Today it was reported that Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus would not have multiplayer.

This was a choice made by the developer MachineGames to focus more on fleshing out the story. They claimed that by including multiplayer they would’ve diluted what they were trying to do. While I don’t like the Wolfenstein series, the devs might have a point. Name one first-person shooter with multiplayer that has a perfect story.  Have you named one yet? Me neither. And I like a lot of shooters.

To be fair not every shooter that is without multiplayer wins in the story department either. That includes games that aren’t first-person shooters. Then we have games like Overwatch, that focus only on multiplayer. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with games like that, but to me, a game doesn’t feel complete without a single-player campaign. My opinion is probably due to me owning an SNES and SEGA Genesis when I was growing up. Back then there was no problem having single player and multiplayer. I do miss the good old days.

Let’s look at Call Of Duty, one of Wolfenstein’s competitors. Every single COD has a campaign and multiplayer. The story from the games varies from Meh to Great, but they at least have a story for people who enjoy them. Depending on who you ask the multiplayer is where it’s at… thanks, I’ll go play Titan Fall 2 instead.

“But Bob, what about other game genres?” I’m glad you asked. A certain RPG series has had multiplayer for a while. The Tales Series by Namco and Bandai has had co-op multiplayer for years now. The multiplayer in those game doesn’t dilute the story either. You can only play with 2-4 people so if you just started you have to get a second character first. It doesn’t break continuity that way.

Then we get games like Final Fantasy XV… Adding a multiplayer mode way after the game came out. Sure the game needed a lot of updates to fix it, but it’s impressive that they are creating a story-based multiplayer, well after the initial launch of the game. My point is Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus could do the same thing. I’m sure it won’t happen but it’s still possible.

There is one game that I totally forgot about until now, Journey. Journey was a very unique gaming experience. It was co-op with a twist. You would be randomly teamed up with perfect strangers. The multiplayer and single player were one-in-the-same in that game. You could complete the game single-player and have a totally new experience depending on who you played with. Here’s the kicker. It didn’t dilute the story one bit. Granted the story was flexible and there where no voiced-over cutscenes, but this was an indie game. An Indie developer did what MachineGames says would dilute the story.

My conclusion is that MachineGames is full of it. While not perfect, their competition is well-received. Even Call Of Duty has a campaign and a few of them have solid stories. I mean COD has 14 games so far, and it’s way younger than Wolfenstein. (Yes I’m aware that this Wolfenstein series is a reboot.)

Well, that’s my opinion on this subject. That’s all I have for you today. Thanks for letting me waste your time, people.

Keep it classy,
Evil Bob