A good multiplayer mode can perfectly complement a great single-player game. Just look at the Halo series for a great example. Especially in the original trilogy, those games mix an all-timer single-player storyline with some of the best multiplayer action out there. However, some developers saw that games like Halo had success and tried to shoehorn a multiplayer mode into a game where it didn’t really work. Three games stand out as the worst to make that ill-fated choice, though one developer eventually turned the idea around with a later release that wowed fans.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Here are the worst multiplayer modes in single-player games.
3) Spec Ops: The Line
Spec Ops: The Line is one of the most affecting narratives of its era, delivering a compelling, mature look at life on the battlefield. That story helped turn Spec Ops into a cult classic that’s stood the test of time. And while the game’s gameplay can feel a little bland, that’s, in some ways, by design, helping serve the story by contrasting the messaging with formulaic gameplay.
With that in mind, the multiplayer addition was a strange inclusion. Not only does it not fit with the single-player story, but it wasn’t even made by developer Yager. Instead, publisher 2K insisted it be included, outsourcing the mode’s development to Darkside Game Studios. That left players with a mode that played like a bad Call of Duty clone and felt totally at odds with the story.
2) Tomb Raider (2013)
Developer Crystal Dynamics’ 2013 reboot of Tomb Raider was an excellent reinvention of the long-running franchise, bringing Lara Croft into the modern era for the start of a new trilogy. It looked great, featured a compelling origin story, and had a spectacular mix of puzzle-solving and combat. Then, for whatever reason, they tacked on a multiplayer component.
Tomb Raider features three multiplayer modes: Team Deathmatch, Private Rescue, and Cry for Help. The first one is pure PvP combat, while the others change things up a bit, making one group of players into scavengers to better replicate the single-player combat. If that sounds underwhelming, you’d be correct. It’s so completely different from the main campaign that you can practically see the marketing people’s fingers on the final product.
1) Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Most Grand Theft Auto games feel like an evolution. Starting with GTA 3, which introduced the wider gaming audience to open-world 3D action, the developers at Rockstar have continually pushed the bar with each new release. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas represented that next step in several ways.
For one, it gave players one of the largest worlds we’d seen to that point, pushing everyone’s ideas of what was possible. Between the three massive cities, San Andreas gave players enough content to spend weeks lost in Rockstar’s world. And the developer wanted to go even further in that direction, letting players dive into online content via San Andreas’ new multiplayer mode.
Unfortunately, it proved to be a snoozefest with limited options. It was underbaked and showed that GTA wasn’t ready to take things online. That said, Rockstar didn’t stop innovating on that idea, eventually giving fans GTA Online.
It’s fair to say, GTA Online is what everyone wanted San Andreas‘ online component to be. You’re given complete rein to dive into GTA V‘s open world to take on side activities and curated missions. With how successful that mode has been over the last decade, it’s also clear that Rockstar was on the right track with San Andreas‘ online mode. It was just a few decades ahead of the technology.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
Most Viewed
-
Image courtesy of Monolith Productions, Nightdive Studios, Warner Bros. Games, and Atari -
Courtesy of Disney -
Image courtesy of XYZ Films
