TACKED ON ONLINE ELEMENTS
Those who prefer online experiences and those who’d rather player single player games may never see eye to eye in terms of their tastes (although the premise of that statement – that you can only like one or the other – is deeply flawed… but just go with it), but there’s one thing that we can all agree on- there’s a place in our industry for both of them. Even if you do prefer one over the other, there’s great value and merit in both kinds of experiences, and neither of them deserves to die out at the hands of the other. Which is why they should stick to what they’re good at. Don’t shove multiplayer or online aspects into single player games just because you want to check that box. The online component in Batman: Arkham Origins could be very cool at times, but it was completely unneeded. Mass Effect 3’s horde-mode style co-op mode was fun, but not only was it was besides the point, you also needed to play it to be able to get the most out of its single player story, and worst of all, was also home to predatory loot boxes (we’ll get back to this in a bit). And then there was the multiplayer in God of War: Ascension, which… yeah, let’s just say its existence confused me.
