The first thing I have to confess is that I thought video games were a solo experience for a long time. Honestly, growing up poor in Wyoming with dreams of Nintendo Systems that all the other kids had, I figured once I grew up I’d have a game room with one television and when the kids wanted to play video games, one of them would be on the controller and the other three of us would sit on the couch and watch. So when I got serious about retro gaming in my 40’s I assumed I’d be banging my way through all my classics by myself.
Sarah’s boyfriend Brandon came over to play one day (sometime around 2012) and wanted to play Streets of Rage 2 on my Genesis. “Oh it’s co-op,” Sarah said handing me the second controller like it was the most normal thing in the world. Dude, I didn’t even know you could do that. Two players on the same screen doing the same thing at the same time? Mind blown.
We ended up spending the next three hours kicking serious street punk butt and I learned more about cooperative gameplay that afternoon than I had in the previous two years of playing solo games. Little Brandon (yeah he broke my daughter’s heart, nice guy though…) was much more mechanically inclined than I was. He could land all those fancy punches and special attacks. But after 20+ years framing houses I have patience, so I’d hang back and try to strategize while he ran forward. “Let me take out the left…” or “Save your health, we have another boss incoming.” Stuff like this all day long at my job with my crew, except we use actual building materials instead of pixelated murder sacks.
Little did I know at the time there was a whole freaking genre of games that allowed for two or more players working toward the same goal. About half of my library at the time supported some form of co-op that I had never taken advantage of. Contra had suddenly gotten a lot easier with another guy watching my back. TMNT was still nearly impossible solo, but threw another guy into constantLee Death and it was downright hilarious. I bought a multitap for my SNES just so Sarah and I could play games like Secret of Mana with four players.
I think the biggest difference between playing local co-op games and playing online is you can see the other person screw up. Literally. You can instantly react to their reaction. Landing that tough combo? Smile and give them a high-five. Dodge that attack that would have killed you both? High-five. I’ll never forget watching my coworker Jim – Jim’s a crane operator by day…..not a gamer – react when he learned how to aim the bazooka in Zombies Ate My Neighbours. Dude was in full concentration mode…tongue hanging out, sweat pouring off, completely invested in blowing away mutant llamas so he can save some cheerleaders from giant ants. You just don’t get that same level of human interaction playing with someone on the Internet through a headset.
Oh, speaking of construction crews. Communication during co-op games takes me right back to working job sites. Any good construction crew develops their own secret hand signals. “16 on Centre” “Watch Your Six” “Fire in the Hole” –co-op gaming is very similar. Jim and I developed our own code language working through Left 4 Dead 2. “Boomer Incoming” duck and cover folks. “Health Cabinet” means whoever is low on health gets priority to grab the first med pack. “I’m Going For It” means someone is about to do something probably stupid and maybe heroic, but they’re doing it. It requires the same level of trust and teamwork that I demand from my crews except we use pixelated zombies instead of rebar cages and HVAC units.
I will never understand why game developers can’t seem to figure out how to properly balance two players with different skill levels. Early coop games were HORRIBLE about this. If you sucked, you died quickly and spent the rest of the game watching your better half play. But that was fun in its own way. I’ve knowingly let myself take damage in Contra just so Sarah could grab a power-up, or saved my special attack in FF until my partner could use it to get out of a tight spot. It forces you to manage your resources when playing with humans versus AI.
These days games have become pretty good about managing different skill levels between players. When Sarah and I played through Gears of War a few years back, the down-but-not-out revive allowed for both of us to make mistakes without being permanent. She could revive me if I was being overly aggressive with the chainsaw bayonet, and I could revive her if she foolishly walked into the middle of a firefight. Forces you to really play as a team because you never know when you’re going to get picked off by some bastard waiting for your buddy to revive you. Plus it just creates more dramatic moments, like both of you clutching cover while your partner wipes out the enemies that are trying to finish you off. Far more Hollywood than simply dying and waiting for the next checkpoint.
As someone who jumped into video games in my 30’s it’s been interesting to watch technology progress as it relates to co-op. Playing co-op games on modern flat screens is rarely ideal – I cannot even WITH THOSE skinny horizontal splits ruining my generation’s games. But when developers make it work it allows you to strategize in ways those games with shared screens didn’t. Portal 2 blew my mind with its split screen co-op puzzles that actually REQUIRED you and your partner think in 3D. Dude, I tried explaining some of those puzzles to my construction guys at lunch and they thought I had actually lost my mind.
Hell half the fun of co-op games these days are the rituals you develop around the gaming. Four controllers means I always have two extra charging at all times now. Learned that lesson the hard way during one of our Diablo 3 night and someone’s controller died during a boss fight. Bought some extra long controller chargers so nobody has to sit on the floor, and I even purchased a dedicated controller stand because loose controllers on my coffee table drive me absolutely nuts. My toolbox will tell you I have a bit of a type-A organizational personality.
You also have to plan your meals around co-op gaming. There’s no pause button for most coop games, so you have to coordinate snack times. Pizza is your friend because you can eat it with one hand. If it requires a fork, don’t even go there. Also learned to keep stocked up on drinks before game nights, because nobody wants to take a 20 minute bathroom break every time they get thirsty.
Splitscreen games got killed off for years during the late 2000’s and early 2010’s and I’ll never understand why developers thought that was ok. Every excuse I heard from developers – framerate issues, hardware limitations, etc…..puleeze. I would take Halo 3 at 25 FPS with my buddy sitting next to me over Halo 4 at 60 FPS by myself ANY DAY OF THE WEEK. It felt like developers cared more about lighting and graphics than they did about actually having fun. After learning all I did catching up on years of gaming I couldn’t have been more wrong. The best retro games aren’t always the flashiest ones – they are the ones with game-play that stands the test of time despite minor technical flaws.
Thankfully that all seems to be changing now. Sure, maybe not so much withAAA titles but the indie scene has brought local coop back with a vengeance. Overcooked was almost solely responsible for destroying my marriage. No, seriously it was FUN destroying my marriage. Sarah and I played through all of both games laughing our asses off. We actually got better at cooking together as the games progressed. Started off messing up every dish we made – literally running into each other and burning stuff – and ended the games able to cook extremely difficult recipes without saying a word to each other. She would say “Onions” and I would start chopping while she tossed the ground beef. “Fire” I would say and she’d grab the fire extinguisher while I dumped seasoning on the flambeed food. Just like Jazz, two people cutting up the kitchen until it’s a smooth hobby-horse of dining delights.
What really impressed me about It Takes Two was the asymmetric level design. Each player can do different things per level so you’re always having to communicate your abilities to one another. Dave and I played through this game and spent nearly every level explaining to each other what we could do. “I can make things small, you can shoot them” or “Your lady can double jump, mine has a grappling hook.” Pure genius level design that forces you to teach each other without being forced to do so. Also completely eliminates that issue I mentioned above of letting your partner do all the work while you hang back and watch.
Playing cooperative games has also brought out a social element to gaming that I never would have discovered had Sarah not introduced me to co-op. I host game nights now on a regular basis. Guys that would never take home a single-player RPG will jump at the chance to slay gorillas and ride bulls with their friends. Or play Jackbox games which are fantastic for larger groups because there is something about sharing the same physical space that breaks down the “you dang gamers” wall that I think keeps so many non-gamers from jumping in with both feet. When everyone can see what’s going on up on the TV there are no surprises. Friends can ask questions without feeling dumb, and hop in or out of the game session with ease.
My father-in-law sat and played Until Dawn with us all last Thanksgiving. Dude still refers to my iPhone as “one of those computer phones”. When I watched him analyze each decision we made in the game I was blown away. Offering suggestions on what I should say during dialogue trees, jumping out of his seat at scary moments, discussing with my wife who would be the likely candidate to meet the giant mysterious deer hanging in the shadows. SIXTY EIGHT YEARS OLD playing a game where you just try and SURVIVE and he’s dissecting horror movie clichés like he’s been playing them his whole life. That right there is the beauty of co-op gaming. It levels the playing field between “gamers” and “everyone else”.
The ability to drop in and drop out of games these days also allows me to play co-op games so much more than I used to. Want someone to join my farm in Stardew Valley? Know they can join whenever and we don’t need to worry about schedules or restarting a game progress if someone can’t make it. Same with Minecraft. Either Sarah and I are building epic bullshit in Minecraft alone, or we have four visiting and we’re building twice the bullshit. That kind of accessibility is what lets me bring co-op gaming into the lives of actual adults with responsibilities.
The bonds you form working towards a common goal in co-op games is different than what you experience watching movies or playing cards I believe. There is just something about constantly communicating and having to rely on each other through SUCCESS and FAILURE that causes you to become friends much quicker. Take Jim, the aforementioned crane operator – we started playing Left 4 Dead 2 together almost every week, and outside of gaming we now grab beers and shoot the bull about life. Hell, we weren’t even friends before playing video games together. Co-op brought us together.
When I look around my gaming room these days and see my dedicated co-op station with four controllers and a cabinet full of couch multiplayer games, not to mention the extra chairs so everyone has a good angle on both screens…I never would have guessed back when I got serious about playing retro games that I’d be doing this. I always thought I’d systematically work my way through every game I owned finishing them like items on a punch list. Funny how life works sometimes. I now spend more time playing games with other people than I do playing solo games. And that was never part of the plan when I got into this hobby.
Technologies gets better and I’m constantly impressed by what developers come up with. Local multiplayer games can now be played between someone’s Switch and someone’s laptop. We’ve come so far that parties can be made up of people in the same room and people on the Internet. Doesn’t have the same feel as everyone being in the same room together, but we’re getting there.
Nintendo gets a lot of shit but they somehow manage to never forget about co-op gaming. Mario Kart, Smash Brothers, Mario Party…Nintendo understands that games are more fun when you’re sharing the experience IRL. Sure Fortnite and Overwatch may be where all the kids are playing, but Sony and Microsoft spent years chasing the online multiplayer monkey and forgot about the guys sitting right next to them.
Lastly, what I love most about co-op games is how it removes so much of the toxic competitiveness out of gaming. Yeah sure, you can still trash talk your buddy when he just cost you the game….but guess what? He’s RIGHT THERE so he can kick your dumb ass in return. Leading to both of you just forgiving each other and trying again. Plus there’s accountability when playing in person. Much harder to be a total douche to someone when they can reach over and whip your shoulder.
If someone had told me ten years ago that there was an entire genre of video games that I didn’t know about I would have scoffed. Then actually read what I wrote above….SCOFFED. Cooperative Video Games are not single player games with another controller plugged in. They are games DESIGNED to be played with others. Communication, collaboration, teamwork. All things that are so valuable to life outside of the game itself that playing cooperative games teaches us. After spending all day managing construction crews I come home to spend my evenings managing virtual crews. It’s almost like they go hand in hand…except I get to drink real beer and there are far less OSHA violations.
0 Comments