BioShock 2
BioShock 2 put players into the shoes of a terrifyingly powerful Big Daddy, one of the enemies that you face in the first BioShock, and places us eight years after the events of the original BioShock.
While not acting as much of a game-changer, BioShock 2 still managed to follow in the path of the originals, getting praise from critics and fans alike. Playing as a Big Daddy this time around was a surprise gameplay element and gave us yet another solid single-player story.
One thing that BioShock 2 has that the first one didn’t is an online multiplayer mode, because that’s what people wanted from BioShock.
The online component featured all of your typical first-person shooter multiplayer modes such as capture the flag, deathmatch, team deathmatch, and turf war. It ultimately failed to impress folks that were used to the compelling narrative that the story mode offered, something that was lacking in the multiplayer modes.
Dead Space 2
Dead Space 2 takes everything that made the first Dead Space so good and blew it out of the water. The Necromorphs that Issac Clarke has to hunt down are scarier than ever, and since you’re in space, nobody will hear you scream…
The dark and intense hallways of the space station made this third-person survival horror game the one to beat; there were tons of different weapons to create and upgrade letting you kill the evil creatures in a couple of interesting ways.
But something that’s not very interesting is the 4 versus 4 online multiplayer that puts one team on the Necromorph side and one team on a human side, with both teams having different objectives.
Dead Space 2 is all about confinement and being alone in a dark and quiet space station, but the multiplayer doesn’t add anything and takes away the suspense that is in the single-player mode.
Far Cry 3
Far Cry 3’s beautiful and vibrant island setting was the perfect locale for this story of a bunch of kidnapped 20-something-year-olds. Upon first meeting with Vaas, the main villain in the game, the player gets the idea that this island is not very safe… at all, which starts the beginning of an awesome rescue mission that Jason will never forget.
The story and single-player mode of Far Cry 3 was excellent, but the co-op and competitive multiplayer wasn’t that great and to be quite honest, Far Cry 3 would have still been an amazing game without it.
The cooperative campaign put players onto a separate island that pushes waves of enemies at you and ultimately takes away that level of freedom that’s found in the single-player campaign, and the mode was meant to be played with four people, meaning that if you play with only one other player, it’s very difficult to progress thanks to the lack of decent scaling.
The competitive first-person shooter modes are similar to what you would find in games like Call of Duty, but these modes didn’t do anything special and it’s not what Far Cry 3 is remembered for. Far Cry 3 is all about exploration and finding different ways to kill enemies –two things that the multiplayer modes had to sacrifice.
Doom (2016)
id Software and Bethesda’s 2016 reboot of Doom gave us an extreme, heart-pumping, and thrilling first-person shooter that made our blood rush due to all of the shooting, enemy variety, and fast-paced combat.
The multiplayer component, however, did not live up to the satisfying combat that the story mode in Doom offered players. It was just like all of the other multiplayer modes out there at the time and didn’t shake up the gaming world in any way.
Sure, it was slightly fun and gave players a little bit of extra content to try out, but it just couldn’t compare to the single-player experience, not delivering on what Doom is known for.
Tomb Raider (2013)
Crystal Dynamics’ and Square Enix’s reboot of Lara Croft back in 2013 was beloved and praised for breaking the mold and bringing his heroine into modern times with a more “appropriate” fashion style for the young researcher.
We got to explore the origins of Lara Croft and go on a cinematic narrative-focused adventure and it proved to be quite excellent, with people comparing it the Uncharted series but having more open environments and choice in combat style.
If you didn’t remember, the first title in the reboot trilogy was packed in with an online multiplayer component that was just very unpolished and provided little to the overarching package that Tomb Raider offered players.
It was a very janky gameplay mode, with weird physics glitches and grinding issues that made this experience only fun if you like ridiculous multiplayer games that you could laugh at with friends.
Tomb Raider’s single-player mode was damn near perfect, but as to why this mode had to be included is beyond me.
Spec Ops: The Line
Spec Ops: The Line is one of the most influential single-player third-person shooters ever, telling a story that will mess with your mind and makes you really think about the effect of war on people and the struggles that come with identifying what is good and what is bad.
Playing as Captain Walker, it’s up to you and your team to traverse through the sandstorm-filled city of Dubai and locate any missing survivors in war-torn areas filled with madness.
Going through these different areas with your crew, Spec Ops: The Line lets you have control over teammates, pointing out spots for them to go to. You could also interact with the environment, finding inventive ways to take out the enemies.
While the story mode’s take on war was praised by critics, the tacked-on multiplayer was there just as an attempt to boost sales and didn’t reinvent the wheel as the single-player campaign did.
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