Platinum Games has, in only a few short years, established a track record of some very solid games. Bayonetta was one of the most addictive action games to come along in recent memory, MadWorld is completely unlike any other title in the Wii library, and Infinite Space is one of the most incredibly deep games on the Nintendo DS.
That said, I’m worried about Vanquish.
Oh, I have little doubt that it will be a solid game. Based on everything I’ve seen, it seems like a title I’ll love. I dig third-person shooters, and I’m part of the dying breed of gamers that generally prefers single-player games to online multiplayer.
While I personally applaud Platinum Games for the decision to focus on the single-player game, its lack of multiplayer will probably be a major stumbling block for many gamers. The studio seems pretty intent on making titles that appeal to Western audiences, and the bold choice not to include multiplayer might very well be the reason that this Western-focused game doesn’t click with its target audience.
Last year, I spent some time in southern Mexico, in an area where most gamers played in “gaming clubs” rather than in their living rooms. Similar to internet cafes, gamers gathered in these businesses, which house dozens of televisions, game consoles and couches. Upon learning that I wrote about video games, one gamer invited me to come to his gaming club to hang out with him and his gaming clan. I happily accepted.
Their game of choice: Gears of War.
Not Gears of War 2. The original. These guys had been playing Gears of War’s multiplayer mode every day for three years. Not even the sequel could tear them away.
It goes without saying that I was utterly and completely destroyed by these players. I think it took me ten matches to get a single kill.
This is only one example. Halo 2 players were still online until the very day that Bungie shut down the servers. Even after the release of Modern Warfare 2, gamers were still online playing the original Modern Warfare.
On the one hand, if I were a game developer, I wouldn’t want to go up against that sort of competition. And if the sci-fi third-person shooter Vanquish had online multiplayer, there’s no way that it wouldn’t be compared left and right to Gears of War.
On the other hand, it’s very tough to imagine that gamers will still be playing and replaying Vanquish’s campaign years down the road. Maybe it will turn out to be the greatest single-player shooter experience of all time, and gamers won’t be able to tear themselves away.
But I doubt it.
Platinum Games, I want you to know that I’ll be playing Vanquish. It looks like a lot of fun, and your track record of quality games has earned my trust. And like I said, I prefer single-player games to multiplayer games anyway. I hope you find a huge audience of gamers who feel the same way. But these days, the mainstream gaming audience has certain expectations. And one of those expectations is that games ship with multiplayer, no matter how stiff the competition might be.
Jeremy M. Zoss is a veteran of the gaming industry. He’s written for Game Informer, OXM, G4 and many more. He’s also worked in games PR, but don’t hold that against him.
