Everything's more fun with a friend...

Trevor Roppolo — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:21:00 GMT

I love co-op as much as the next guy. Well, maybe a little more than the next guy. Okay, so I'm a junkie for co-op, whatever. And I have been to some pretty shady places to get my next fix--like Army of Two, and yes, even 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand. Sometimes I just need a break from playing competitive multiplayer with a-holes and a nice, casual game of co-op is just what the doctor ordered.

So that's why I'm always disappointed when a top-tier game comes out and there's no cooperative campaign to be had. I have seen a trend building by which more games are including, at the least, an independent co-op mode. But this rarely cools my importunate co-op fever. Let’s focus the stank-eye on Ghostbusters: The Video Game for a moment. I loved the campaign—and the included cooperative multiplayer was fun. But in a game so naturally fit for cooperative play, the lack of a true co-op campaign seemed like a serious missed opportunity.

Now, here comes Modern Warfare 2, ready to set the world on fire with its Michael Bay-esque campaign and top-notch multiplayer modes—the perfect recipe for an unforgettable co-op romp! But to my dismay, the game will only include an independent co-op mode. I'm sure it will probably be fun for a few minutes at least, but why do game developers continue to shatter my dreams?

Well, Infinity Ward's reasoning for not including a full co-op campaign is sound: they don't want their vision of the campaign experience to change by adding another person to the mix that could break the immersion. I know that they are just protecting their game from cut-scene-chatterboxes and run-ahead-and-steal-all-the-kills-guy, but I just wish that I could have made that decision for myself. Many times I like to play a game through the first time by myself and then invite a friend (not an obnoxious stranger) to play along with me. This assures me the optimal gaming experience and adds replayability to a single-player campaign that I would otherwise never play again.

What do you guys think? Are your cooperative fixes met by these independent co-op modes, or do you think full co-op campaigns need to become the standard?

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Everything's more fun with a friend...