Co-Optimus - Editorial - 2008 Co-Op Year in Review

Army of Two was created from the ground up for Co-Op Play

Finally, and possibly the best thing, to come out of 2008 are the games designed from the ground up for co-op play. Army of Two and Schizoid are to great examples of these, but there are others like Conflict: Denied Ops and to some extent Too Human and Gears of War 2. Then of course we have Left 4 Dead which is in a class of it's own in what it's done to promote co-op play. Other zombie games like Resident Evil 5 are on the horizon sporting co-op play.

It seems that zombies and co-op are now hand in hand. Even co-op games that traditionally didn't have zombies seemed to feature them in some way. Saint's Row 2 and Call of Duty: World at War are shining examples.

Thanks to the popularity of online play game designers have decided to mold their entire game around teamwork against the computer. This is a trend we'd like to see continue in the future, and we have a good feeling it will. Of course, we want it done right, which brings me to my next point.

There were a few disappointments in co-op. A lot of games had some solid hype surrounding their co-op experience, but once the game arrived it seemed like we only got two thirds of the experience. Fable 2 lacked the ability to bring your character with you into a friends game, Too Human lacked a much anticipated 4 player co-op mode in favor of two. Whatever the designers reason for these changes, they ended up on the disappointing end of the scale. And these weren't the only games that didn't deliver. In fact, some games decided to drop co-op all together.

All in all I think 2008 was a launching pad for the co-op revolution. The big name companies began to latch on, the game developers began to see the huge potential, and us co-op fans came out winners. We'll look back on 2008 five years down the road and see that this is where it started, this is where co-op really began to take off again. I think there's some great things in store for 2009. And whatever that year hold, be sure to tune into Co-Optimus.com and the Co-Opticast for all your co-op gaming information.

Some Stats from the Year
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2008 Co-Op Year in Review - Page 2

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