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

[TGST]

The idea of a Co-op mode in Amnesia is truly intriguing, but to construct the fear and terror when you're not alone demands a lot of work and great ideas, because the fact is, you are more afraid when alone and feeling isolated. And maybe needless to say but, the implementation would have to be superb. But in horror games, implementation is everything.
For example, you have an idea of causing fear to the players by making them worry about each another whether everything is well or not. You could make them walk side by side and encounter the horrors together, or make them deliberately lose track of each another multiple times trough the game, or even trough the entire game(and of course the latter is preferable for more intense fear). But the idea of worrying about the other player really doesn't work by itself in a game in my opinion, even if you can do a lot things to fortify it(make the in-game microphone signal between the players stutter when danger is soon to occur to the other player, but the players won't know which one is going to face it etc.) But it really doesn't cause any fear for the other player, just for yourself, because it is just a game after all. Then we perceive, the idea what we had figured for the co-op mode, is just a way to go round the fact that you aren't alone playing the game. And then we are striving again for the fear of being isolated and alone like in the single player when making the co-op mode.
But I do agree that it certainly could be a lot of fun to play with a friend! The things like you lose the signal to the other player when he goes too far, or something bad occurs is great. Think of a situation for example when you haven't heard anything about the other player for a couple of minutes... first the signal started to stutter and went completely dead after a while. You are walking down now completely alone without any knowledge of the other player in a dark corridor, you see something in the distance, as you advance you start to notice it looks like a human corpse, it's your friend's character. You bypass it, becouse you can not do anything, but right after it, the corpse turns into an unspeakable being and starts to chase the other player with horrifying and terror affecting music playing. After the situation you gain the signal again to the other player, and notice nothing even happened to the other player. He was just too far away, or faced his own horror at the same time. I hope this post didn't come out unreadable, since english isn't my mother language.

[LSunday]

Amusingly, the only sentence of your post that came off as weird was the one hoping it wasn't weird.

And, like I've said a few times, it's not necessarily about getting the fear in the exact same way; just getting the fear. I mean, how many reaction videos are there of two people playing together and both being scared shitless when something happens? Sure, there's also a bit of laughing at each other, but even then they're still unnerved and, with the idea of cutting off the microphone as they separate, most of the time when they'd be making fun of each other and laughing at each other is cut off by the microphone anyway. Plus the ability to punish players for making too much noise- if monsters could 'hear' the noise being made in the microphone as well, so hysterical laughing and joking at each other would get them killed.

And then there's the immersion it would add. If you force a player to be quiet in the real world when a monster's nearby, it would certainly help with the fear of monsters (if making LPs an adventure of their own) and worrying.

And, given Frictional's seeming ability of using psychology against the player(s) (That note on torture being a near-perfect descriptor of the game's pacing), they could even manage to make players act 'properly' to different things.

[TGST]

Haha And yes you are right, things like punishing the players for making too much noise, cutting of the microphone, and to make the players work together becouse the other one has light, map etc. are truly needed to make the co-op mode worth doing, since I can't help thinking if we can just speak on microphones and play singleplayer what do we need the co-op for? It clearly has to be an different kind of experience. But like I said before, it almost has to go to the point that players are alone most of the time to truly be scared. And it will resemble the singleplayer a lot. Or I might be just too narrow-minded to believe that a game could make the players afraid even when they are together in the game, but still I think it can be done with a good balance between the team parts and the parts being alone.

[Conan]

Were you responding my post Tan? If so, I don't think you read the whole thing.

Done right, done right...
Can anyone see how Amnesia atmosphere can be carried to Co-oP with that "done right"... thing?
Amnesia is meant to be a single player game, after that "done right" it won't be Amnesia.

Claiming it will, please someone explain to me how it will be "done right".

[Tanshaydar]

I read the whole thing.
First: Amnesia cannot have co-op, because it was meant to be a single player game.
Second: When done right, it won't be Amnesia anymore.

Want a good horror game with co-op? Try RE-Outbreak. One can never carry the Amnesia atmosphere to any sort of co-op game.

[MadDoggyca]

all I can say is

Resident Evil 5 any one? and no its not scary but thats the idea your thinking of

[gandalf91]

To everyone shooting the idea down so quickly: just because it could have co-op doesn't mean you would have to play it. It's not as if it would replace single player either.

Of course co-op would be much less scary, but it would still be interesting. I'd actually thought of this before seeing the thread. Someone mentioned something about confusing a grunt. Lol I think creative problem solving to get your teammate out of danger would be fun. Of course this game mode would be much different, but it's not like it's going to encroach on your single-player experience because they would be almost like two independent games with no effect on one another.

[Tanshaydar]

because they would be almost like two independent games with no effect on one another.

Then we can easily change the topic, "Amnesia should have co-op", which is a total bullsh*t to begin with.

[gandalf91]

Didn't realize this was such a matter of life and death to you.

[Tanshaydar]

When all people around you try to destroy something you cared/loved, while everything else is plain shit, it is sort of a life and death to me.