Top 10 Games That Totally Didn't Need Multiplayer
#10: “Painkiller” (2004)
“Painkiller” is a video game modeled heavily after “Doom” and “Quake,” as it involves running at an inhuman speed and killing lots of monsters. Its levels were all unique and imaginative, and it featured a ton of grisly and freaky monsters to slaughter in numerous gleeful ways. And then there’s the multiplayer component, which was little more than your standard arena deathmatch. The multiplayer consisted of your typical FPS game modes, and the very limited number of maps meant that things got very boring very quickly. It tried to do what “Quake III” and “Unreal Tournament 2004” did before it, only it was much, much worse.
#9: “Resident Evil 5” (2009)
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The “Resident Evil” series usually incorporates co-operative gameplay in an intuitive and fun manner, and that is certainly the case with “Resident Evil 5.” Its co-op gameplay was a lot of fun, and it changed the series’ direction from survival horror to co-operative third person shooter. What we’re talking about is that God-awful Versus mode. While the Versus mode wasn’t inherently bad, it was woefully unnecessary, and to make matters worse, Capcom released it as a $5 piece of DLC only a month after the retail release. Versus was essentially a re-designed Mercenaries mode, and Capcom had the gall to make us pay extra for it. Talk about greedy.
#8: “Wolfenstein” (2009)
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The hype was high, but “Wolfenstein” was arguably the disappointment of the year in 2009, and a large part of that was due to its terrible multiplayer mode. While “Return to Castle Wolfenstein” had a fantastic multiplayer component, “Wolfenstein” was viciously attacked for its subpar online experience. Many critics noted the disappointing lack of game modes, the downgraded PS2-era graphics, the 12-player limit, and the shallow run-and-gun gameplay. It was all very average, and the next game in the series, 2014’s “Wolfenstein: The New Order,” completely did away with the multiplayer component. “Wolfenstein” works just fine without it.
#7: “Max Payne 3” (2012)
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The first two “Max Payne” games were unanimously praised upon release for their great gameplay and stellar stories, and they are often considered to be two of the greatest video games of all time. They didn’t need multiplayer to be fantastic, and neither did “Max Payne 3.” Now, that’s not to say that the multiplayer was BAD – the Gang Wars mode was particularly enjoyable, fresh, and chaotic, and the vendetta system kept things intensely personal. Credit where it’s due though, the mode did figure out a unique way to implement the franchise iconic Bullet Time mechanics, but it wasn’t enough to make the game stand out from the pack.
#6: “Dead Space 2” (2011)
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Here’s a general rule of thumb – if the game is survival horror, chances are that the multiplayer will be shoehorned at best, terrible at worst. “Dead Space 2” introduced the competitive Outbreak mode, a mode that sees a team of humans attempting to complete objectives while a team of Necromorphs attempts to stop them. It’s very “Left 4 Dead,” only not as fun. The multiplayer mode received a mixed reception, with some finding it to be an interesting and novel idea while others had issues with the mode’s pacing, lack of new ideas, and overall inclusion into an otherwise solitary experience.
#5: “Batman: Arkham Origins” (2013)
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“Arkham Origins” is generally considered to be the weakest entry in the “Arkham” series, and the inclusion of a mediocre multiplayer mode certainly didn’t do it any favors. The mode was called Invisible Predator Online, and it saw two teams of criminals attempting to defeat each other while Batman and Robin try to take out both teams. It was an OK idea, but terrible in execution. The combat was awkward and clumsy, the heroes felt significantly underpowered, and weapon accuracy was unpredictable at best. It felt like the afterthought that it was, and it proved that multiplayer was not needed in the otherwise stellar “Arkham” series.
#4: “Metroid Prime 2: Echoes” (2004)
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“Echoes” contained a multiplayer mode that saw up to four players competing against each other via split screen like it was 1994 or something. And to think, this game came out only a week after “Halo 2.” The multiplayer component featured only two modes – your standard deathmatch, and Bounty, which tasked players with picking up coins that bleed from their competitors. The “Metroid” series has never been about multiplayer, and this archaic, bland, and unimaginative component makes it feel like nothing but a last-minute inclusion to cash-in on the FPS multiplayer rage of the early 2000s.
#3: “Spec Ops: The Line” (2012)
You know the multiplayer is bad when even the developer hates it. “Spec Ops: The Line” told an extremely gripping story that intelligently deconstructed the military shooter, which makes it all the more heartbreaking to see its multiplayer component be so predictable and generic. However, you may have never even played it, as it had a wicked tendency to crash and perform like absolute garbage. Yager’s lead designer admitted that 2K Games mandated a multiplayer component for financial reasons and called it “another game rammed onto the disk like a cancerous growth,” among other not-so-nice things.
#2: “BioShock 2” (2010)
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If there’s one series that has proved that it doesn’t need a multiplayer component, it’s “BioShock.” Each game tells a riveting and intelligent story, and each are draped in atmospheres that are unrivaled in gaming. The multiplayer never stood a chance. While the multiplayer integrated wonderfully into the “BioShock” canon and told a relatively interesting story, it rightfully seemed like an afterthought and was mostly ignored. The overall gameplay and concept wasn’t bad, but it was definitely not what people wanted or expected. “BioShock” has always been about the single player experience and throwing a random multiplayer component into the game seemed like a massive waste of resources. Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions. “The Darkness” (2007) “Dragon Age: Inquisition” (2014) “Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie” (2005) - (PSP Version)
#1: “Tomb Raider” (2013)
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“Tomb Raider” was a fantastic reboot of the once-dominant series, but we can’t think of a more needless multiplayer component in all of gaming. It was not only totally unnecessary, but it was also quite bad. The combat was unintuitive and awkward, it was overly-complex, and in some cases, it just downright didn’t seem fair. It was also unimaginative, taking cues and elements from a myriad of other games, including gameplay perks and weapon upgrades. It did absolutely nothing new, was painfully bereft of content, and simply didn’t seem necessary in the least.
