Games that should have handled COOP better!

Owen

Meet the offenders!

How many times have we been looking forward a game for its COOP mode, only to be let down with its half baked implementation! I think I'm starting to loose count. So, to vent some frustration here’s our list of the main offenders. In this list, we are not saying that any of these games were bad, most of them we play regularly, However what we are stating is that the COOP mode could/should have been much better than it actually was. Let's get on with it, bring in the offenders.

First Offender: Vietcong

Jungle Boogie

I remember playing the single player demo of this when it first game out. I must have played through the demo half a dozen times. How I was impressed with the game mechanics especially during the fire fights. I would have probably bought the game without COOP however that was an added bonus which I was looking forward to playing. However the COOP mode lacked any ability to go through a campaign, all we were left with was a handful of levels which lack the excellent atmosphere and playability of the single player missions. The “cong” also appeared to be less group orientated, perhaps they toned down the AI. Having played through these few single level "cong" hunts we soon put the game back on the shelf. We're we'll aware that a scripted single player game is difficult to achieve in COOP. However, it would have been nice to have had a COOP campaign where each of the team members were open slots to any player.

Second Offender: Rainbow Six: Raven Shield

Statuesque!

Don't get me wrong, hear at The COOP years, Raven Shield is one our favourite games. Many hours we have played this game. However, after the excellent prequel "Rogue Spear", Raven Shield has left us COOP players with pretty much the same settings as in the previous game. True, it is still good fun to take your buddies on a hunt. However, surely this time around we could have had the option to played through the single player campaign with briefings and tactical plan. True, you could put all the maps in the map list on the server so you play the maps in the correct order, but its not the same.

Third Offender: IL2 Sturmovik

Take off

Flight Sims are a strange breed and its not common to come across one that is easily accessible as well as realistic. So, when IL2 came on the scene we were pleasantly surprised. As with all the games in this list we were looking forward to the COOP mode. Sadly again, we have been treated to a setup of single missions to play through and no campaign. It would have been nice to progress through a series of missions advancing your pilots credentials, having pilots quarters to chat with other players between missions. The developers did however add a mission creator so you can always make your own missions. There are now a healthy amount of fan made COOP missions to try but thats no excuse!

Fourth Offender: Operation Flashpoint

I see!?

Operation Flashpoint actually gets away with light charges in this list. Here’s why, the developers didn’t add a coop campaign mode, however they did add an excellent mission editor which you could almost build an entire campaign into one mission (if you had the time). However at the time of its release you could easily grind your PC to a halt with too many units active on the map. Some fan made missions are excellent, but thats not an excuse for the game to come neglect its COOP mode. So I’m putting flashpoint in this list but it does not warrant the finger pointing as with the others.

There’s a running theme through all these games and that is that the campaign mode would have been implemented. Some of you may be thinking, for example in Raven Shield you can setup the list of maps on the server so when you complete one you go onto the next. However this is just a work around and most COOP players would like to be guided through the games missions like the single player. If there was a game that all these should take a leaf out of it is Daikatana. The COOP campaign ran virtually parallel with the single player, the game may have had faults I’m not denying that but it took the COOP experience seriously.