My thoughts on the possibility of a multiplayer mode
I just read an article from
Eurogamer where managing director Adam Badowski says that CDPR will add multiplayer features to the game. As an avid player of singleplayer games, hearing a developer bring multiplayer into a title which is primary singleplayer focused, is generally a bad omen. I base this not on a hate for multiplayer in general, but a hate for quickly thrown together, uninspired multiplayer features that were added not because the developer had a cool idea and wanted to see how it worked with the setting of the game, but because
multiplayer is what the mainstream likes these days, let's put it in to increase our sales!
Obviously singleplayer games can have fun and engaging multiplayer modes, but the problem is that the multiplayer is generally down-prioritized to the point where they give nothing back to the game after release, and end up taking a lot of time out of the development of the singleplayer experience. I would say a recent example of this is the multiplayer which was included with Bioshock 2. The multiplayer for this game was basically a deathmatch mode with Bioshock elements added to the mix, and ended up being an overall unrewarding experience because of sloppy controls, horrible GFWL implementation and bad netcode. A good example of a multiplayer mode which clearly was rushed out and really quite unnecessary for your enjoyment of the game.
In contrast to this example of what I personally would call an unnecessary multiplayer mode, there are singleplayer games out there that have managed to not only add to the singleplayer game, but also manage to surpass many multiplayer only games in terms of creativity and features.
For this I give you Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory's VS mode, which trough it's unique stealth based, cooperation requiring and honestly extremely atmospheric gameplay manged to create an experience I honestly think I enjoyed more than the singleplayer(which was also extremely good). The secret to the memorability of the VS mode was that it was first of all extremely innovative(I can't think of any other game that has handled stealth multiplayer to that level of greatness ever) and second of all managed to capsulate the essence of the singleplayer game perfectly; you are a spy who trough stealth alone must complete your objective with minimal casualties and exposure. This is reflected in the game by how it was almost impossible to actually kill a mercenary, and the most common option was to either stun him until you could get away, or use gadgets to trick the security system to think you were in another part of the building thus making the enemy player not find you at all. This made the player feel like he was free to do the mission the way he wanted to do it, and gave the player to possibility to outsmart his enemies, a great feature that is a must for all great multiplayer games these days(see CS and every MOBA and RTS ever).
So in conclusion I'm not asking the developers to recreate Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory's multiplayer, or that they are going to fail if they make it deathmatch. All I'm trying to say is that for the multiplayer to be a success, CDPR has to take a chance and be creative with it. They should not, in my view make it a
traditional coop(because it is a horrible immersionbreaker to have a guy pop up in your story and do nothing but shoot stuff while being invisible to the story), and they should not make it deathmatch with augments and future guns(because it will likely end up as a simpler Black Ops 2 with more customization). Of course there are just my views and preferences and who knows, maybe everyone except me though Bioshock 2's multiplayer was pretty cool.
