Does anyone enjoy a good single player campaign anymore?

It seems like nowadays, every game on the market pushes it's multiplayer or co-op features to the detriment of it's single player campaign. I like multiplayer as much as the next guy, but I get annoyed when games make it their main focus. Gone are the days of 15 hour campaign storylines. Now you spend $60 and get a measley 5 hours of a single player story. Are people so obsessed with multiplayer and co-op that it's come to this?

You make a valid point for shooters, but there are plenty of awesome lengthy single player games on 360. Dragon Age, Mass Effect 1+2, Fallout 3, Oblivion, FFXIII, Tales of Vesperia, Star Ocean 4, Red Dead, GTA IV, Bioshock, Resident Evil 5, Kameo, Viva Pinata, Assassins Creed 1+2, Lost Odyssey, The Orange Box, Fable 2, Ninja Gaiden 2, and Bayonetta to name a few off the top of my head.

Just finished Assassins creed 2 3 minutes ago and currently installing mass effect to play through it, then i got bioshock 2 after which i havent even opened yet. I guess I enjoy the single player campaign... Halo 3 and call of duty online are my most played games tho.

You're right. Bioshock 1 and 2 had great, lengthy single player campaigns. So did Gears of War.

I do, in fact that's what gets me obsessed about a game. I prefer to be by myself when I play games and I need a really good story.

I dont really enjoy single player games as much as i use to and now i pretty much hate shooter campaigns. The only single player games i can get into are ones with a very good story and will take some time to beat.

Of course I like a good story, as long as I can enjoy it with a friend in Co-op.

i'd rather play a game with a great single player than a game that relies on its multiplayer. i only need like 2 online heavy games a year

i enjoyed RDR and BC2, single player.

It seems like nowadays, every game on the market pushes it's multiplayer or co-op features to the detriment of it's single player campaign. I like multiplayer as much as the next guy, but I get annoyed when games make it their main focus. Gone are the days of 15 hour campaign storylines. Now you spend $60 and get a measley 5 hours of a single player story. Are people so obsessed with multiplayer and co-op that it's come to this?

beau_x

I hate multiplayer modes, and the only reason I play them are for achievements (I game for achievements, work out for girls, and study for money, yea, I am all about getting something!). But I do like Co-op modes, simply because you have someone to help you out when you reach that RIDICULOUSLY hard part in a game where your own personal skills are no match for the game. Like Modern Warfare 2. The part where you capture the cuban arms dealer alive by chasing him across rooftops with hundreds of cubans shooting at you (where in the end he finally falls on the car). That was ridiculously hard for me, and I quit playing MW 2 simply because I could not beat that mission on insane. If I had a co-op partner, maybe I would have done better...

But yea, games like Assassin's Creed, Crackdown, Gears of War, Lost Planet, LIMBO, X-men: The Official Game, Shadow Complex, Crash of the Titans, etc... are my most favourite games, and I like them because of their single player the most. And if there were no achievements for multiplayer on those games, I would have quit playing them long ago.

Eternal, that favela level was actually in Brasil.

i got more than $60 worth of Gears 2

i definetly play the single player and beat it more than 20 times.

the story is intriguing to me.

ive enjoyed plenty of single player games this gen.

Eternal, that favela level was actually in Brasil.

beau_x

Ahh. Yea, that one I need help on. Or atleast, need tips on how to beat. Everything else is good. =D

i love a good single player game,

but it depends on how the game is built as to whether a singleplayer is good

some games today are built around multiplayer and then have a singleplayer tacked on, other games are built around singleplayer with a multiplayer tacked on

depending on which way the game was built makes the difference as to whether the singleplayer is great, or whether it is a 5 hour piece of junk

You have a valid point there. I for one enjoy the campaign as much as the multiplayer IF it has a good campaign. Halo for example, or lost planet are both games where I will play the campaign for hours. In Halo I will play a lot of multiplayer as well, but on Lost Planet I don't care for multiplayer. I wish there was a FPS where the game has a lengthy campaign around 10-20 hours and the game would be really emotional. It is hard to make a shooter emotional because you can get carried away while shooting. So yeah I agree that campaign seems to almost be an extra to games. Several years ago multiplayer was an extra to the campaign. Now today it's the opposite.

Multiplayer is what keeps a game alive. It keeps many people playing months on end. Unless the game is an open ended rpg theres not much chance people are going to want to play it for very long. So it makes sense that developers concentrate on multiplayer. Shooters dominate the market though and for the most part the genre has always concentrated more on multiplayer.

Personally I wouldn't buy a game just for the campaign if it were only fifteen hours long. Not sixty dollars anyway, and I know alot of people that are like this as well.

You're right. Bioshock 1 and 2 had great, lengthy single player campaigns. So did Gears of War.

beau_x

I do think MP gets pushed too much in some cases to the detriment of the SP (Crackdown 2)beau_x

I enjoy single player based games. Lots of times I would rather a long good single player experience over multiplayer, but some games I prefer multiplayer over singleplayer.

I don't think multiplayer has to take anything away from single player. Red Dead Redemption has a great single player campaign as well as a multiplayer component. It may not be the best multiplayer but its something. It gives me more incentive to keep the game. If a game has no multiplayer at all I see no reason to pay 60 bucks for it. I pretty much made the decision this year that I'm not buying anymore games without some kind of multiplayer. I'm not the type of guy that will play through SP more than once regardless of how good it is. I bought God of War when it came out and it was great. One of the most epic single player campaigns I've every played through. I beat it in 3 days and haven't touched it again since. Which got me thinking - I could've just rented it for five bucks and got the same experience.UnlceDock

Single Player is all I care about. I love single player, its what gaming is really about. Getting involved in a game, perhaps even sharing emotion with the character. This kind of thing is impossible in mp

Single Player games are alive and well. Been playing Red Dead Redemption and it has a very rich story and characters. Great game overall. Half-Life 2 is a shooter with a lengthy SP.

I've been thinking about jumping back into GTA 4 for the story.

I agree.....Rockstar and Epix seem to be keepin the Single Player Campaigns interesting

I like games that me and my fiancee can play together, either in co-op or online, but I don't really like multiplayer games that much really. Only Halo 3 and that's because I can hold my own at it. I much prefer lengthy single player campaigns, games I can really get stuck into and lose myself in. Mainly rpgs or sandbox games.

I totally agree with you! But honestly I do like multiplayer better then campaign though but honestly most campaigns could use a little tweaking in the amount of time in the single player campaign because when I get mad at multiplayer I usually go to play single player. Either tweak the game with the amount of time in campaign or make another game mode like modern warfare 2 did with special ops. I really enjoy that!!

I always do. I'm not always in the mood for multiplayer.

I replay single player in a lot of games too.

i definetly enjoy single player campaign

The most memorable games I have played were memorable because of their single player campaign. Whats that tell you?

I love me some good singleplayer. Such as Fallout 3, Mass Effect 1 & 2, Assassin's Creed I & II, and Grand Theft Auto IV.

Hell yes. The reason why I loved CoD2 was the single player; it really gave me a more complex picture of urban warfare, and the set pieces were emotional, tbh. The reason why I loved Halo 2 was for the campaign, as well.

Nowadays I try to stay away from multiplayer games. I don't gain as much from them and I feel like I waste my time if I'm not on with good friends.

It seems like nowadays, every game on the market pushes it's multiplayer or co-op features to the detriment of it's single player campaign. I like multiplayer as much as the next guy, but I get annoyed when games make it their main focus. Gone are the days of 15 hour campaign storylines. Now you spend $60 and get a measley 5 hours of a single player story. Are people so obsessed with multiplayer and co-op that it's come to this?

beau_x

For games like CoD and similar FPS, maybe. I just spent 26 hours to beat Red Dead Redemption, and I'm still going to back to pick up achievements, which will last me probably another 10 hours, and that's not including multiplayer.

Not playing on the easiest mode tacks on quite a few hours, too.

[QUOTE="beau_x"]

It seems like nowadays, every game on the market pushes it's multiplayer or co-op features to the detriment of it's single player campaign. I like multiplayer as much as the next guy, but I get annoyed when games make it their main focus. Gone are the days of 15 hour campaign storylines. Now you spend $60 and get a measley 5 hours of a single player story. Are people so obsessed with multiplayer and co-op that it's come to this?

IzzieWaru

For games like CoD and similar FPS, maybe. I just spent 26 hours to beat Red Dead Redemption, and I'm still going to back to pick up achievements, which will last me probably another 10 hours, and that's not including multiplayer.

Not playing on the easiest mode tacks on quite a few hours, too.

Yeah im sure they were talking more toward games like shooters, cause games like mass effect and red dead didn't even have an option of being multi-player when you picked up the game so you had no choice. But i agree on that in the shooters for sure campaigns are dead and if you pay attentien in the next year or so the market is about to be flooded with shooters: halo reach, cod: blck ops, crysis 2, golden eye 007,medal of honor, kill zone 3, gears of war 3, bulletstorm, and ghost recont FS are just a few. Thats a lot of shooter to wonder how good the campaign will be. Most of us who love a good single player will turn to rpg's and a few action based games, but i feel like as a paying consumer (as of lately) we are one of the only markets who have to find ways around the things we dislike instead of being able to show through numbers and sales that things should change. Theres no reason a franchise like COD cant give you the same great multi player experience along side a inbox great campaign. Since sales are so great cause of multi player theres no reason to change that so if you love shooters and you want a good campaign...... much like wanting the perfect man/women you'll have to build your own through a library of multiple games.

I'm actually looking for a good single player game right now, I think I have settled on getting The Darksiders.

[QUOTE="IzzieWaru"]

[QUOTE="beau_x"]

It seems like nowadays, every game on the market pushes it's multiplayer or co-op features to the detriment of it's single player campaign. I like multiplayer as much as the next guy, but I get annoyed when games make it their main focus. Gone are the days of 15 hour campaign storylines. Now you spend $60 and get a measley 5 hours of a single player story. Are people so obsessed with multiplayer and co-op that it's come to this?

karma1680

For games like CoD and similar FPS, maybe. I just spent 26 hours to beat Red Dead Redemption, and I'm still going to back to pick up achievements, which will last me probably another 10 hours, and that's not including multiplayer.

Not playing on the easiest mode tacks on quite a few hours, too.

Yeah im sure they were talking more toward games like shooters, cause games like mass effect and red dead didn't even have an option of being multi-player when you picked up the game so you had no choice. But i agree on that in the shooters for sure campaigns are dead and if you pay attentien in the next year or so the market is about to be flooded with shooters: halo reach, cod: blck ops, crysis 2, golden eye 007,medal of honor, kill zone 3, gears of war 3, bulletstorm, and ghost recont FS are just a few. Thats a lot of shooter to wonder how good the campaign will be. Most of us who love a good single player will turn to rpg's and a few action based games, but i feel like as a paying consumer (as of lately) we are one of the only markets who have to find ways around the things we dislike instead of being able to show through numbers and sales that things should change. Theres no reason a franchise like COD cant give you the same great multi player experience along side a inbox great campaign. Since sales are so great cause of multi player theres no reason to change that so if you love shooters and you want a good campaign...... much like wanting the perfect man/women you'll have to build your own through a library of multiple games.

Aye, I played the single player campaign for MW2, so short, may look like a lot of levels, but really short

That said I do enjoy a good single player, I used to live in halls where I had no live, so I only had single player or local multiplayer, so single player games were important, I found the Skate games had a deep single player, there was just so much to do and they keep drawing me back, burnout games are usually ace for single player, recently bought GRAW 2 (£5), the single player in that is well worth it and buy the sounds of it left 4 dead single player sounds great, £15 new play.com, might get

Although I still very much enjoy a good single player game, it's really multiplayer that decides whether or not I will pay full price for a game or not. Although that really cuts both ways, meaning, some games I will not buy because they're too focused on MP like Borderlands or Shadowrun then there are games I wouldnt buy unless they had stellar MP like MW2 or Soul Calibur IV. Of course there are still alot of games that have no MP and are still must haves like Batman: AA, Fallout 3, Mass Effect 1&2 and Bayonetta.

When I get bored of playing online I will always jump onto Fallout 3 or Oblivion. Deep open world games such as these just keep me hooked and, to me, offer a greater replay value than something such as MW2 online.

It seems like nowadays, every game on the market pushes it's multiplayer or co-op features to the detriment of it's single player campaign. I like multiplayer as much as the next guy, but I get annoyed when games make it their main focus. Gone are the days of 15 hour campaign storylines. Now you spend $60 and get a measley 5 hours of a single player story. Are people so obsessed with multiplayer and co-op that it's come to this?

beau_x

I agree.

I've always preferred Single player over Multi-player, and I've not really enjoyed a Multi-player game that much since Unreal Tournament so it's a shame that games seem to focus more on MP and Co-op now. Games with a heavy Single player focus tend to have more depth and hold my interest more than those that focus on Multi-player.

Like just last week I bought Splinter Cell: Conviction. Great game, but it was just so damn short and the other mode (Denied Ops?) only kept me interested for a while longer. The Co-op features are a real turn off for me because the majority of my friends have completely different game tastes to me.

PS: Your avatar is great. UT is awesome.

Here are my two cents on the topic:

It all depends why you are playing video games. There are three scenarios:

1. You are one of those people that when you have free time, you like to play here nd there but not too deeply and do not want to get involved too much (or lack the attention that video games require). Those kind of people prefer multiplayer games, just for the fun of it and the excitements that they beat up on friends or such. Those people do not have the patience or the mindset to "get into" a certain game.

2. You are one of those people that see video games as a form of escape pod from the reality and you are able to get engaged into the game, story and setting. Those gamers usually play video games (single player) just so they can explore new ideas, horizons and new worlds that it is just so fun and intriguing exploring. New stories, new character you can relate to and also get to feel emotions that your character is feeling. Single player games with a lot of meaning to it is the ideal platform for this gamers. I am one of those to be honest. Sometimes after a hard day at work, i just want to come home and explore the Wasteland.

3. A littel bit of both. My girs is one of those people. She used to play Halo 3 online when she had free time just for the sake of having fun. Then i showed her Oblivion and she constantly wants to play it now.

In the end, hard-core gamers, people with more time on their hands to play video games (and bigger budget maybe) will tend to be more involved in single player games with some sort of emotional story interaction.

Forgot to add that, for me it is a fact that a game is remembered because of its strong story/gameplay/environment etc i.e. its single player characteristics.

Why do we remember games as Super Mario, Chrono Trigger, FFVII , Mass Effect series etc?

Becuase of the combination of all single-player elements..

I for one, dont remember how 3 years ago i killed this dude on Halo 3 Multiplayer or that i had the Little Sister for the longest time on B2...

I remember "Would you kindly?", Soveraign's plan, Lagos, Sephiroth as the greated villain ever...things like this...

most of what i enjoy about games is the single player portion, expect for modern day shooters like MW2 or BC...where i find the story mode sucks.