Co-op games are a more underground type of multiplayer experience nowadays. Especially with the advent of the internet, couch co-op games lost their advantage of only needing one copy to play. The internet did revolutionize multiplayer though as each player had their own screen and it allowed for a more detailed (and secret) multiplayer experience. As MakeUseOf puts it, “it is much more difficult for developers to make a game that has more than 30FPS, high-resolution graphics, expansive content, and includes split-screen… it is much more financially beneficial to developers, publishers, and console manufacturers if they don’t include a feature that allows you and your friends to play with each other on the same console.” Some games add non-split-screen multiplayer as an afterthought and one of those games seems to be Risk of Rain 2. The problems with multiplayer in Risk of Rain 2 highlight the generic problems with co-op multiplayer games.

Slapped in Modes

Lots of single-player games in the current era have slapped in multiplayer modes. These are commonly unbalanced or do not keep in mind the format of the game. An example of this is games that just compare two players’ scores after a certain task. These are common in arcade games or rhythm games like DDR (Dance-Dance Revolution), OSU, and Beat Saber. There are also modes in which one player is completely useless, as Twinfinite mentions when regarding Mario Galaxy, “This person had the all-important job of just collecting items that Mario could have gotten himself in two seconds later. Yep, this one is the definition of tacked-on, poorly thought out multiplayer. But hey, at least the game is great.”

Players have no way of entering a game of Risk of Rain mid-game. This can be a problem because of how long one game can usually take.
Risk of Rain 2 has an item system where players pick up items throughout the game to become more powerful. Due to the game being fast-paced, walking over those items automatically picks them up. With no way to drop them, if another player needs that item they are out of luck.

Effects

Risk of Rain 2 has two ways it can become unbalanced. One is that one player gets all of the items and so all of the other players just die every stage and it becomes basically a single-player game. Secondly is that if items are evenly split up between players, they all end up picked off with one player having to deal with four players’ worth of enemies. This one is particularly atrocious due to the way enemies spawn in Risk of Rain 2 in giant packs next to one player.

The multiplayer problems in co-op games can have a significant impact on player experience, reputation, and engagement. One of the most apparent impacts is the frustration among players. Players may become frustrated with unbalanced gameplay or the inability to join mid-game. These can be fixed with catch-up mechanics or by making sure that you consider multiplayer at the beginning of your game design process. Ultimately, these frustrations can lead to decreased player engagement and interest, as players may choose to abandon the game altogether, especially if they are depending on the multiplayer feature.

Solutions

As Game Wisdom puts in his video about what ruins multiplayer, “For most of the 2000s and early 2010s that every single-player game had to have a multiplayer mode… no matter what. These days developers, I think have learned the lesson that it’s better to either do really amazing single-player, or a really amazing multiplayer, but not try to do both of them and… to mess up on one or have one be the imbalance factor.” So if you are going to design a multiplayer make sure that is your main focus and vice versa. If a game with an amazing single-player ends up having an audience that prefers the multiplayer part, that’s going to be detrimental.

In conclusion, co-op games have become less popular in recently due to the internet and the advantages of online multiplayer. Some games still offer split-screen multiplayer (but it’s not too common), while others add non-split-screen multiplayer as an afterthought, leading to generic problems with co-op multiplayer games. Slapped-in multiplayer modes in single-player games can also cause unbalanced gameplay or result in a poorly thought-out multiplayer experience. These problems can lead to player frustration and decreased engagement, ultimately impacting the success of the game. Developers need to focus on either amazing single-player or amazing multiplayer, not both, to avoid imbalanced gameplay or negative effects on the player experience.

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