal 2: "Portal 2 will probably be Valve's last game with an isolated single-player experience," Keighley wrote, saying he heard this from both Gabe Newell and the company's project manager Erik Johnson. If you are trying to work out what this means, don't worry, as so is Valve, as Geoff adds: "What this all means is something Newell is still trying to figure out." They quote Keighley saying he considered this "curious," as do we, as Portal 2 joins Portal and the Half-Life series at the pinnacle of single-player gaming. It also casts another shadow on the forsaken Half-Life 2: Episode Three. Thanks nin.

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48.

Re: Valve Done with the

Apr 26, 2011, 08:16

Prez

With the Synergy mod, you can play the stock HL2 campaigns in coop (you both look like resistance to one another, though the AI addresses the host as Freeman) and it is amazingly fun. I'm not sure why the conventional wisdom says that a coop game has to be designed differently from a standard singleplayer game - HL2 was never designed for it and it works fine. The immersion is still there, now you just get to share it.

Doom 3 is the same. The very solitary experience works great in coop (added via a mod), and is loads of fun to me.




Prez on Soundclick http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=604888

47.

Re: Valve Done with the

Apr 26, 2011, 07:41

Beamer

Co-op simply isn't suited to story or character-driven games. Seeing your co-op partner serves as a constant reminder that you are playing a game and that the characters within it are simply empty shells.

Especially not in a heavily scripted game like HL, or in a game like HL where so much is given in subtle ways (ie things you observe in the middle of levels rather than in pauses when people talk to you.)

HL is really the worst standard FPS I can think of for co-op. It's a game that wants you to stop and smell the roses. Co-op tends to be all about running as fast as possible to the next battle.




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46.

Re: Valve Done with the

Apr 26, 2011, 02:53

Pigeon

Sepharo wrote on Apr 25, 2011, 20:05: Golwar wrote on Apr 25, 2011, 19:47: Players don't worship classes in TF2 You're clearly not familiar with the TF2 and L4D communities. They are in love with the characters, frighteningly so sometimes. If I hadn't seen what you're talking about with my own poor poor unfortunate eyes I wouldn't believe to what degree that was true. On the internet, eventually everything is porn.

45.

Re: Valve Done with the

Apr 26, 2011, 02:42

Jerykk

Episode 2 was essentially a co-op game with Alyx. There were a few levels that she was 'off doing her own thing', but making a narrative story-based game for co-op wouldn't be that different. There is a significant difference between an AI-controlled ally whose actions are completely scripted and a player-controlled ally who can do whatever he wants. Trying to advance the narrative through the latter would prove difficult. Even if you removed all player control during cinematics, your co-op buddy would totally ruin any suspension of disbelief and immersion during actual gameplay. Co-op simply isn't suited to story or character-driven games. Seeing your co-op partner serves as a constant reminder that you are playing a game and that the characters within it are simply empty shells.

44.

Re: Valve Done with the

Apr 26, 2011, 02:12