I was playing Peak with my friends groups and one of us suddenly just said: “Is this the golden age of online Coop multiplayer?” And I have to agree.
We’ve been playing together for around 10 years. We’ve played legendary games like Left 4 Dead 2, Vermintide 2, overcooked 2, Portal 2 (a lot of sequels in this list), but lately had to search harder for similar quality experiences. Then we bought and installed Lethal Company on a whim and from the first second we were having so much fun. Something about the first person camera combined with directional voice chat makes this game incredibly immersive. We almost never roleplay, but in this game it only took a few minutes for us to start inhabiting our characters and screaming / joking as if we were them.
After playing this for tens of hours, our eye fell on R.E.P.O., a game with a similar conceit and fantastic reviews, and the added bonus of moving mouths. We took the jump, and again it was a slam dunk. Just checked and have been playing it for 18 hours already, and it seems like we just started. A similar feeling was had with Peak.
What all these games share, is an incredibly well designed gameplay loop that leaves enough freedom and space for creativity while still giving you a clear goal to work towards. In all cases everything is extremely immersive and tactile, forcing each of you to become your character in a way that other games fail to achieve.
They might seem basic or simple, but each successful case is so because of extremely intelligent design decisions. We’re looking forward to the new innovations still ahead of us in this space!
At first I read it as “friendship isn’t real” and thought that was a weird thing to say
In my house we call them multiplayer streamer bait!
maybe the real friendslop was the friends we made along the way
upvote this pokeman!
These games can be good, but I’ve always felt that selling a game primarily on being “fun with friends” is an extremely weak point. Everything is fun with friends. Watching grass grow is fun with friends.
Sure, that’s absolutely true, but the games that have done well recently have found ways to properly take advantage of an “easy” market. I suspect the lesson is just that this particular market is well suited to smaller and simpler games but with quick turnaround, there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, if anything it means small games companies can shoot for big wins, which can only be a good thing.
I’m digging indie titles taking some risks and trying new stuff. They’re usually decently cheap and fun with some friends. As AAA titles begin to adopt the new $80-85 price tags, indies have a time to shine.
i like your positivity. it’s true, except that the landscape for indies is also v grim rn. The kind of investors that fueled indie games of the past have dried up. Kickstarters for games still happen, but it isn’t the like the glory days. And discoverability is a nightmare, releasing an indie game these days is a bit like playing the lottery. But I’ll tell you, when a $20 or under indie game catches my attention, i’m pretty inclined to impulse buy. They are more enticing than the $80 games, for sure.
Fr. This year seemed like it was going to be pretty shit in regards to new releases, with the only things to catch my interest being the DLCs for rimworld, bannerlord, and Rogue Trader, and Arma Reforger.
But games like Beta Decay seem to be holding the torch for innovation. Can’t wait for that to be released.
I like the term. It’s punchy, memorable, can be used jokingly and with sympathy, or in critical way to refer to the formulaic/generic side of a certain game.
funnily enough i’ve only learned of this term from people saying it’s wrong and not real, so it’s more ‘friendslopslop’ to me
