Next Gen is Co-op

Submitted by James Munn on February 27, 2007 – 11:50 pm8 Comments

I’ve been hunting for a definition of this new generation of console. For quite awhile the industry has been trying to convince me that the new motion sensitive interfaces featured on the Wii and PS3 are the key. Is how I interact with my console the definition of the next generation? With the inaccuracy of the Wii and the limitations of the PS3′s Sixaxis controller, that’s pretty hard to believe. After all, the generations are never about the hardware, it’s always all about the games.

This generation has already been defined by the greatest games released thus far. Gears of War, GRAW, Rainbow Six Vegas, Resistance: Fall of Man and Crackdown all have one crucial feature in common; Cooperative gameplay. The next generation, this generation, is not defined by how we control the game but how we experience it with others, cooperatively.

It’s true that co-op gameplay has been available in the past but it’s never been almost completely expected in every single game as it is right now. Gears of War brought cooperative gameplay to the forefront, allowing friends to jump into your game with the click of a button. This functionality is made possible by the seamless integration of Xbox Live, but even if you had to load your game from a checkpoint, like Crackdown, it’s still incredibly easy.

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter for the Xbox 360, released long before Gears of War, featured not only online competitive multiplayer, but also a collection of co-op scenarios to play with friends. While you couldn’t play the single player campaign seamlessly online, having separate co-op maps definitely ushered in the next generation of gaming.

What better way to enjoy a glitch than with a friend!? Rainbow Six Vegas offers the most multiplayer variety on Xbox Live, with more competitive and cooperative game types than I can even remember. The highlight of the online gameplay is the co-op Story and co-op Terrorist Hunt game modes. Terrorist Hunt pits you and three other team members in one of the titles numerous maps with randomly generated enemies. Co-op Story pits you and up to three other players in an unaltered trek through the entire single player campaign, something many titles until this generation have struggled to accomplish.

Resistance: Fall of Man, released alongside the Playstation 3, also features co-op gameplay. While you can’t enjoy this game mode online, it still allows you to enjoy the single player campaign with a local friend in it’s entirety. The co-op is never built into the storyline of the gameplay but just having it in the game at all shows that Incognito, a relative newcomer to the genre, sees the writing on the wall.

Crackdown, released on February 20th in the US to critical acclaim, allows you to carry your “Agent” in and out of any game you please, blasting and leaping your way to your peak abilities. While you can’t simply warp in and out at ease, the game will require the host to respawn at a local checkpoint, its well worth it. The co-op in Crackdown is incredibly fun and is quite possibly the most engrossing online experience I’ve had on any console.

Don’t forget Army of Two, in development by EA and scheduled for release the Xbox 360 and PS3. Army of Two will headline with the cooperative element in an entirely new IP. To see a powerhouse like EA risk a brand new IP on co-op might be enough evidence in itself.

The Cooperative Generation is here right now, are you in? If so, click “Join Session in Progress” and I’ll see you in there.

Subnet6

Next gen is Co-op? Nah. Not really. Co-op has always been around. Ah sweet Contra and Ikari Warriors. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some good co-op. In fact, it’s the only use I have for online gaming at all. But the definition of next gen? I don’t think so. Many of my favorite games in EVERY gen have included Co-op. Particularly last gen. And the games you use as evidence would sell well with or without co-op. There’s no question about that. Other than gears, I didn’t even know if the others you mention offer co-op because it’s not a huge draw. It’s a really nice bonus to be sure but I could care less about these particular games. I just don’t think big burly guys shooting each other is next gen. It’s played. Been there, done that. I want new experiences. Not old ones, with more co-op. Can that REALLY be next gen? I hope not. Otherwise, next gen is just last gen with more co-op tacked on. Except we already had co-op tacked on to a lot of games last gen.
http://www.ashdcuk.com/thenose ash

I agreee totally with Subnet6 – next gen is co-op shooting? Umm, not really. Obviously you enjoy the new co-op options on offer, but I’ve always enjoyed co-op gaming, from the likes of Streets of Rage through to Halo. I really liked Gears of War co-op but to me that seems like a ‘next-gen’ game quite obviously even if its co-op mode hadn’t existed. I love Crackdown but I haven’t tried co-op once – it still seems like a leap forward for the genre.
GRAW’s co-op is enjoyable, but I’d say it’s just as enjoyable as Ghost Recon 2′s local co-op, which I played to death.

In many ways I hope online co-op gaming is not the future because local multiplayer is far more enjoyable and important to me.

As for your comments about motion-sensing, pretty much the first thing I thought upon playing Wii Sports was “If this isn’t next-gen then it’s certainly different-gen”. I mean it offers an experience completely unlike anything that’s gone before – isn’t that a good definition of what a new generation of gaming should offer?
Nate

Know what, Then most NES and SNES games are next gen. Loosing coop is the reason I didn’t play ps1 that often and didn’t start playing consoles again until halo came out and gave co-op another chance. I mourn each time a game that SHOULD have co-op doesn’t have co-op (platformers don’t really work co-op most of the time), but Jackyl and Contra and all of those good old NES games are still fun because they are coop.
Joe

There’s no way co-op is the defining feature of this generation, but it is great how more games are including it again!
Though I don’t like the current trend of not including split screen multiplayer.
Xboarder

I think there might be some truth to this article. It isn’t coming right out and saying co-op shooters will the only thing to define this generation. I think the point trying to be made is that co-op in general is finally being realized as a huge selling point and as a large increase in the fun factor of games. I can think of quite a few games that would have benefited greatly from having co-op.
Everyone knows it’s a lot more fun playing a game with a friend, and is even better if you’re both working toward the same goal.

@ Subnet6: Even if you do have an old game and you add co-op, it can change the entire dynamics of the game, which is a whole new experience by itself. Sure co-op has always been around, but not integrated into the games like it is today. It used to feel linear, just the same 1 player game but 2 characters. These days adding that second player can change the way the AI responds and can completely change the strategies you use to win the game. There’s no way you can say the 1st co-op games are similar to the co-op games these days.

Sure the majority of co-op games are shooters, that’s because they’ve worked in the past (Halo) and they know how to do them well. You’ll continue to see mainly co-op shooters until someone is brave enough to tackle another genre.
Either way, co-op is here to stay this generation and will have a large impact on game fun and replayability of these games.
You’d be hard pressed to find someone these days that doesn’t love the co-op this gen.
http://podtacular.com Foo Mo Jive

Replace “co-op” with “online co-op” and you might have something there…
http://www.aeropause.com James

Thanks for the great comments, guys. I didn’t add “online” into the title because I simply couldn’t find a single online co-op title on any other platform aside of the 360. I wanted to open it up a bit but generally, online co-op is key.

This isn’t about shooters. Team-based gameplay, which allows for co-op, is generally a shooter or action game. That’s just the way it works. It’s not that it HAS to be that way, just that Nintendo hasn’t joined the party yet to try their games with co-op. (closest they’ve come is Animal Crossing WW. Eh.)
zanne

Why not define next generation not by the platform or game play experience, but rather the gamer? I think the attitudes and behaviors of someone who is an early adopter might say more. In simple speak – I want more innovation – the kind that makes me re-think everything I knew – whether it’s gameplay or the advertising that supports it. For me, Bold can be the lo-fi look of Valve’s Portal or the way Portal makes me think about space. I imagine when I play this game it will cause parts of my brain to think in ways that are different when I play Gears of War.