The family that games together...stays together

[bladeward]

My wife and I love multi-player games in which we can cooperate. The dungeon siege series is a Stirling example of games that got us addicted to this sort of play.

 

This morning, over breakfast, we were reminiscing how we (in DS1) stumbled into a pack of high level skeletons and then spent two hours painstakingly luring, dodging and killing those skeletons. We gained a ton of experience, and a love for RPGs that let us play as husband and wife.

 

Today i was looking for digital downloads of DS so as to recreate the experience on our new hardware (alas, no such thing), but did see that DS has been resurrected by Obsidian!

 

If there is one thing I hope that DS3 does, it would be to match or improve the multiplayer co-op on the PC. While there are other enjoyable parts to DS (no transition screens, the skills you use are the skills that improve), my love of the series comes mostly from the way it enables us to escape into an alternate world together. Instead of pitting us against each other, or creating yet another self-centric experience, DS gave us team-focused gameplay.

 

While MMOs like WoW, etc. do give a similar feel, they tend to not be "shelvable" and as such are not suitable. We are now the proud parents of a 1 year old daughter, and obsessive gaming binges are no longer an option. Multiplayer co-op in DS was something we could set aside and come back to later (without guild/friend pressure). DS is like an instanced world occupied only by my family/party...and I love it for this very reason.

 

LAN-based co-op RPGs are few and far between. Even fewer are stable, playable ones. Please help DS3 make this illustrious list!

 

Maybe DS3 will become one of those proud few games that is always pulled out at home or at the LAN party because it really, truly, is fun to play with other people. It is a stringent goal, but one worth trying for nonetheless. *Rally cry!*

Edited July 3, 2010 by bladeward

[WorstUsernameEver]

There will be co-op.

That's what they basically showcased at the E3 closed doors demo, after all.

The demo was played on a PC and there was even a drop-in drop-out feature, so that one of the presenters could jump in the game (taking control of an AI-controlled companion of the main character) just by pressing start on his controller.

I'm not sure if that feature will end up in the final product on PC, but co-op is a given.

[bladeward]

@WorstUsernameEver - Thanks for the additional information and confirmation.

 

I did get the sense that there would be co-op and I am excited about that.

 

So, ultimately, I am really hoping that quality co-op will be a relatively high priority for the developers.

 

I had skimmed a thread wherein someone had touted "flashiness" as what they wanted out of the game. That caused me to evaluate what I would most want out of the game and to attempt to express it. I want:

 

"Stable, immersive, interruptible team co-op that encourages complementary character choices and rewards collaborative players"

[WorstUsernameEver]

Well, from what I've gathered from interviews and previews co-op seems to be a priority for the team.

Of course, it's much much too early and we have relatively few details, but my impression is that they're trying to take care of the co-op crowd.

[bladeward]

@WorstUsernamEver - Are there any transcripts of the closed-door demo? Can you point me to some links/resources? I am definitely curious and interested at this point.

[WorstUsernameEver]

@WorstUsernamEver - Are there any transcripts of the closed-door demo? Can you point me to some links/resources? I am definitely curious and interested at this point.

 

The 'E3 impressions' topic is full of previews gathered from various websites, and I think some of them contain a couple of excerpts from talks with the devs.

There's also a podcast interview with Feargus Urquhart (CEO of Obsidian) though I don't remember if he talks about co-op.