The other night I was driving home at 1 am with the God of War soundtrack playing in the car. As the game music, with mixed in audio clips from the game, was playing through my car speakers, I began to think on how truly epic the story of this game was. Not epic as in awesome, even though it is, but more in lines of how it actually fell in line with the Epic writings of the Greeks. Think the Odyssey and Iliad for what I mean.
It soon sparked in my head on how games like this are looking to be a bit more few and far between in the current state of things. Yes I know there are plenty of games coming out that are story based, but that doesn't seem what gamers are looking for in their games any more. Complaints of shortness or lack of multiplayer seem to be the larger complaints when it comes to any and all games now.
Case in point, the BioShock franchise. The first game was filled with a very compelling story that gripped me and pulled me in. It was what people considered a short game. One could beat it in a few hours of hammering through and not paying any never mind to the story of the game. The game ends and everyone griped that there was not multiplayer or reason to play the game anymore. As if the story wasn't good or compelling enough.
Flash forward to the sequel coming out soon. Multiplayer has been added and it seems to be the big focus on the game now. It's all that is being reported on to drive interest and likely sales when the game comes to market. There has been mention that the multiplayer will add a bit to the story of the game, which has been only given a small tease. It just seems that they might have placed an epic story they have on the side lines just to be sure that they have a multiplayer option in the game.
Granted, this is an FPS. It makes sense for a game of this genre to have multiplayer added as it is easy to design and add into, but I just hope that they are not hoping this will be the sell point. As has been done with other games, like Halo.
Continuing on with that, Halo started out much like BioShock. Great story, FPS, but it came with multiplayer from the start. Then Halo 2 came out and the focus was more of a split between the two. This is what I have gathered from players of the franchise and not hard fact mind you, but how the players saw it. Then everything changed with the conclusion of the storyline with Halo 3. A storyline those same players didn't even complete for the most part. They claimed to get the game just to play it online and not for story mode.
Not saying that is how it happened for everyone who picked up the franchise, but these where fans I knew from the start of it all. They couldn't stop talking about the story during the first one, kind of brought up the second part, and then didn't talk about anything but multiplayer for the third. Which led me to thinking of these sad state of things way back then, but it never clicked.
Now I know I've brought up two FPS titles as it comes to multiplayer being more important than story, but it seems like more non-FPS games are doing this. Uncharted 2 is also adding this into the mix of things for the franchise. The first game having a fun and exciting story. The second has had more multiplayer coverage than the graphics and mention of the story. Multiplayer totally seems to be the focus of the game this throw.
It just seems that if a game does not have any form of multiplayer nowadays, there is a fear of not being able to sell. But if a game has multiplayer slapped on it, gamers will eat it up. Even if it is Littlest Pet Shop multiplayer. Can gamers truly not enjoy a great game with story anymore? What is this need to play against or with others? Are we becoming dependant on beating others just to have a good time?
I for one see games with story as the main focus as a good book. It may be short or it may be long. But in the end, if it is a good story, it will drag me back to experience it over and over again. Thus has been the case for God of War, Heavenly Sword, as well as a few books I have read. I have not needed the inclusion of a different mode of play to make me want to continue the experience. Maybe it is just me.
In conclusion, I am not saying that multiplayer shouldn't exist. I'm just saying that it feels that it is in such demand so gamers can rag on other gamers. Which in turn changes the view of what sells to developers. Which will lead to more focus on multiplayer with mediocre story in games that shouldn't even have multiplayer in the first place. Do we really need everything to have multiplayer?
