So it was recently confirmed amongst all these brilliant The Last of Us Part II reveals that Naughty Dog won’t be adding an online multiplayer mode like they did for the first game. In TLOU1 we of course had the factions mode which is still played by thousands to this day. Despite the online modes popularity, I was surprised to see how much negativity there has been to this announcement… I personally think the backlash is ridiculous but before I jump into why, read Naughty Dog’s statement for yourself if you haven’t already.
As far as I’m concerned, the line “The single player campaign is far and away the most ambitious project Naughty Dog has ever undertaken” should be more than enough to justify Naughty Dog leaving out Factions this time around! My first thought when I read this was I think the most obvious one and that’s “who on earth is buying TLOU2 for its multiplayer?!” TLOU1 is a perfect example of a single player story told with perfection and a standard bearer for its genre. As a gamer who will always put single player experiences before anything multiplayer related, the fact we’re even having this conversation winds me right up so prepare for a rant!
I’m going to try avoid this becoming a pointless argument about single vs multi player, but as somebody who feels passionate that single player is still the greatest way to enjoy video games, this reaction from some people worries me. Let’s look at this from Naughty Dog’s point of view, they (Like every developer) have the option to make more money by shoe-horning in an online mode but have decided to leave money on the table in favour of putting all their efforts in on creating a brilliant stand alone story and what do they get? Abuse by hundreds of morons on social media who for some bizarre reason believe they’ll be getting a lesser game… Have any of them even played a Naughty Dog game before?! In an era where I personally worry about single player games becoming less and less prominent in favour of hordes of online franchises, this is the last thing I want to see happening. If this is the response the developer gets for putting the game and story before money then what’s going to happen next time? I’m not one to swear often in my articles but this one is personal to me and the following is strictly to the people who are throwing abuse Naughty Dog’s way – Fuck you.
Thankfully though, these people do seem to be the minority. Most sensible people see the reasoning behind it and can see that there’s a grand vision that comes before any online spin off. If you look at the comments in the tweet above, you’ll see that most the level headed people have cancelled out the unreasonable by this point so fingers crossed Naughty Dog won’t be too bothered by the original backlash. One thing I can’t understand is why are multiplayer fans so upset to begin with? Even if you don’t care for single player, surely there are hundreds of better options for that sort of gamer outside of TLOU or any other massive single player title with online thrown in on the side?
Besides, if you read the statement then it’s very clear that there will be a multiplayer mode at some point down the road just not on release. And the way it’s worded makes me believe that the online mode is going to be more ground breaking that the first so for that reason it needs delaying. Good! If the single player is ready to go then why delay the release any longer? Especially with strong rumours of the PS5 being right around the corner, this can’t be delayed any longer. Hell there’s every chance that the multiplayer may be being saved for a next gen remaster anyway, and if that’s the case then those who are so upset can just wait for that version of the game. You’ll get your precious Factions mode eventually, until then the rest of us will just enjoy a potential generation-defining experience.
Maybe I’m being unreasonable, having only played the Factions mode once and not caring, it’s fair to say I may be missing something special but I genuinely haven’t heard about people still playing the mode until this news recently dropped. Am I wrong? Is this still a loved mode? Let me know in the comments because I don’t want to be all loud and ignorent and potentially miss the point. All I am saying is that when a developer looks to put single player first, please oh please don’t give them grief for it, as that’s the sort of attitude that could start to slowly kill or at least drastically reduced the sort of games that l adore the most.
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