Hot Topic - Are Single-Player Experiences a Dying Breed?

X360A writes:

"The release of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood this month marked the wave of a new era where predominantly single-player experiences started to introduce an online component. BioShock 2 led the charge earlier this year, receiving mixed results in the process, while Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood followed much later, but to a much warmer response. Next year Dead Space 2 is set to continue that trend in January 2011 and even Mass Effect is rumoured to be having a dabble. So what we have here is four huge single-player franchises, all of which are/may be setting their sights on the multiplayer arena."

[tdogchristy90]

I sure F'in hope not!

[LordMarius]

I sure F'in hope so!

[metsgaming]

I sure F'in hope you were joking

[RankFTW]

Leave and don't come back.

[VenomProject]

If that's a serious comment, you're part of the cancer that is killing gaming.

[LordMarius]

bunch of dinosaurs

[blitz0623]

If SP dies then I quit gaming

[VenomProject]

Bunch of Halo/CoD kids that think multiplayer is mandatory in a video game.

Cancer, I say. Cancer.

[HolyOrangeCows]

A suggestion that a loopy xbox site might suggest, but not a reality.

This year was filled with great SP only games....ones that many people consider GOTY (IE GOW3 and ME2).

[seinfan]

I'm very much enjoying Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. The online is actually unique, but I'm too engrossed in the SP right now, I just won't go back to the MP until I complete the SP 100%.

[SIX]

The day this happens is the day I quit gaming.

[InvaderZim]

@SIX: same here bro. IMO The end of single player will mark the end of gaming. Fortunately, there is still hope in the form of ME2 and (future) JRPG ;) I don't like most WRPG.

[xXxSeTTriPxXx]

they are sadly.vanquished is a great example, the game is greatness yet it's not getting the commercial success it deserves.

[Enate]

Honestly Settrip I just didn't feel like it was a game I would buy. Dead Space 2 however single player only would have been top of my list come January. Now though I think I'm gonna give it a gamefly before I decide. Honestly I think the only reason Dead Space 2 has multiplayer is because EA wants to put project $10 on it. Not a single person on my friends list was even half thrilled after playing the beta including me. It just doesn't feel right, they maybe could have gotten away with co-op. Though I honestly could not even stand a full game of the multiplayer. This coming from someone who bought DS1 and was planning to get DS2 oh well.

[HolyOrangeCows]

Jim Sterling did the best review on Vanquish; the game pushed for confrontational combat, but the fast-working draining system and hectic nature made it difficult and wonky to play it the "right" way (Dev suggested that playing it as a 3rd person cover shooter was playing it "the wrong way"). It defeats its OWN PURPOSE. And then what does it become? Just another cover-based TPS, but with rocket boots and bullet time.

Vanquished got EXACTLY what it deserved.

[fredfenster]

Best agrees/disagrees in n4g comments ever.

[SuicidalTendencies]

What's funny is that most of these games that have multiplayer are usually dead after a couple of months. Killed by Halo, Call of Duty, or Battlefield that most gamers eventually go back to play. So what's the damn point of even adding a muliplayer? Just focus on the single player and to hell with the multiplayer. Or at least give us some offline muliplayer bots to keep us playing.

[metsgaming]

it even worse when they add trophies, not only are people just playing for trophies and not working together. Soon there is no community and its impossible to get the trophies. Im renting MOH and i cant get some trophies because i cant get into a certain game mode type because virtually no one plays it, it maybe matchmaking issue also in this case.

[randomwiz]

Its all for sales. A lot of people this gen are wary of spending $60 for a single player only game.

I hate how some games just tack on a multiplayer, and because of that, spend less time on the single player experience. I think single player experiences are the best part of gaming, and I wish that publishers will realize that having an awesome story, and a single player campaign thats good in length will lead to good sales(see AC2. One of my favorite, if not my most favorite game this gen)

[Merivigian]

Story mode and single player is all I care about, to me, multiplayer is the gimmick here.

[-Alpha]

GTA IV, MGS IV, iNFamous, Uncharted, LA Noire, Red Dead, Gran Turismo, Forza, Burnout, Demon's Souls, Valkyria Chronicles, Bioshock, Elder Scrolls, FL0WER-- and many more beg to differ.

Some of these games have also added a MP component without hurting themselves IMO.

The thing though, is that MP games last longer than SP games. This is natural. As a result they tend to get more attention. When you beat a scripted SP game, you are usually done with it. A MP game is much more dynamic in that sense, hence why people come back to it.

One Hour with a SP game stays with me much longer than 500 hours put into COD. That's not to say I haven't enjoyed my MP gaming, but single player is the backbone of gaming as an art, IMO, and it will never die. There is an irreplaceable aspect to playing a well crafted story in a well crafted SP game that MP cant achieve. They are two sides to an amazing coin.

They've taken a back seat to MP, but this is very well expected with the console-internet generation.

The only issue with Single Player games this gen is that people are turned off by this generation's high entry fee and shorter SP games usually result in people waiting for price drops, skipping SP games, or buying them used which can screw SP developers.

MP isn't affected by this because many people seem to justify price as "virtually infinite", and with things like online passes, dlc, etc. MP gaming will continue be the source of extra profit.

[cooperdnizzle]

Yea i read an article just like this like every two to three months.. Yea there fucking stupid. Never going to happen i buy games for the story and only for story.. This will never be taken from games

[Arup02]

Damn, single player never get's old y'know.

[BYE]

Bayonetta, Darksiders, ME2, 3D Dot Game Heroes, God of War III, Splinter Cell Conviction, Alan Wake, Demon's Souls EU, Heavy Rain, GT5, Red Dead Redemption, Fallout New Vegas, Enslaved, Castlevana + many more.

See, there were tons of quality single player games this year, I think even more than the previous two years. They're easily outnumbering multiplayer games.

And you're talking about them being a dying breed? Hilarious.

[Deleting]

Uncharted is the only online game I like, having so much freedom as in climbing walls, rolling behind cover and jumping long distances is way better to your FPS online game like COD. It may just be me who likes this but if it's a good single player game, don't ruin it with multiplayer

I hope to god Elder Scrolls or Fallout dosen't fall to mulitplayer

[Da_Evil_Monkey]

If you like uncharted's multiplayer you might want to play AC Brotherhood's, to begin with I was against the addition of MP and thought it would ruin the SP, but I've had more fun on it than I have ever had on an FPS, apart from BC2, you can climb and use all kinds of gadgets and skills and it's great fun with friends. Also the SP isn't really downgraded for MP.

[jjank11]

SP is great, it is what helps define each game with its story and setting. I think developers need to focus on more ways to make the SP more engrossing with great replay value and longer stories, especially for FPS games. Many other genres, the SP experience is what it is all about.

[Timesplitter14]

The state of single player is not so bad, in my opinion.

This gen, we saw a considerable increase in action games (GoW, Dante's Inferno, Castlevania, Brutal Legend, Darksiders, etc....), third person shooters (Uncharted, GeoW, RE5, Dead Space, etc...) and FPSRPGs (Bioshock, Fallout 3, Deus Ex 3, etc...) which all focus mainly on single player.

We also see more local multiplayer than last gen, I think. With all the PSN/XBLA games and the party games like LPB. This is a great thing.

This gen has many faults, but not everything about it is bad

[SpartanPrince]

Wow i never noticed that until you pointed this out. This gen is more of a decrease in quality rpg's, stealth and platformers. There seems to only be one quality one in each of those genres.

OnTopic: It's not so much of a decrease in singleplayers as there is more of a focus in multiplayer. This is obvious to publishers as more ppl buy multiplayer games than limited singleplayer. IMO a good SP is better but if I have the decision to buy a 8 hr SP for $60 or an 8 hr SP with hundreds of hrs of MP for $60, im going to go with the MP. The SP has to truly be out of this world(GOW3) to catch my attention

[Whoooop]

The day developers don't take single player experiences as the most important aspect of the game is the day I find another hobby.

[im-12-years-old]

Hot topic reviews games?

;)

[Ducky]

I've spent more time with the first STALKER than with any single online game.

If games stopped trying to be so movie-like with their linear paths and scripted-sequences than maybe I'd play the SP again too.

[SpartanPrince]

This is another problem. With games being shorter and so scripted in their design. There is almost no reason to playthrough them again when you know everytime something is going to jump out at you or a wall will crumble under your feet. So many devs are focused on making an epic "experience" that the game becomes amazingly average. Few games(like Uncharted 2) have found the balance and even that had scripted events that soon became tiring

[Tron_Rocks]

SP will never die, if you write an article, or imply otherwise you are one of two things.
Ignorant as HECK
or desperately wanting attention to your career.

[femshep]

Single player is always better than muliplayer especially when i have to deal with school and people all day i'd rather go home and be alone or with friends and fam but not hearing more people

[red2tango]

No sir, I'm playing Assassin's Creed 2 right now and I'm loving it. Same with Uncharted 2, didn't play much multiplayer, mostly single player. I'm a multiplayer type person though, but campaigns are a work of art if done right.

[Bathyj]

Sadly, yes, online is deminishing the single player game but it will never kill it.

But it is getting bad. I dont see why evey game has to have an online mode tacked on . Especially when they are all basically just a deathmatch or CTF variation. Little imagination, just more of the same with a different lick of paint.

The main problem for me with this is its stopping the progressing of gaming in the one area I still think it has alot of room to grow. The AI. Graphics, sound, and all those asthetics are all pretty much tapped out. They will improve, but only by small increments. AI however has heaps of headroom, but no one is going to put that sort of effort into AI when shooting other players online remains the most popular method of gaming.

[Tron_Rocks]

They are tapped out due to hardware limitations. When they release new hardware then more polys, larger draw distances and improved AI will be the result.

I agree more imagination needs to be employed in multiplayer.

[Figboy]

no they aren't.

as long as there are developers like Naughty Dog, Santa Monica Studios, Bioware, Quantic Dream, etc, there will ALWAYS be single player games.

not every developer is after the same goals. not every developer specializes in multi-player game design.

there's nothing wrong with a game that's JUST single player, and there's nothing wrong with a game that's JUST multi-player, or a game that has BOTH.

however, if there comes a time with gaming is multi-player only, that may very well be the time that i stop gaming. i'm not exactly a big fan of scheduling my game time around the game time of other people. sometimes, i just don't want to sit around and wait for my buddies to get home just so i can get a multi-player fix. at least if there are still single player games, i can still enjoy the game i spent $60 on, and not have it be a paper weight for those times when you just can't get a game going with friends.

[Vortex3D]

The reason why single player games have short hours of gameplay is lack of contents. To make a game with good story and long contents, not just a lot of road blocks to slow down the gamers from progressing quickly take a lot of work. Look at at the golden adventure games that didn't have much action. Because graphics weren't as complex those days, the meat of those adventure games was story contents.

Today, too much development time is spent on making very pretty graphics so that the game can be hyped to look incredible and by sacrificing game contents made the game too short.

Adding multiplayer is an easier excuse to give the illusion the action adventure games have a lot of replay value. The good and bad about multiplayer is there is next to no story or some have no story at all. Gamers just run around killing each other all day for high scores.

RPG games is only half the solution because most of time, most of the contents are often meaningless side quests and the gamers keep killing the enemies to gain XP to level up. If you remove the meaningless side quests, there aren't the much of real story contents.

For FPS games, the short single player campaign is mostly for advertising hypes. If the single player campaign in FPS games are removed, it's hard to create a "Hollywood" style trailers with very exciting story character scenes. Look at a few good FPS games with no single player campaign. Those games have harder time to advertise with exciting trailers because there's no exciting story scenes. All the trailer can show is a bunch of players running around killing each other.

As a gamer, I also play FPS online but because I don't play for high scores, FPS games get boring very fast for me because there's really no story. All the online games have is a few maps to be replayed over and over again for scores. I rather have a good and decent long adventure games.

So, are most gamers today see good replay value games as able to keep replaying the same group of maps over and over for high scores?

[Achemki]

I disagree with the notion that games are too short and longer campaigns would keep people hooked longer because the fact is (and it is fact) that most people don't finish their games.

There were articles on this over the summer with various quotes from various developers who track their trophies/achievements and consumer surveys. Guerrila Games for example said the vast majority of people never got more than a few levels into KZ2 and missed some of the best levels like Pyrrhus, despite selling a few million copies http://www.gamesthirst.com/... . This directly influenced changes in KZ3.

Making games longer will solve nothing if people aren't even playing the levels they have now. Us hardcore guys on N4G with 20 plats etc are not the majority.

That being said, single player games with no online like GOW3, Heavy Rain, inFamous are among the most successful critical and commercial hits on PS3 recently, outselling and out scoring online-only games like MAG, Warhawk and Socom. Single player is still very important and developers would be wise not to forget that before they pour extra $$$ into tacked on multiplayer experiences like Bloodstone just because.

[earbus]

Singleplayer just bores the hell out of me these days but i blame crap scripts getting in a party online a having a blast is what i like .

[dorron]

Give me Multiplayer only games and I'm off of this gaming world.

I like my single player experiences better than multiplayer. I like to be told stories not just going into a lobby and shooting people without any reason.

[A LIVING LEGEND]

K/D ratio overcomes gamelpay/story/immersion
In a world not far removed from our own.
Living on K/D is not possible, further sustenance is ultimately required.
In time this is learned.The landscape changes again.

[led1090]

lol what an awesome pic for the article hahahahahahaha

[ZILLA]

HOT PURSUIT its over.this game is more connected in single player than in multi.it is truly amazing what they have do to this game.its ONLINE INSANITY!!

[Saryk]

When developers make games that cater to the multiplayer experience and people pay for those types of games, then yes. However all of these things come and go in phases, like bell bottom jeans and disco……………… :)

[Psychotica]

Hope not, I prefer single player every time if it's more than just the campaign...