Prototype Drops Co-op Play

[Dr.Finger]

Some bad news about a game that looks to have some promise. Prototype, the upcoming open-world game from Sierra, has had it's multiplayer mode dropped. From Team Xbox (http://features.teamxbox.com/xbox/2184/Inside-The-Mind-of-Prototypes-Alex-Mercer/p4/).Why was multiplayer cut from PROTOTYPE?

Tim Bennison: From its inception PROTOTYPE was planned first and foremost as a single player open-world/action game. Naturally, with Alex’s genetically mutated shape-shifting abilities, we started to explore what would happen if he were to sub-divide into two PROTOTYPEs and what kind of multiplayer gameplay we could create around that concept. We’ve been looking at this potential multiplayer idea much more closely as PROTOTYPE’s development has been progressing, and while it’s a great concept and gameplay bonus, our conclusion is that we won’t be able to pull it off with the same level of quality and polish that we’re aiming for with the original single player story.

We want gamers to really dig into the main elements of PROTOTYPE – find out about Alex and his past, play through all the storyline and uncover everything there is to find out in the Web of Intrigue, explore all Alex’s different powers and abilities, and use the ‘Deceive or Destroy’ gameplay to get through the game in multiple ways. As you can see there’s already a ton for us to deliver just in PROTOTYPE’s single player experience, so we really need ALL of our resources focused on shipping what we originally set out to do – PROTOTYPE as a ground-breaking, single player open-world/action title. Translation: we have to ship this puppy this year and things were starting to look dicey with the schedule, so we jettisoned multiplayer altogether rather than sink the game as a whole.

Thanks to Co-Optimus (http://www.co-optimus.com/article/115/Prototype_Co-Op_Mode_Cancelled.html).

[Gorvi]

My interest in the game just dropped as well. :(

[Dr.Finger]

Exactly. It looked like a grittier Crackdown, but without MP of any sort it just isn't as appealing.

[OSX]

I actually went to a party here in Vancouver with a programmer for this game. He sounded like a cool guy overall, but what he was saying about it seemed pretty...generic. Like a low rent Haze or something. Which is too bad.

[MelbaToast]

This is great news. I get to save $60 now.

[Norse]

Single player is always my priority. Co-op is nice, but the lack of it doesn't move my interest much. This game looks awesome with or without co-op.

[Dukefrukem]

My interest in the game just dropped as well. :(

im curious on what you guys thought of games before the internet was used to create a multiplayer experience bonus?

Single player is always my priority. Co-op is nice, but the lack of it doesn't move my interest much. This game looks awesome with or without co-op.


agree.

[menage]

I actually think this is a good thing. The co-op didn't match what I saw in the trailers at all. Glad all these resources are going to a stronger 1 player game now.

[Heretic Machine]

im curious on what you guys thought of games before the internet was used to create a multiplayer experience bonus?

Not a valid comment; this game doesn't exist in a bubble, there are other games out there with a similar premise and co-op play.

Anyhow, kind of disappointing, but I don't own a PS3 anyway. This was one of the things I was hoping would push me over the edge. It's still very appealing though, to me, but I can see a lot of others being completely turned off by the lack of co-op.

[Norse]

Everytime I read news like this here at EvAv people announce that they won't buy the game in question. Is co-op an essential feature of games these days? Will you guys drop games like MGS4, GTA4 and Ninja Gaiden 2 due to the lack of co-op?

[Dukefrukem]

Not a valid comment; this game doesn't exist in a bubble, there are other games out there with a similar premise and co-op play.

Anyhow, kind of disappointing, but I don't own a PS3 anyway. This was one of the things I was hoping would push me over the edge. It's still very appealing though, to me, but I can see a lot of others being completely turned off by the lack of co-op.

Oh please. Don't tell me what's valid and not valid. Are you the comment police? People complain all the time about coop and multiplayer and it's such BS. Some games just weren't made for coop, or like they say in the article, don't have the technology/time/money to support it. Just because 1 game is released with coop (Gears of War) everyone else goos and gaas over it and expect EVERY similar game to have the same features.

Everytime I read news like this here at EvAv people announce that they won't buy the game. Is co-op an essential feature of games these days? Will you guys drop games like MGS4, GTA4 and Ninja Gaiden 2 due to the lack of co-op?

For some reason they're obsessed with it. I love a great single player experience. It's not essential. If it's included, its a bonus.

[Gorvi]

im curious on what you guys thought of games before the internet was used to create a multiplayer experience bonus?
I'm actually normally not a big multiplayer kind of person. Hell, outside of FFXI, the only game I've played online in the past year is Warhawk. The game just looked like it'd be a lot of fun to play multiplayer and that would have been a big draw. The game looks like it has a very bland feel to it, but it could have been a blast with co-op.

[IndependentGMR]

Single-player is always the biggest selling point for me.

[Dukefrukem]

I'm actually normally not a big multiplayer kind of person. Hell, outside of FFXI, the only game I've played online in the past year is Warhawk. The game just looked like it'd be a lot of fun to play multiplayer and that would have been a big draw. The game looks like it has a very bland feel to it, but it could have been a blast with co-op.

Bland?????????????????????? Have you see this?

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/28751.html

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/29489.html

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/30717.html

[Lekon]

And now we go from buy to rent. Drat. I was hoping for Crackdown 1.7 or so. Well, by april's end, we'll be playing GTA4 Multiplayer and running each other over anyways, so no huge loss.

Still, looked like it would have been a blast to play with some friends.

As to the reason everyone here seems "obsessed" with co-op. We like playing with friends. Many of us can blow through a singleplayer game in a weekend, then. Bam. Done, no need, no value again. Its a rental basically.

A game with fun co-op can be brought out again and again, its that neat "Check this trick out" You can't do with a single player. Or the fun of trying something *with* a friend there to witness your grandeur, or your idiocy. I thought Crackdown was boring as hell.... singleplayer. With a bud in, suddenly there were all these neat things we could do as a team that an AI partner would never think of.

Short and simple version: A co-op that is fun is a buy, and will be played for quite awhile, as the friends help create replay. The Single player ones? Well Usually its a weekender, if that, then its back to the shop.

[Gorvi]

Bland?????????????????????? Have you see this?

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/28751.html

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/29489.html

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/30717.html
Yep, the violence looks completely forced and "over the top" for shock value. Just my opinion, though. The co-op was what was keeping me interested in the game.

[Dr.Finger]

im curious on what you guys thought of games before the internet was used to create a multiplayer experience bonus?Except we're in a time where the multiplayer experience is a big part of gaming. So big that the developer of this game was using it as a selling point for the year or so the game has been in the public sphere. I'm not saying that I won't like/play/buy it if it doesn't have co-op, but a game like this (as Crackdown has shown) can be an a whole different experience done co-operatively.

[Dukefrukem]

Yep, the violence looks completely forced and "over the top" for shock value. Just my opinion, though. The co-op was what was keeping me interested in the game.

You watch the third one?

[Dukefrukem]

Except we're in a time where the multiplayer experience is a big part of gaming. So big that the developer of this game was using it as a selling point for the year or so the game has been in the public sphere. I'm not saying that I won't like/play/buy it if it doesn't have co-op, but a game like this (as Crackdown has shown) can be an a whole different experience done co-operatively.

I hope the internet fails and everyone who plays multiplayer games crawls instantaneously into the fetal position. I'll be laughing while playing hundreds of SP games. (not really, I <3 TF2)

[Gorvi]

You watch the third one?
If they can do it right and pull all that off, then it'll still be a good game. Personally, I'm just disappointed that the co-op won't be there. I'd rather have the game next year with it than this year without.

Keep in mind, any dev can make their game sound like the best game you'll ever play, but they rarely end up that way.

Again, I'm all about single player games, I rarely play multi. That was just one of the things that really interested me about Prototype. I did say my interest dropped, but it's not gone.

[Dukefrukem]

If they can do it right and pull all that off, then it'll still be a good game. Personally, I'm just disappointed that the co-op won't be there. I'd rather have the game next year with it than this year without.

Keep in mind, any dev can make their game sound like the best game you'll ever play, but they rarely end up that way.

This is true as we've seen with Assassins Creed

[DarkDaY]

I actually think this is a good thing. The co-op didn't match what I saw in the trailers at all. Glad all these resources are going to a stronger 1 player game now.
Im with you on this,
man, people are so co op crazy this gen, if it doesn't have co op, its a no go it seems.

Ahh, I remember the days, when gaming was an anti social thing that I could do, play a moving book of sorts and tell the world to fuk off for a bit.

[bean19]

My interest in the game just dropped as well. :(

Really? You don't ever seem to show an interest in multiplayer. The only games I've seen you champion have actually been single player experiences like Uncharted and Folklore.

In any case, I agree that co-op would have made this more interesting. Hopefully, this will be a great deal better than Crackdown in the single-player though. Crackdown's multi-player was somewhat fun (in what other game can you throw cars at your friend over and over?) but it's story was awful, and some of the game dynamics were a bit. . . meh. The best moment I had in that game was when my best friend took 30 minutes to show me the way to the top of the tower in the middle there. He told me there was an achievement for jumping off (obviously to your death) and I didn't believe him. I seem to remember looking it up later and there is one, but I must have missed the node or whatever I was supposed to hit either at the top or the bottom. It sure was fun, and I'm glad I missed it as thinking he was lying while he absolutely insisted that there was such an achievement was hilarious.

[Ghostbear]

I'm of the opinion that a mediocre game can become a must buy with co-op. To phrase it more in line with this game. A game that I am not that excited about playing single player could have been lots of fun with another person. There are some great single player games out there that people play. I will still buy single player games if I think they are worth playing alone, but you can take a game like gears (which by the way as a single player experience isn't that great) with coop and it became a must buy.

[DarkDaY]

I'm of the opinion that a mediocre game can become a must buy with co-op. To phrase it more in line with this game. A game that I am not that excited about playing single player could have been lots of fun with another person. There are some great single player games out there that people play. I will still buy single player games if I think they are worth playing alone, but you can take a game like gears (which by the way as a single player experience isn't that great) with coop and it became a must buy.
I spent way more time in single player gears than co op, loved both, but this game was one of the exceptions.


I love the single player, visceral and epic, kick ass ride.
If they can pull it off with out watering down the package im all for it, but as of yet its my belief that most games ARE being watered down, with scheduals and budgets the way they are, devs just don't have either to make the aaa titles I uesed to get.

I want a single player game thats epic, doesn't have to have the greatest story all the time, just a focus on what it is, not what its supposed to be to appease the gaming public and reviewers.

[ElfShotTheFood]

A game doesn't need multiplayer to be good. For the people who are no longer interested in this game, I hope it sucks so you don't miss anything by refusing to buy it. ;)

[ResistanceAddict]

The game still looks like a must buy for me, but wow, that is still just an arrow through the heart. A multiplayer on this game could have been AMAZING.

[TrackZero]

Translation: we have to ship this puppy this year and things were starting to look dicey with the schedule, so we jettisoned multiplayer altogether rather than sink the game as a whole.

Thanks to Co-Optimus (http://www.co-optimus.com/article/115/Prototype_Co-Op_Mode_Cancelled.html).

I don't know about that per se. Translation could also be that the system hardware couldn't properly handle that much shit going on at once. I think it's fine enough, I wasn't really thinking about co-op with this so much yet. Leave it as something to look forward to in the sequel.

[Wyrm]

These days, there needs to be more to a game to make me pay 60 bucks for it than a good single player experience. If that happens to include some awesome co-op, that hurts the wallet a lot less, and it produces some remarkable experiences. I think the only people that don't like co-op games are the ones who really don't have friends to play them with.

[Demo_Boy]

Bioshock does not have coop, thats why I'm glad I didn't buy it. Yep. Its Coop or nothing for me. Yep.

*cries*

[Deadend]

I'd still gamefly it, espically over the summer.

[Ghostbear]

Bioshock does not have coop, thats why I'm glad I didn't buy it. Yep. Its Coop or nothing for me. Yep.

*cries*

bioshock never claimed to have co-op, so it could only be judged on its single player elements. I think everyone who is complaining about this cooperative mode loss is saying that this is a feature that tipped them over from "not interested" into a "maybe" not that they don't like games without co-op or multiplayer.

[Adam Blue]

lol. Unless a game is announced as a multiplayer game, I don't give a crap about its multiplayer and neither should anyone. Anyone's disappointment in this is hilarious. No game has good co-op unless it was built for it...and even then it's iffy.

[Dr.Finger]

Bioshock does not have coop, thats why I'm glad I didn't buy it. Yep. Its Coop or nothing for me. Yep.

*cries*I don't think anyone is saying that they won't play non co-op games, just that it's disappointing when a game, that was promoted and publicized as a co-op game, completely drops the multiplayer aspect.

[Adam Blue]

I think the only people that don't like co-op games are the ones who really don't have friends to play them with.

Negative. Most co-op games are boring. A game like Battlefield makes sense, but a true co-op experience would be one like in Syphon Filter: Omega Strain. No other game comes remotely close. Anything else is just filler.

[Zurik]

im curious on what you guys thought of games before the internet was used to create a multiplayer experience bonus?

I was playing co-op games on the same TV with friends back then. This was just the natural evolution of that, and it hurts everytime I get excited about a co-op game announcement and then its taken out later. I know its really hard and time consuming to pull off, and if these guys were so obsessed with the single player, then why bother adding co-op at all?

[Talon-]

I'm actually normally not a big multiplayer kind of person. Hell, outside of FFXI, the only game I've played online in the past year is Warhawk. The game just looked like it'd be a lot of fun to play multiplayer and that would have been a big draw. The game looks like it has a very bland feel to it, but it could have been a blast with co-op.

I agree with this. It looks like they could've done a lot of interesting stuff with online co-op. Perhaps have objectives for you to both do, or just let you run around trying to kill each other. Hell, it would've been great to just have you and your bud running around destroying as much crap as you could.

It doesn't kill the game for me, but the game went from a possible buy to a rent for me. Having multiplayer extends the life of a game so much nowadays.

That's not to say that co-op is a necessary feature for every game out there. There are certain games that just lend themselves well to being a multiplayer experience, and this one seemed to do that (and it billed itself as such).

[Rifter]

Well... that pretty much SUCKS. :-(

[TrackZero]

I don't think anyone is saying that they won't play non co-op games, just that it's disappointing when a game, that was promoted and publicized as a co-op game, completely drops the multiplayer aspect.

See, honestly I wasn't even aware it had co-op until yesterday, and I wasn't too hype for it at the time (since it reminded me of games that didn't seem designed for it per se, just doubling the protagonist != co-op fun). So it doesn't really impact me. I'd rather this be great for the single player, and if successful, they can look to designing the sequel from the ground up for an awesome co-op experience.

[H.Bogard]

I couldn't give two shits about co-op in this game as long as they deliver what was shown in the trailers without breaking it.

[Xerxes]

Maybe they should put more time into a feature that would sell this game. I think sandbox with a friend is the way to go so they want get bored. Me and my friend played alot of Crackdown. Alone it's ok, with a partner, lots of fun to be had.

[LongStepMantis]

Bad Prototype, Bad! *whacks with rolled up newspaper*

Don't drop co-op, we were just starting to see more games with it.
And I don't want any other devs tempted by the idea.

As a married man and a gamer, co-op plays a huge part in whether or not I play some games. Because my wife likes co-op because if we compete I stomp her into the ground. I've been gaming for most of my life. She's been playing games since we got together, and that's it. The skill differences are massive. Co-op fixes that issue. And my wife doesn't feel as intimidated by the game itself if I'm there to help her. She can play Marvel UA with me, but she can't play Super Mario Bros. by herself. And it isn't that she can't do it, but that she gets frustrated easily.

For those of you who just want singleplayer, or play games with others of the same skill level regularly, it's not much of an issue I guess. Just voicing my own concern.

[torrefaction]

Man, I was just telling our Sierra at the Bourne event how excited I was about prototype. He told me the game is looking WAY better (Last released videos were Alpha state.) So...that's good news for the title...

This is pretty disappointing, but I still have high hopes.

[Stryfe01]

Single player is always my priority. Co-op is nice, but the lack of it doesn't move my interest much. This game looks awesome with or without co-op.

Seriously. I don't spend half as much time playing online and I hate split screen. Co-op would have been great, but I'd much prefer a polished single player game than have a co-op with issues (Army of Two).

[Khash]

My interest in the game just dropped as well. :(

Clearly, you've never played Hulk: Ultimate Destruction.

[LongStepMantis]

Clearly, you've never played Hulk: Ultimate Destruction.

The key difference there is that you're the motherfucking HULK.
You have no time for "friends", only smashing shit and ripped pants.
;)

But yes, you are correct.
Only now imagine that Hulk: UD was co-op...go ahead and change your pants. :p

[menage]

You watch the third one?

Goddamn, that was fantastic.

Second time this rocketed to nr 1 on my list (the helicopter traler was the first). GTA4 overtook it yesterday but this overtook that one now.

[jpublic]

My interest in the game just dropped as well. :(


Oddly enough, my interest went up. Go fig.

[VictorVonViolence]

This sounds like Bait and Switch to me.

Hopefully offering co-op and then dropping it won't become a trend

[LionEyez]

Well, even negative attention is attention, right?

A while ago I had never heard of Prototype...kinda like how apparently Dark Sector is finished after 3 years of development and it completely went under my radar.

No co-op is a shame, but still, these are good times to be a gamer my friends.

[Shadowstorm]

I would have rather them drop the co-op than do a co-op mode that was half-assed in order to meet deadlines.

[fitbabits]

Well that's a fucking pain in the balls...

[Mortis]

Just went from sure purchase day one to rental only. It will still be good I'm sure but I was really looking forward to the co-op.