"Tacked on" Multiplayer That Deserved More Credit
Happy Hangover day, Nerds!
A moment to explain this post before we get into the meat of it.
This list is about primarily Single player games that never needed Multiplayer portions added in to sell the game. In most of the these cases the games I have chosen to talk about are sequels, because they were additions to a sequel that no one asked for and the developer may not of talked much about it upon the release of the game.
This was extremely common a few years ago when developers were including MP (Multiplayer) into the game so that it had a chance of increasing the longevity and shelf life of the title. Personally I would say that 80 percent failed. But we had a few diamonds that sprang from this. Or even just a few fun memories. Before we begin I will give you an example of a game that is absolutely Not on this list: Tomb Raider. The reboot that was on PS3/360 that later got ported. I have a special grudge with this one because of their terrible multiplayer trophies that required a nice, rational person to play an ungodly amount of their extraordinarily dull multiplayer to obtain the Platinum. Needless to say, it's one Platinum I will never "earn".
Metal Gear Online
I guess the technical term for it would be Metal Gear Online 2 or MGO2, considering that apparently the first Metal Gear game to have an online component to it was Snake Eater, the third instalment. MGO2 was attached to one of my favourite games of all time, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Stupid subtitle, absolutely amazing game/movie. I had never gotten into the MP portion of Snake Eater nor did I even know it existed, which is shocking because I must have beaten Snake Eater rounding up to about 600 times.
Nevertheless, the demand to even play the online portion of MGS4 was demanding. If I remember correctly you had to sign up for the online through the Metal Gear Online website. This was also one of the only online games on the PS3 where to buy the expansions to the online you had to buy it through their website as well, as opposed to the traditional method of the Playstation Store.
Still, despite all of the annoyances of getting it to finally work, my 2008 self was blown away. I lost days into this thing. I loved customizing my own soldier head to toe in PMC gear, sneaking around the map and stealthy killing the opposing team while I searched for Old Snake trying to blend into the open environments. I have some extremely fond memories playing this almost 10 years ago now, and honestly, MGS4 still would of been one of my all time favourite game without the multiplayer added on.
I have not tried much MGO3 (Attached to MGS5) due to terribly conflicting feelings I get while playing the online portion of the game, knowing fully well that Kojima does not benefit from any time I spend on the online portion of the final title in the franchise.
Resident Evil 5
I know, not the best game in general. I still think gameplay wise, it was a solid entry but there isn't a soul on this planet who can justify Boulder Punching.
That doesn't mean I didn't play the shit out of that game, Platinum it, and lose myself in Mercenaries. Mercenaries mode is the online portion I am talking about. It is a returning feature from past Resident Evil games, and this time you can bring a partner in there with you to tackle the mode. I'm not going to mention that the story can be played entirely in Co-Op, mainly because I feel you had to play that way or you would of snapped the disk in half.
Mercenaries however is extremely addicting and insanely fun. Of course, it's a tacked on mode that adds absolutely nothing to the core game. But you will lose hours to it. And I can do it all again with the HD version of 5 and 6 on PS4 considering Resident Evil 7 does not have a Mercenaries Mode attached to it.
God of War: Ascension
A mediocre God of War game, yes. And I agree not the best multiplayer out there. Not even a game I think I would ever go back to play for the multiplayer. However! Even though this mode feels like it was the definition of "Tacked on" you can still tell that a lot of thought and care went into it. That doesn't mean it's great or that it should of been included to begin with. It's very different than a lot of multiplayer games you may have played though. Essentially you create a mortal or becomes a demi god by giving his life to one of three gods; Zeus, Poseidon, or Hades then proceed to go to town on other muscle bound super heroes while trying to take over control point. Even the multiplayer has fixed camera angles. Which, going back and thinking about it sounds god awful, it wasn't great, but it was different. And I appreciate that.
DOOM
Not Doom 3, DOOM the 2016 reboot of the franchise. I don't mention Doom 3 because it was hardly a Doom game to begin with.
DOOM multiplayer may not cause your eyes to bleed and leave you screaming in rage (In a good way..?) like the whole single player campaign does from beginning to end. Like the single player campaign though, it is extremely fast paced and violent. Yes, you have Call of Duty elements included such as leveling, loadouts, "camouflage" for all your weapons. You can also become giant menacing demons, tear players heads off and strike fear into any one player turning the corner and seeing you and all of your giant demon glory.
While you'll never see it being played as an E Sport, that by no way means it is bad. It's a Quake clone.. Admittedly in a time where we don't need one, considering we have a Quake game coming, but still! The big negative I have is that now all the DLC is out, a huge chunk of it's multiplayer content is behind a paywall. I don't think it will be too long before the season pass gets massively discounted, but I do think by then it will be far too late.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Once again, a sequel to a game that had no Multiplayer PVP or Co-Op component. I remember when multiplayer was announced for this game, people were angry due to Naughty Dog attaching this to their sequel to bring in the multiplayer crowd that maybe never would have touched the game otherwise. At least, this is what most companies were doing all those years ago. People felt that by adding on this mode to the game, it would take away from the people working on the story and gameplay of the campaign. All for a game that never needed a multiplayer portion to begin with. The result of this was a fantastic MP game. It still doesn't stand up to how amazing the core game is in any way, but what an amazing job they did at developing this mode into the game. I would continuously go back to play a few rounds until the third instalment was released.
It was so good that every numbered entry in the series has had Multiplayer gameplay included, and it has only gotten better. This entry makes the list because the multiplayer is good enough it should be a review point for every entry of the game. Enough hard work and dedication went into making it that they should market it as a selling point to the game.
Needless to say I will still be enjoying A Thief's End for many months to come, until Lost Legacy is released.
The Last of Us
And last (no pun intended) but not least is The Last of Us. The only game on the list that is a new IP and not a sequel or reboot. To be completely honest, I followed the release of this game pretty closely and I had no idea there was even going to be a multiplayer portion of the game until close to two weeks before release. And even then, Naughty Dog didn't release any details about it until they got extremely close to the release date. I know it must be that Naughty Dog works very hard on the stories and world that the game takes place in, so they want the game to be marketed as such. But even more so than Uncharted, The Last of Us multiplayer is remarkable. Unlike any I have ever played. This makes me equally excited for what multiplayer will be included in the sequel.
I even find it amazing how they intertwine the multiplayer with the world they are in.
To sum up the experience, it's essentially the game core gameplay as the campaign. Stealthy crouching and tip toeing around so that no one on the enemy team can hear you and track you. Picking up supplies and crafting using weapons, traps and healing items to help you when you finally do come in contact with the opposing side.
The leveling system is possibly the most interesting and unique part of the experience. You don't earn experience and "level up" in the general sense. Rather, you earn followers in your camp. People you are responsible for taking care of. Making sure they don't get sick and die. You do this by picking up food from killing enemies in battle. The more people you have in your camp, the more food you are going to need, therefore the more people you'll have to kill. The game will also have little mini story events that happen behind the scenes of the fights. For example, outside of the matches the game will inform you that the enemy faction is attacking your people. The game gives you a wealth of options to choose from to help save as much of your camps population as possible. But just like in the core game, no matter how good you are, you will always lose people.
That's all I was able to come up with on whim today. If I left any games out that you noticed or that you are fond of, please let me know in the comments or even tweet at me. The same goes for if you have any thoughts on what you would like to see me write about. Shoot me an idea and chances are you'll see it in the next week!
I'm out, Nerds!
A moment to explain this post before we get into the meat of it.
This list is about primarily Single player games that never needed Multiplayer portions added in to sell the game. In most of the these cases the games I have chosen to talk about are sequels, because they were additions to a sequel that no one asked for and the developer may not of talked much about it upon the release of the game.
This was extremely common a few years ago when developers were including MP (Multiplayer) into the game so that it had a chance of increasing the longevity and shelf life of the title. Personally I would say that 80 percent failed. But we had a few diamonds that sprang from this. Or even just a few fun memories. Before we begin I will give you an example of a game that is absolutely Not on this list: Tomb Raider. The reboot that was on PS3/360 that later got ported. I have a special grudge with this one because of their terrible multiplayer trophies that required a nice, rational person to play an ungodly amount of their extraordinarily dull multiplayer to obtain the Platinum. Needless to say, it's one Platinum I will never "earn".
Metal Gear Online
I guess the technical term for it would be Metal Gear Online 2 or MGO2, considering that apparently the first Metal Gear game to have an online component to it was Snake Eater, the third instalment. MGO2 was attached to one of my favourite games of all time, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Stupid subtitle, absolutely amazing game/movie. I had never gotten into the MP portion of Snake Eater nor did I even know it existed, which is shocking because I must have beaten Snake Eater rounding up to about 600 times.
Nevertheless, the demand to even play the online portion of MGS4 was demanding. If I remember correctly you had to sign up for the online through the Metal Gear Online website. This was also one of the only online games on the PS3 where to buy the expansions to the online you had to buy it through their website as well, as opposed to the traditional method of the Playstation Store.
Still, despite all of the annoyances of getting it to finally work, my 2008 self was blown away. I lost days into this thing. I loved customizing my own soldier head to toe in PMC gear, sneaking around the map and stealthy killing the opposing team while I searched for Old Snake trying to blend into the open environments. I have some extremely fond memories playing this almost 10 years ago now, and honestly, MGS4 still would of been one of my all time favourite game without the multiplayer added on.
I have not tried much MGO3 (Attached to MGS5) due to terribly conflicting feelings I get while playing the online portion of the game, knowing fully well that Kojima does not benefit from any time I spend on the online portion of the final title in the franchise.
Resident Evil 5
I know, not the best game in general. I still think gameplay wise, it was a solid entry but there isn't a soul on this planet who can justify Boulder Punching.
That doesn't mean I didn't play the shit out of that game, Platinum it, and lose myself in Mercenaries. Mercenaries mode is the online portion I am talking about. It is a returning feature from past Resident Evil games, and this time you can bring a partner in there with you to tackle the mode. I'm not going to mention that the story can be played entirely in Co-Op, mainly because I feel you had to play that way or you would of snapped the disk in half.
Mercenaries however is extremely addicting and insanely fun. Of course, it's a tacked on mode that adds absolutely nothing to the core game. But you will lose hours to it. And I can do it all again with the HD version of 5 and 6 on PS4 considering Resident Evil 7 does not have a Mercenaries Mode attached to it.
God of War: Ascension
A mediocre God of War game, yes. And I agree not the best multiplayer out there. Not even a game I think I would ever go back to play for the multiplayer. However! Even though this mode feels like it was the definition of "Tacked on" you can still tell that a lot of thought and care went into it. That doesn't mean it's great or that it should of been included to begin with. It's very different than a lot of multiplayer games you may have played though. Essentially you create a mortal or becomes a demi god by giving his life to one of three gods; Zeus, Poseidon, or Hades then proceed to go to town on other muscle bound super heroes while trying to take over control point. Even the multiplayer has fixed camera angles. Which, going back and thinking about it sounds god awful, it wasn't great, but it was different. And I appreciate that.
DOOM
Not Doom 3, DOOM the 2016 reboot of the franchise. I don't mention Doom 3 because it was hardly a Doom game to begin with.
DOOM multiplayer may not cause your eyes to bleed and leave you screaming in rage (In a good way..?) like the whole single player campaign does from beginning to end. Like the single player campaign though, it is extremely fast paced and violent. Yes, you have Call of Duty elements included such as leveling, loadouts, "camouflage" for all your weapons. You can also become giant menacing demons, tear players heads off and strike fear into any one player turning the corner and seeing you and all of your giant demon glory.
While you'll never see it being played as an E Sport, that by no way means it is bad. It's a Quake clone.. Admittedly in a time where we don't need one, considering we have a Quake game coming, but still! The big negative I have is that now all the DLC is out, a huge chunk of it's multiplayer content is behind a paywall. I don't think it will be too long before the season pass gets massively discounted, but I do think by then it will be far too late.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Once again, a sequel to a game that had no Multiplayer PVP or Co-Op component. I remember when multiplayer was announced for this game, people were angry due to Naughty Dog attaching this to their sequel to bring in the multiplayer crowd that maybe never would have touched the game otherwise. At least, this is what most companies were doing all those years ago. People felt that by adding on this mode to the game, it would take away from the people working on the story and gameplay of the campaign. All for a game that never needed a multiplayer portion to begin with. The result of this was a fantastic MP game. It still doesn't stand up to how amazing the core game is in any way, but what an amazing job they did at developing this mode into the game. I would continuously go back to play a few rounds until the third instalment was released.
It was so good that every numbered entry in the series has had Multiplayer gameplay included, and it has only gotten better. This entry makes the list because the multiplayer is good enough it should be a review point for every entry of the game. Enough hard work and dedication went into making it that they should market it as a selling point to the game.
Needless to say I will still be enjoying A Thief's End for many months to come, until Lost Legacy is released.
The Last of Us
And last (no pun intended) but not least is The Last of Us. The only game on the list that is a new IP and not a sequel or reboot. To be completely honest, I followed the release of this game pretty closely and I had no idea there was even going to be a multiplayer portion of the game until close to two weeks before release. And even then, Naughty Dog didn't release any details about it until they got extremely close to the release date. I know it must be that Naughty Dog works very hard on the stories and world that the game takes place in, so they want the game to be marketed as such. But even more so than Uncharted, The Last of Us multiplayer is remarkable. Unlike any I have ever played. This makes me equally excited for what multiplayer will be included in the sequel.
I even find it amazing how they intertwine the multiplayer with the world they are in.
To sum up the experience, it's essentially the game core gameplay as the campaign. Stealthy crouching and tip toeing around so that no one on the enemy team can hear you and track you. Picking up supplies and crafting using weapons, traps and healing items to help you when you finally do come in contact with the opposing side.
The leveling system is possibly the most interesting and unique part of the experience. You don't earn experience and "level up" in the general sense. Rather, you earn followers in your camp. People you are responsible for taking care of. Making sure they don't get sick and die. You do this by picking up food from killing enemies in battle. The more people you have in your camp, the more food you are going to need, therefore the more people you'll have to kill. The game will also have little mini story events that happen behind the scenes of the fights. For example, outside of the matches the game will inform you that the enemy faction is attacking your people. The game gives you a wealth of options to choose from to help save as much of your camps population as possible. But just like in the core game, no matter how good you are, you will always lose people.
That's all I was able to come up with on whim today. If I left any games out that you noticed or that you are fond of, please let me know in the comments or even tweet at me. The same goes for if you have any thoughts on what you would like to see me write about. Shoot me an idea and chances are you'll see it in the next week!
I'm out, Nerds!
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