We've all seen the classics. Deathmatch. Capture the Flag. King of the Hill.
And they're pretty great! They're classics for a reason. But are they the best? What does Era say are the best non-game specific MP modes out there?
By "non-game specific", by the way, I don't mean "this mode has only ever been in one game", I mean "this mode really wouldn't work in most other games because it's really specific to the mechanics of basically just his one game". For instance, Nidhogg. Nidhogg's tug of war, right of way 2D combat obstacle course is great, but also, it's not that broadly applicable. Yes I'm sure there's a semantic distinction which could point out edge cases, but work with me here.
Me, I'd say 3 come to mind:
And they're pretty great! They're classics for a reason. But are they the best? What does Era say are the best non-game specific MP modes out there?
By "non-game specific", by the way, I don't mean "this mode has only ever been in one game", I mean "this mode really wouldn't work in most other games because it's really specific to the mechanics of basically just his one game". For instance, Nidhogg. Nidhogg's tug of war, right of way 2D combat obstacle course is great, but also, it's not that broadly applicable. Yes I'm sure there's a semantic distinction which could point out edge cases, but work with me here.
Me, I'd say 3 come to mind:
- Conquest, Battlefield series. This unbelievably clever take on a combination of "hold the points" and "deathmatch" for some reason is never much imitated, and I never know why. It allows for a really organic evolution of offensive and defensive objectives, works great within the BF mechanics, and has multiple ways to win to keep things closer than they'd otherwise be with a single objective, but it's just "do whatever". Really great stuff, and such simple execution.
- Warzone, KIllzone 2 and 3. I almost feel like this is cheating, but it works so well and appears basically nowhere that I half think that Guerilla has a patent on it. For the uninitated, it's a combination of deathmatch, capture the flag, assassinate a single target, 3 point KotH, and search and destroy. Which sounds basic, but what makes it fun is how it never needs time to switch. Some team kills an assassination target, the game becomes a DM right then and there, with all the turrets and invisible players and defensive postures still in place. Someone wins that, and now it's capture the flag, and everyone is scrambling to the other side of the map. It's awesome.
- Onslaught, Unreal. I'll be the first to admit this wasn't very well balanced. It's a "connect the node to the enemy core" type mode, but once the final node was connected and the enemy core exposed, there wasn't much in the way of comebacks besides the defenders just...being better. When it wasn't only the final one though, that's when the mode truly shined. Needing to determine which nodes to go to, having to defend and attack simultaneously, it all worked great, and what's more, the way the game worked in general (everyone could go everywhere with the right vehicle) meant that there was plenty of unorthodox approaches to be had. Later games added map dynamicism, but for me, nothing quite beats driving a Leviathan over a special angle on the mountains in some maps and dropping right into the main.
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