2012 looks to be another great year for co-op gamers, at least initially. While in the past we always seemed to build slowly to a series of fall releases, this year looks to reverse the trend with an action packed middle of the year. Are the summer doldrums a thing of the past? Locke and Nick take you on a magic carpet ride through 2012 in both written and video form.
Winter
Things start at the end of January with Neverdead (360, PS3) from Konami, a game in which you play as a character capable of losing appendages and using them as weapons. The four player co-op game will feature a survival style mode with some co-opetition as players try to accumulate a lot of points but staying (un)alive as long as possible.
Our first surprise of the year comes from The Darkness II (360, PS3, PC), a game which only recently announced its co-op modes. You’ll have both a campaign and survival flavors for up to four players, each capable of choosing a unique character in a story that rides alongside the single player game.
Another winter title we’re really looking forward to is the reboot of Syndicate (360, PS3, PC), being developed by former Darkness developer Starbreeze. In the game you’ll take on 9 unique co-op missions based on the classic game. Four players can join up online choosing a specific character class.
Finally the Winter months are capped off with Mass Effect 3 (360, PS3, PC) and it’s four player online co-op mode. Players can create a custom character to be used online with persistant RPG progression and take on numerous survival style missions with friends. All of your progress will affect your single player game, giving players an incentive to go back for more co-op goodness.
Of course these are just the big titles coming out, we’ve also got these on tap for Winter 2012:
- Resident Evil Revelations (3DS) - 2 Player Co-Op
- Simpsons Arcade (XBLA) - 4 Player Online Co-Op
- Warrior’s Lair (VITA, PS3) - 2 Player Online Co-Op
- StarHawk (PS3) - 4 Player Online Co-Op
- Torchlight 2 (PC) - 8 Player Online/LAN Co-Op
- Ninja Gaiden 3 (360, PS3) - 4 Player Online Co-Op
- Binary Domain (360, PS3) - 4 Player Online Co-Op
- Twisted Metal (PS3) - 2 Player Co-Op
- Inversion (360, PS3) - 2 Player Online Co-Op