Multiplayer/Co-Op & Frictional Games? NO!!!

[MLK85]

Hey all, first time poster here. Registered just a minute ago because I like the discussion and I'd love to see a great co-op horror some day.


In my opinion, if you just build a singleplayer game and later add in the option for another person to walk along you will lose the atmosphere, and I think most people will just rush through the game. I remember playing Doom 3 (don't flame me for using doom as an example) on my own, and getting scared like hell sometimes. When I later played it with a buddy we just ran through the whole game without getting scared once.

I think multiplayer in this genre could really work though, but only if the whole game was based around it, so that you actually needed each other to survive and finish the game successfully. Or at least that you have a separate campaign for it.

A few ideas for implementing co-op in a horror game:

- Having only 1 person with a torch or flashlight, that way you will stay together. The other person should obviously also have something so that the one with the torch will stay with him, because we know how people can be.. (person with flashlight going 'lulz cya" while you get trapped in the dark)
- Implementing puzzles in dark environments where 1 guy is giving light while the other is solving the puzzle.
- Having a situation where 1 person is at the door looking for patrolling enemies, while the other is solving a puzzle or removing rubble and such from a room to get to an object.
- If you're wounded, you're slower. The person you are playing with is able to support you so that you can lean on him while walking together.
- Having your partner tend certain wounds where you can't reach it yourself.
- Let me boost you on top of that pillar, so that you can push a button.
- Being able to distract an enemy while the other person sneaks past.
- You can't make a co-op game without a platform puzzle, maybe one that requires one person to complete an "obstacle course" while the other one is controlling switches or something like that to help his partner out.
- The obvious one, if one person dies the other one is game over too.
- Having both of you needed to barricade a door or something like that.
- Maybe even making a puzzle like in Amnesia where you have to mix fluids, having one person drill while the other holds a pot under it.
- No cutscenes that you can skip, if you allow skipping people will not be immersed in the story and atmosphere enough.

I can go on with examples until tomorrow but lets leave it with these ideas



The problem with all of this is that it will be highly unlikely that you can successfully do this with a random person.
You'll either have to find someone on a forum, or have one of your friends play along. There will of course always be games where you group with a random person and actually have a blast while playing, but you can't count on that to happen all the time. It also gives problems when one person has to leave, since it is a random person you don't know there is a possibility you won't be playing again, leaving you to either try again from the start with another random, or join in with someone that is later in the game. With a story driven horror game that is something you do not want.
Having a bot replace the other person is always an option, but this can give you headaches when the ai is fucking with you.

Hope this wall of text made some sense, and if it didn't, or you didn't like the ideas, please don't flame me!