Co-Optimus

[txshurricane]

There are two types of co-op campaigns in this world: one that allows a single player to continue, and one that exacts the same fates to both. Which one is best suited for couples, and why?
Read The Full Article: Co-Op Couples: As Long As You Both Shall Live

[Shardik]

Thats a really interesting way to look at it, they really don't do alot of widowmakers anymore, vs say the old school brawlers and arcade games.

At the same time, I only play co-op with my brother, and if one of us died off early in the level and had to watch the other finish, we'd get bored really quickly, especially in a game where you choose a class, if you constantly die, it feels like you get the gimped class while the other gets an over powered beast that makes you feel useless.

[kersplat12785]

It's so difficult. With my wife, I want to continue on. By and large I'm far and above the better player, so asking us to both start over when she dies just aggravates us both. So with my wife, it's nice to be able to keep playing to hit the check point if she's run out of lives. However, if I'm playing with my typical co-op buddy (my wife doesn't play a lot of games), forcing one of us to sit and wait is tough. It's doable, but forcing us to both restart is the preference in that instance. Interesting article though.

[MonstarDeluxe]

Good point well made. I very much appreciate games such as Dead Nation for being structured in a way that let the more veteran player jolly things along until the next re-spawn point or equivalent mechanic. Boo to stuff like Demons Forge.

[vherub]

One of my first (and greatest) co-op gaming experiences was a child playing Contra with my sister. The Konami code that gave us both 30 lives allowed playing through the entire game. The extreme difficulty meant that my sister often would exhaust her 30 lives, at which point the game would let her tap into my extra lives. This had the benefit of letting her keep playing, while also challenging me to lose as few lives as possible. And because the game was relatively short, we could play through it in one go without our parents yelling at us to do homework or play outside.
I just started playing Renegade Ops with my girlfriend. She likes to game, but also likes to explore, collect (everything) and go at her own pace. One of the problems with Renegade Ops, though, is the timer that kicks in. And if the timer expires, not only is it game over, but the experience/items collected disappear and you start over. This isn't really a difficult mechanic, it's more about the timer mechanic that can hurt the co-op experience.
Going back to Contra, the most frustrating co-op level to play with some at a lower skill level was the waterfall level. The better player is actively going to kill the weaker, and vice versa, turning a co-op moment into a fun-killing vs moment. Vs gaming is a blast, the latest Mario Wii game really nailed it, but from my experience balancing pace is just as important to the co-op experience as balancing difficulty.

[hedgehogaj]

My wife and I actually prefer to restart if one of us dies. While we both realize she's the weaker player, and may be hindering progress, it's more important that we play together than beat the level.

[TenFresh]

Thanks for a fun article; love your terminologies! I do a lot of my co-op gaming with friends who don't play a whole lot (i.e. aren't very good) so these are considerations I am often giving thought to.

I actually avoid widowmakers AND shak-trads though. I'd think the distinction between them is actually pretty negligible; both cause pretty big frustration for both players when there's an appreciable skill gap. Except in rare cases like Little Big Planet where a checkpoint that restores the 2nd player is always just ahead.

It's definitely a big disappointment though when a game that seems like great fun is either of the two; I think it would actually be a great stat to have on the game info pages here! Would be great if it stated games as widowmakers, shak-trads, unlimited lives, or some sort of resurrection mechanic.

To be fair to the image of Renegade Ops though, you may want to be clear that on the 'casual' difficulty both players have unlimited lives, which is the way we've been playing it. While upgrading is disabled, I found that in general the upgrades have only a minor impact on gameplay, and if you want to go ahead an level up by yourself you can then bring those upgrades to a casual game with a friend later.

[pofigster]

I never really thought about this - but I guess I prefer widowmakers to shak-trads. While I am generally the stronger player, this isn't always the case. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is a widowmaker - it's nice if while fighting a boss and three heroes have been dead that one of us still gets a chance to finish the fight and progress us. My wife has been our savior just as much as I have and it makes her feel awesome. Same applies to Dungeon Siege 3.

Other games like WH40K: Kill Team with the rez mechanic are nice because if one dies, the other only needs to survive for a little while.

But, I guess it depends on how long the widow is a widow, right? If it's until the end of a boss fight, that's one thing. If it's from right at the beginning of a level to the end - that's no fun. BUT the big advantage of a widowmaker is that you can choose to restart the level, so it is more flexible by nature than a shak-trad.

All in all, great article. My wife and I are loving getting into new genres of games that we can play together.

[Sunflower]

Damn, good points. I always hate feeling if I'm the better gamer, going on...and I hate being the worse gamer...just sitting there.

Good stuff.