1295: Co-Op, Counter-Op

I like cooperative modes in games, though usually only when I get the opportunity to do so with people I know and trust. Co-op gameplay is often reliant on communication, you see, and as has been well-documented here in the past, I often feel a little uncomfortable when forced to communicate with strangers. I’m usually all right when it comes to text-based chat, but voice chat? No no no. Thank you.

I’ve had a few great co-op experiences over the years. Actually, one of them wasn’t co-op at all — it was “counter-operative” in Perfect Dark for the Xbox 360. This mode, somewhere between traditional co-op and competitive multiplayer, cast one player in the role of the usual protagonist, and the other in the role of all the enemies in the level. If the protagonist character dies, the counter-operative wins; if the counter-operative player dies, meanwhile, they simply shift to another body and continue until no enemies are left.

One of my favourite instances of this game mode came when I was playing with my friend Calin on the first level of Perfect Dark — a level that had already played host to some frighteningly competitive speedruns between my friends and I. Calin was the Counter-Operative, I was the protagonist. Wandering through the level, I was surprised to discover there didn’t appear to be a single trace of any enemies. I made my way down through the building, as you were supposed to do in the level, and got to the bottom. Still no enemies.

Suddenly… BIFF. My gun was knocked from my hand and my vision blurred. I’d been hit over the back of the head. I wheeled around to discover the only remaining enemy in the level — Calin had been through and, before I’d got there, systematically eliminated all his “extra lives,” as it were — and it was coming down to a fist fight. By this point, we were both in stitches, which made flailing wildly at each other all the more difficult. I forget who “won” — probably me, because the protagonist has significantly more health than generic fodder enemies — but it was a hilarious experience.

My other favourite co-op experience is in Saints Row The Third. Saints Row’s co-op is great because it’s just the exact same game as in single-player, only there’s two people running around causing chaos instead of just one. You can work together to complete missions, or participate in all the silly activities together, adding your scores together in an attempt to reach the various targets. Alternatively, you can both just tool around the open world completely separately if you desire, independently causing chaos. It’s a lot of fun, particularly given the diverse array of different activities on offer in the world of Saints Row — one minute you might be flinging yourself in front of vehicles in order to commit insurance fraud; the next, you might be working your way through a “killing floor” gauntlet on the city of Steelport’s favourite hyper-violent gameshow.

Having completed Saints Row IV over the weekend, I’m particularly keen to try that in co-op, as the single player was ridiculous enough. For those unfamiliar with the fourth installment, it’s set in the same game world as Saints Row The Third, albeit a computer simulation of it instead of the “real” world. This means there’s Tron-style visual effects all over the place, but more importantly it means you have “superpowers” such as super speed and a ridiculous Crackdown-style jumping ability. I can only imagine the ridiculous situations that will result from not one but two superpowered nutcases boinging around the city rooftops. I’m looking forward to trying it when the retail version of the game becomes available in two weeks.

#oneaday, Day 63: Act Your Age, Joanna

Late again. And I hold one thing entirely responsible for this: Perfect Dark. Actually, two things. Perfect Dark and Cody “NintendoTheory” Winn.

I know I wrote about Perfect Dark the other day but I feel I should enthuse a little more about it because my experiences with it over the past few days have been highly entertaining. First up, I played some online co-op with Calin Grajko (who was brave enough to interview several members of the Squadron of Shame a while back and has stayed in touch since) – specifically, through the first few levels on Perfect Agent difficulty. This was great fun, as Perfect Agent difficulty is pretty brutal in its difficulty – you don’t get much in the way of life, there are lots of (failable) objectives to complete and there are tough enemies all over the place. The best thing about playing co-op, though, is that it gives you the opportunity to have a laugh along with the game. Perfect Dark may appear at first glance to be taking itself rather seriously, but you only need to jump into a co-op game to see that really isn’t the case. This is a game that shines when played with friends, be it co-operatively or competitively.

Which brings me to the next point – Counter-Operative mode. This is possibly the most broken game mode I’ve ever played, but it’s brilliant in its stupidity. One player controls Joanna Dark, just as in single-player, and has to complete the missions. The other player, on the other hand, repeatedly respawns as random enemies around the level. Jo has one life. The Counter-Operative can keep coming back over and over again, and it’s their job to make life a pain for Jo.

It’s tempting for the Counter-Operative to rush in and confront Jo as soon as possible, of course, but if this happens the match can be over rather quickly. What is far more entertaining is when the Counter-Operative decides to play mind games with Jo’s player, as Calin did to me.

As I made my way down the dataDyne building, I noticed it was oddly quiet, and there seemed to be something of a trail of destruction, like someone had got there first. The building was completely devoid of enemies, until I got to the bottom floor. I stepped out of the elevator and headed towards the level’s exit when suddenly…

BIFF!

Jo’s vision blurred and I whirled her round to discover an incompetent-looking guard in spectacles punching me repeatedly. It was Calin. He punched me again and knocked my gun out of my hand and suddenly, we were engaged in the sort of cack-handed fistfight that only ever happens in first-person shooters. As Calin realised that the enemy characters weren’t capable of picking up weapons that had dropped to the floor, I seized my opportunity and grabbed my dropped pistol, shooting him in the head and escaping the level.

It’s not entirely clear whether or not anyone bothered to playtest or balance Counter-Operative mode, but one thing’s for sure – it’s so ridiculous it is one hell of a lot of fun.

The thing that’s kept me up tonight, though, is something which is always dear to my heart in online gaming: leaderboards. As anyone who battled against me in the Geometry Wars 2, err, Wars of last year will attest, leaderboards inspire great competition. And it so happens that Mission 1 of Perfect Dark on its easiest difficulty level provides an ideal arena for bitter competition to see who can clear it the fastest. Cody and I were ping-ponging times back and forth earlier until, as of this time of writing, I sit on the top spot of my friends leaderboard with a time of 40.95 seconds. I invite any of you to try and beat that – without using the apparently-infamous glitch that I’d never heard of before today which allows you to beat the level in 6 seconds flat. Challenge set!

As you can tell, I’m smitten with Joanna’s adventures. I was back in the N64 days and I am again now. Perfect Dark is such a complete package that it is almost without a doubt one of the best uses of 800 Microsoft Points on XBLA. There is so much to do besides the basic single-player missions. There are the various multiplayer modes. There is co-op. There is counter-op. There are tons of secrets to discover in the Carrington Institute that forms the backdrop to the main menu. There are challenges. There are leaderboards. There are Achievements. It’s a game that will keep you busy for a very, very long time.

The thing I’m most impressed by, though, is the fact that as a game it still plays brilliantly today – ten years later – with no modifications besides the resolution and framerate upgrades. It takes some adjusting to playing a game which doesn’t point out your objectives in gigantic neon-coloured HUD arrows, but I find it far more satisfying than any shooter I remember playing in recent memory – both in single-player and multiplayer.

So if you haven’t bought it yet, stop bitching about the N64, stop moaning about the framerate on the old version, stop complaining that it gave you motion sickness (at least until you’ve turned off “Head Roll” in the options to see if that makes you feel better), stop whingeing that the characters’ mouths don’t move when they talk… look, just buy it and enjoy it, okay?

Act your age, Joanna.

#oneaday, Day 60: Perfection

Downloaded Perfect Dark on XBLA today. I’ve been waiting for this for a while, seeing as how I had some very fond memories of late-night multiplayer sessions on the original. Funny thing was, once it actually came out, I found myself hesitating a bit, wondering if it was still good.

I didn’t need to worry. It is still good. Really good. Once you get over the N64-era level design, physics, character models and textures you’ll realise there’s still an incredibly solid game there, only uprezzed to HD and running at a frame rate the N64 could only dream of. I played a bit of the first level single player earlier and then went over to a buddy’s house to play some multiplayer. The single player is good, and it’s nice to play a Rare FPS again. They always were a pretty unique experience, with much more in the way of stealth elements and creative objectives than many other titles. But that’s not what I remember Perfect Dark most fondly for. It’s the multiplayer that I have the best memories of.

My God. How good is local multiplayer? It’s easy to forget in this online age that one time, the only way to play games multiplayer was to bundle around the house of whoever had the biggest TV, take your N64 controllers and try and shotgun the top-left corner of the screen. I always prefer local multiplayer, as there’s something about being in the same room with your opponents – who, by the very nature of the fact you’re playing locally with them, are people you know well – that takes it from a fun but ironically solitary experience to a proper social event.

I ranted about the “social gaming” phenomenon yesterday in terms of how it really wasn’t “social” at all, but this experience is true social gaming. Playing Perfect Dark on the Facility… sorry, Felicity level with remote explosives, rocket launchers and four FistSims on their hardest difficulty, and being surprised when the hand-to-hand only bots end up winning as a result of our collective ineptitude with anything vaguely explosive – priceless. Still fun, nearly ten years after we first did it.

So if you’re umming and ahhing about getting Perfect Dark and you’re the right age to appreciate it – i.e. you played and enjoyed it first time around – then stop hesitating and just get it. If you’ve been raised on Call of Duty you might be a bit shocked at the primitive graphics and seemingly simplistic gameplay, but give it a shot. You might just be surprised.