Of course, defeats can’t have a positive effect on your mood. Damn nerds occupy the top lines of the leaderboard, and my usual result per match in the same CS:GO is something like this: 10 kills to 11 deaths. That is, for me it’s quite normal to cope with one adversary enemy and suffer from a skillful shot from his comrade, losing a bomb, and letting the team down, at the same time. All that remains is to believe and hope that my Ahmed will end up in the Assassin’s paradise, where 100 virgins and fountains with honey and wine will be waiting for him.

Meanwhile, the foundations of modern terrorism-shaheedry were laid by Hassan ibn Al-Sabbah, the leader of the Ismailis living in the mountain fortress of Alamut, who, wanting to create a special service to eliminate unwanted political figures and others, introduced certain dogmas for them, which stated that they were born to fulfill the “great goal” – the demonstrative elimination of those displeasing to Allah, after which they they will die, because the murders had to be committed in front of everyone, including the guards, so that everyone and everything would be scared, and they will go to heaven with a hundred virgins prepared for them by Allah himself, and fountains of wine and honey are an obligatory attribute of heaven. These Muslims are completely stupid, and!.

I’ll leave this just as a fun fact, since Maxim is still threatening to roll out the story of the Assassin’s Creed series someday.

In general, if the competitive multiplayer mode brings me any pleasure, it is very modest, and that’s when the cooperative mode comes to the rescue. And I’m not alone in my situation. Even in the SG team there is Vasya, with exactly the same problem.

My history with co-op mode started with Left 4 Dead 2. As far as I know, the game is still popular, so I don’t need to explain its essence. However, L4D is not a standard project with the possibility of cooperative passage of the storyline. In general, the plot in L4D is a couple of lines of dialogue and a synopsis of the downloadable “mission”.

The heroes (of which there are four, if anyone doesn’t know about L4D) find themselves in a swamp, ankle-deep in water and begin to discuss where to get gasoline for their boat, on which they are trying to get out. The arch-goal of the entire mission is to get gasoline. To do this, you need to cross several sections of the map, built on the “ornate gut” principle, and subsequently return back with gasoline, but in order to brighten up backtracking (a technique of developers when they force the player to cross the map in the opposite direction) and add dynamics before the finale, a script is launched in which the entire map will soon be flooded as a result of heavy rain.

This is the plot in L4D – a collection of game conventions set before the player.

The cooperative mode itself, although it is believed that L4D has the most exemplary cooperative, is incredibly monotonous and simple. Yes, playing, that is, escaping from hordes of goofy zombies trying to kick the player rather than eat them, in the company of three friends and associates is fun, but even though there are four characters, they differ only in their voice, gender and… skin color. None of them has any special features, and therefore the old man runs as quickly as the young man, and the girl swings a hammer just as successfully as the big black man does. They also don’t have any special weapons. Just like there are no advantages when using a certain type of weapon. In L4D, each player decides for himself what weapon to take in order to amuse himself and this determines his, so to speak, class.

They are commonly called the “Quartet of Survivors”.

At the same time, L4D has a couple of modes that slightly change the conditions of a regular cooperative, for example, throwing a couple more people onto the map playing as zombies, whose main task is to prevent the survivors from reaching the safe house.

All this gives us the result of a cooperative in the spirit of “entertain yourself”. If you have a fun company, an evening in L4D with a 90% chance will turn out to be full of fun, but God forbid, if you play with random people, and even worse if with foreigners, and not knowing at least English, the evening is lost. After all, no one will risk their virtual black skin to save a comrade from the tenacious clutches of zombies… no one at all. How no one will tell an encouraging joke.

Resident evil, or biological threat.

In the future, I will continue to consider the topic using the example of the Resient Evil series. Resident Evil, along with the classic DMC, is my favorite Japanese game. It just so happened that it was the fifth part of this series that became for me the first RE that I was able to finish to the end (the legendary port of RE4 is so legendary that, I suppose, there is no need to explain why it was barely playable) and if it weren’t for a living partner, I probably wouldn’t have gotten through it either, since the AI ​​of dear Sheva left much to be desired.

Unlike L4D, Resident Evil is not a game about co-op, but about a story. The world was again under the threat of a biological threat and Chris Redfield, a hero familiar to us from the very first part of the game, having received a tip about terrorist activity in Africa, goes to the hot continent, where he meets the agent of the local BSAA branch Sheva Alomar (a sultry mulatto, an African and an excellent fighter). Together they go to their informant and very soon meet the infected and the story begins to twist, and it’s completely serious. There is no point in describing the plot in more detail, since few people have not played RE5 themselves, or at least have not watched the story of Vasya Galperov’s series.

It is the Resident Evil 5 https://nogamstop-casinos.co.uk/ co-op that I consider one of the best and that’s why:

From the very beginning, Resident Evil 5 puts players in absolutely identical conditions: we are given the same pistol, with the same number of cartridges; each of the partners has nine slots in the inventory and each item, unlike the chest in RE4, takes up only one slot, be it an egg or a bazooka – it’s all the same (I didn’t notice how Ukrainianism made its way into the text, but I won’t edit).

However, later, at the very first levels, players are put in a position that forces them to distribute roles. I’m talking about a cave in which, due to the pitch darkness, one of the couple had to carry a huge and heavy miner’s lantern, and the second had the role of a defender – a tank. The player with the lantern walked slowly and could not do anything other than help his partner by illuminating the path, helping to find the enemy in the darkness.

Further, although no one was forced to choose a role (daredevils could throw a lantern in a mine and rush through a tunnel in the darkness, but not at high difficulty levels), however, a certain element of competition (a brilliant element, in my opinion) forced players to choose a role consciously. Players found new weapons in a suitcase at levels, but when one of the players took the same machine gun or shotgun, the second player was no longer given it and could only purchase it in the store at the end of the chapter for monetary units. This forced players to take on support tank roles. This fun and fair element of gameplay applied not only to weapons, but also to medicinal herbs, ammunition and jewelry – the main source of income. The players divided everything they picked up and figured out who would take what.

The roles, so to speak in this case, were also divided when performing riddles and simple tasks, when one player made his way forward through crowds of enemies, and the second, for example, raised a bridge, opening the way for a friend. Players were more clearly distributed in battles with bosses. Remembering the guy with the chainsaw in one of the first levels, who furiously sawed the unwary player into agony with one hit. At the same level, a sniper rifle was unlocked, which, due to that same “competition,” went to only one player, who could easily deal with the adversary, and the player without a sniper was forced to act as a distraction? running under the enemy’s feet, biting and thereby preventing the enemy from reaching the sniper.

At the same time, both players were involved in QTE (Quick Time Events, if anyone is not in the know) during amazing cut scenes made by the Just Cause studio (who made the entire animation for the game as a whole, if I’m not mistaken), when both players were forced to press buttons in turn and were not spared for mistakes. The hundredth death as a result of the mistake of one of his friends-partners caused a storm of indignation.

Everything changed completely in the next numbered game in the series, where all the features of the fifth part cooperative have disappeared.

Patlatch, Steroid Dork and Lad.

Saving the world has already become a habit for the heroes of the RE series. In the sixth game, players were promised three full-fledged campaigns, embellished with co-op and differing in style and dynamics. The campaign of Leon Kennedy and Elena Harper was similar to RE4, the main character of which was also Mr. Kennedy, so the lack of ammo, more or less classic zombies and an attempt to resemble survival-horror take place. Chris Redfield and Piers Nivans’ campaign (the worst of the campaigns, in my opinion) was a third-person action shooter, where the emphasis was on a bunch of enemies, every now and then mutating into something else, but unlike the usual third-person shooters, RE6 has a completely broken cover system. The third, but not the last, campaign was dedicated to the newcomers to the series: Sherry Birkin and Jake Muller (read: Wesker) – their campaign was the most unusual, as it had the features of a slasher due to the abilities of Mr. Muller-Wesker.

As I wrote above, in terms of co-op, RE6 was very, very unsuccessful. The cooperative here was banal, simple, even casual. The reason for this is skills. A player in RE6 can create a set of skills for themselves, such as “True Hand”, which removes the vibration of the sight, or skills that allow you to find more ammo, for example, for a shotgun.

Of course, in this case all “competition” was leveled out. So, breaking a wooden box, which 100% contains something useful, one player will find cartridges for a machine gun, and the other, those same cartridges for a shotgun. And an object will fall out from the same place and will go to (different objects will go to, or the same one) to everyone. Likewise, the fight for new weapons has come to naught, since both players receive them.

This time the inventory has become dimensionless and sweet Elena Harper can carry the same dozen killer weapons as the steroid dork Chris.

In the same way, everything that was interesting for two players in RE5 was eliminated, and even the number of problems for two to solve became significantly less. The players simply ran around together, occasionally helping each other to get up and feeding each other tablets. It is no longer possible to help your partner by throwing ammo, just as there is now absolutely no division into roles.

On the other hand, this approach is quite understandable, because the game has become even more corridor-like and focuses on cinematography. There is no place for wandering around dark corners in search of supplies and you no longer beg the game designer to give you the things you need. The player is a fast locomotive, rushing forward, effortlessly sweeping away everything in its path, and they will give you everything and throw everything themselves.

The cooperative mode has become fashionable these days, however, in my personal opinion, its best implementation is only here – in “Resident Evil”.

I think there is no need to explain to anyone that now we will talk about Resident Evil: Revelations. And yet, I did it now.

The first "Revelations" were released on a small handheld console from Nintendo and were conveniently divided into chapters (read: series), like a TV series. On the pocket console that a person takes out on the subway on the way to work, this system worked perfectly, because it allowed you to go through a chapter, calmly forget about the game, even for a week, and take the dusty plastic out of your pocket again, continue with a new series, seeing the carefully put together “Previously in Resident Evil”.

After the release on older consoles, where the textures and everything else were improved, this decision became just a funny feature, since all the episodes were immediately on board – here and now.

This feature found a new life (correctly, it must be admitted) with the release of the recent “Revelations 2”. The game features co-op (which still doesn’t work on PC as far as I know), which was so lacking in the first Revelations in my humble opinion. And besides, Capcom spied Telltale’s idea and finally the series basis was put on serial tracks, and four episodes of the game were released once a week for a month. Overall, cheers!

In the second “Revelations”, in addition, the opportunity to play together is actively used. Even when playing alone, the player is literally forced to switch characters (because this is one of the gameplay functions). And they even justified it well in the plot.

The four main characters – Claire Redfield, Moira Burton, as well as Barry Burton and some little girl Natalia – have completely different skills. The first in each pair – Claire and Barry – are tanks. They can easily handle various types of weapons, since it would be a crime to take this trait away from the heroes, because we remember very well that both Claire and Barry enthusiastically grabbed into their hands everything that the player could not pick up, and this was in the distant, distant years and other Resident Evils.

With Moira (Barry’s daughter, in search of whom he went to God knows where) and Natalia (a little girl who had been on a certain island for some time before Barry met her), the situation is different. The first is not that small, but a very fragile, pretty girl who had never been in trouble before and did not have a cool brother, Chris, who may have taught his sister coolness. That’s why Moira carries a flashlight with her (hello, RE5 mines!), which not only illuminates dark corridors, but also does a good job of blinding the ubiquitous infected, and also helps to find an extra pair of cartridges, or an extra healer. In general, materialism and world exploration are back in place. In close combat, if the enemy still manages to get close to Moira, she prefers to dash off with a crowbar. Now using two heroes, wisely combining their skills and attacks, you can make it easier for yourself to fight both ordinary blockheads and bosses: Moira blinds, Claire delivers a stunning blow, Moira finishes off a defeated enemy with a crowbar, depriving her of any chance of survival.

Natalya has the same situation, but she is still a little girl and therefore can stun an enemy with a brick or a vase, and instead of a flashlight she has… Special abilities. Natalya can see through walls, which is quite good, and in the same way she can scan enemies for weak points, which is even better. In addition, Natalya, of course, can crawl into any openings and holes, opening locked doors and carrying such necessary items from blocked rooms.

And that’s when Capcom returned the roles. In the Second Revelations. True, the co-op here is very strange: from the very beginning you can play together only on consoles and only with two people on one console, there is no online co-op and it seems they are not going to add it at all. As for the PC, everything is murky here: there is no co-op here at all (it was never added, right??).

Thus, having verified the ideal formula for cooperative gameplay, Capcom simply technically did not implement it. But I could get absolutely amazing results.

In "Revelations 2" many began to invite their girlfriends and friends who are not involved in the games, since Moira and Natalya are characters simply ideally created for such people. And yet, we have what we have.

The analysis turned out to be very superficial, but I’ll go deeper, perhaps in the next blog, if I finish it. However, it seems to me that those given in this material fully describe all the main types of cooperative: cinematic, free, and role-playing. From this everyone chooses"your own brand of co-op" yourself and yes, this is a reference to the vanilla quote.

As we see, a cooperative can be different and captivate with completely atypical things. Absolutely stupid Left 4 Dead gave a new experience every time thanks to completely unpredictable developments.

Resident Evil, the other most popular co-op game, treats the player completely differently. In general, the scenes will remain unchanged during repeated playthroughs, because this colossus will not be pulled off the rails, but nevertheless, Capcom knows how to throw a couple of tasks and a couple of challenges to the player every time.

It’s not for nothing that I stopped at “Reveletions 2”, since I personally consider this cooperative to be the most successful. What Capcom will do next and what conclusions they will draw is unknown. But I really want to believe that Resident Evil 7 will have just such a cooperative, with an emphasis on space exploration, survival and division into roles. And yet no one knows what it will be. And the conclusions about the best type of cooperative are, of course, yours.