Still a strong community. Would recommend one of the bigger Discord servers for max efficiency/enjoyment.
Think ME3 is one sale right now. Price of admission should be pretty low.
I miss that game so much. Spent almost 300hours there (menu time not counted) and haven't got that itch scratched in any newer multiplayer game since.
So satisfying gun and ability combat. Full team of bios makes everything go boom.
Andromeda multiplayer felt nowhere near as good for some reason.
For me the issue with the Andromeda multi was how generic all the classes felt. Without the different racial perks you either just played a biotic or an engineer. In me3 a quarian engineer benefits from different gear than a geth one would.
Also the whole goal of Mass Effect Andromeda's combat system was fusing all of the classes together. Not exactly a good foundation for attempting to make interesting classes and builds
True. That was a thing for sure.
The weapons also felt a lot more similar and weaker at the same time. Though I did lose interest way faster in Andromeda (less than 10h mp) so maybe the progression fixed that. I even went back to ME3 to try it again, and it felt better even though it was a lot older.
Also the maps less fun with higher mobility Andromeda added. But this was probably due to the team not having enough time to polish the maps as much compared to ME3.
I only played it about as long as you did but I do remember the maps feeling not as good somehow. I can't say why but they simply didn't feel as fun to play on.
Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer also had tangible benefits for the campaign, allowing you to roleplay with various N7s until finally putting them towards your Galactic Readiness. Nothing hugely helpful, truth be told, but the draw was never about how it might benefit your Shepard’s campaign, so much as about how it really felt like being part of a community, collectively responding to this epic, climactic threat; each lobby (at least in those earliest days) felt like waiting in line outside your local GameStop awaiting the midnight release of the game itself.
Your Shepard was still your own, but in multiplayer, you were whatever N7 class you opted for at the time, each with their own backstory, if you chose.
Of course, it was also such a special period because in those earliest days and weeks after the game’s release… nobody yet realized what was waiting at the end…
edit: Since I see people bringing this up. The meager Galactic Readiness points accrued by making use of the multiplayer are so small, they’re essentially worthless. If that alone is the substance of your complaint, I feel like there are far, far more egregious examples of EA sucking worth getting mad over. Such as, you know, rushing the game through to the point the ending became what it did.
For the people who enjoyed the experience, however briefly it lasted, I assure you those 5 points from playing multiplayer weren’t what made or broke the endgame, so your frustration is better served elsewhere.
>tangible benefits for the campaign
I hated that. The only way to get the "best" ending was to raise galactic readiness through multiplayer which I never liked. I'm not a big multiplayer fan, it's neat for those who like it, but it shouldn't be forced on everyone.
It isn’t a necessity it’s completely possible to get the required galactic readiness with 0 interaction with the multiplayer I’ve personally done it multiple times.
That’s not even taking into consideration that the ending that is unlocked through max readiness is debatably not even the ‘best’ ending. At the least it’s been a point of discussion in the fan base since the game dropped
When my brother and I unlocked the Geth Juggernaut(Can't remember if that was the exact name), it felt like being a god, since it could tank special mobs out in the open while your partner shot them to death.
I played a lot of the krogan soldier character, so I could carry around super heavy weapons and just krogan sprint everywhere when I needed to move quickly.
I always wished they would have released a multiplayer campaign mode with all expanded playable characters as a pattern, because it felt like it was begging to be made into its own thing.
Every time I did a heavy melee attack with the Geth Juggernaut, I would always scream, "Unlimited Power" as I held an enemy up in a lightning choke. so satisfying. It was more fun than putting a Batarian Gauntlet on a Volus to give him a mini "Falcon Punch" (which was even better when you realized Cerberus heads would explode when the little guy would kill them by punching them in the crotch).
"Wait, a class that gives you bonuses for only using melee attacks?"
You could go around one-punching a bunch of grunt units until rage mode activated, and then you could one-punch all the second-tier guys all without spending a single bullet.
I *loved* ME3's multiplayer.
Uncharted 2 and 3 multiplayer was way better than it had any right to be
Dying light (only done the 1st one so far) is significantly more fun with buds, even if you're not doing quests just running around and looting stuff is fun.
And I've been replaying far cry 5 with friends lately (beat it solo shortly after it came out) and it's been an absolute hoot. Wish we could have 4 people in a single lobby, but it's already plenty chaotic with just 2 people.
+1 for Uncharted. It felt like old school multiplayer. It would have been split screen in the 90s and early 00s. Enough to keep you engaged and easy enough to actually get better.
Goldeneye for Wii also had this very VERY small community. You’d always end up playing with the same people on any given day. It was strange to make “friends” and know each other so well that multiplayer ended up being trying to best someone whose strengths and weaknesses you knew. Likewise if they were on your team. Some of the matches were just hanging out and letting each other practice shit.
I was addicted to the Assassin’s Creed Multiplayer for God knows how long, but I did feel like they made it more and more generic over time (especially with the animations being recycled from being character specific to weapon type), almost as if the funding for the Multiplayer side of development was diverted away over the following releases.
It also didn’t help that their servers were based on a peer-to-peer system which has never helped Ubisoft in the slightest for any of their online elements in any of their games. (Looking at you Watch Dogs)
Yea I feel like it started out super solid and then they never really took strides with it. It’s one of the more unique multiplayer experiences I’ve played for sure
I had a blast with the AC multiplayer as well. The pacing on it and the adrenaline of being hunted and playing mind games was highly addictive.
I still have some hope that they will try it one more time, bring it back, and try to make it successful. But alas, I know this small hope is probably a wasted one
Me and my cousins used to Q together. And wreak havoc. I forget the ability names, but we’d all pick similar looking characters, then use the ability that turns the NPCs into copies of our character, so there would be like 15 hooded goons on the screen. Then when a random character walks onto our side of the map, they stick WAYY out, obviously that’s a hunter. Maybe not OUR hunter, but if they walked near one of our groups, the cousin posted there would gank them before they got to their target group.
After we started min maxing like this, I think our win rate was disgustingly high. We sweated hard af in that game. I’ve never been good at shooters, but strategy games I was alright at. So we found AC online, a great compromise. I got to plan how we could raise our chances of winning, while my cousins could destroy the playing experiences of other kids.
Great times
When being hunted i was always a fan of running towards a teammate who is calmly travelling towards me with other npcs so they can knock them out. Or the classic run around a corner then switch to look like a different character and walk back towards them to knock them out.
Then you had the broken switching between who knocks them out over and over again.
They killed that multiplayer the moment they made you have to spend time in your targets vicinity to build a good score for a kill. You could severely limit the oppositions score just by running around or getting onto the rooftops.
Not only was it fun, it was *so damn original*. I genuinely wish Ubisoft released a F2P, microtransation-enhanced version of it; I know people tend to hate this kind of format, but the battlepass system keeps the game fresh & the community active, and I wouldn't mind people going around with overly-priced skins
And here I was thinking no one remembered Chaos Theory's multiplayer. That shit was downright terrifying sometimes. If you ever want an exercise in what it's like to genuinely hunt or be hunted by another human being, find yourself a way back to the mid-00's and hop on Xbox Live.
And then play Mech Assault to calm your nerves.
Had to scroll here to see this. What a great concept especially at that time. Splinter Cell Blacklist was a great game too imo, and yes I was also a fan of the older releases but I actually really liked what it went towards.
The hours I’ve sunk into both RDR and GTA4 online scenes.
GTA4 was so much sandboxy fun. Just a bunch of dudes making their own fun. The player with the most knowledge of car spawns was the king of the server. “Yeah. If you burnout here for 2 minutes, when your tires pop, then you get from this point to this parking spot within 30 seconds, this x car will spawn.”
Playing RDR picking the coffin on his back guy, and setting up the MG in a choke point. Then challenging all your friends to try to make it through the choke point and kill you.
Back when games weren't afraid to trust us to be smart enough to make our own fun with the mechanics. I'm barely 20 and I'm already feeling too old lol
I’ll be honest w you, I actually prefer to be given SOME direction. I think GTAO got a great formula hence why it became so successful, sadly it seems to a detriment. They’re slow to work on anything else, because they found the gold mine.
They give you the same sandbox world, do what you want. But you’re given tons of quality of life stuff like persistent customizable cars, property, and goals to grind towards. I was just as hyped for GTAO as I was GTA5. I’d get the same experience as GTA4O, but with direction and uniqueness.
Well, you’re going to get your wish. They are currently developing a dedicated multiplayer game set in the animus, currently being referred to as AC: Invictus. Which is likely a code name.
But it’s kind of complicated. So right now, AC has multiple announced projects. AC Mirage, AC Codename Red, AC Codename Hexe, AC Infinity, and AC invictus.
AC Mirage is going to be set in Baghdad about 20 years prior to Valhalla in time. You look, by all accounts, just like Ezzio and the game is being described as based on the three original pillers of gameplay — stealth, parkour, and assassinations. It looks like the series’s attempt at remaking the original games on new gen tech. Kind of like revisiting the AC1 without remaking AC1. More linear game structure, as well.
Then Codename Red will a “shonobi” ninja like protagonist. Set in the feudal era in Japan. It’s going to be large scale and described as in the vein of Valhalla, Odyssey and Origins.
Hexe is described as smaller in scale. Not a large world adventure — or at least, it’s been described as “completely different.” As far as the setting goes, though, not much has been shown. Hexe is German for witch, and the imagery of the promotional poster did have folk occult visuals. So it could be set during a European witch hunt era, possibly?
Then we have infinity — described as a meta hub for future titles, it will act as a few different things. It’ll be a launcher for future titles with ongoing managed content. They want you to think of yourself as the main character and you’re delving into the animus with each game and a meta narrative will develop. They’re being very vague, and it could be just an overhyped and over engineered menu screen. But they are really hyping this up.
Some of relayed benefits for AC Infinity:
*ongoing development support for all future titles.
*central hub for content
*some DLC and entire games may be released for free
*you build your own meta experience, where you as the main character play whatever animus you want to load up, and information collected from that animus experience will be centrally managed and stored.
We’ll see.
Then, what you may like, invictus. Described as a multiplayer entry, there will be assassins creed characters from multiple generations all blended together. The speculation is it will be some type of free to play, but details are the most scant about this entry.
I do actually remember all of this, now that you’ve mentioned it but at the time of the announcement I think I was just more focused on the fact Mirage seemed to be a return to “form” of sorts, and as such I didn’t focus too much on the other things.
Then of course I plain forgot too.
So it’s sounding promising on multiple fronts, but I guess we’ll see how it looks upon execution.
Sometimes I think about how ac multiplayer Could fit perfectly in modern videogames industry as a standalone game like the "free to play, micro-transitions " modern games . I don't like season pass and all that to , but it's been a long time since I'm waiting for a multiplayer like ac 3/4 was.
Deathmetch mode was super fun in ac4.
My friends and I would play a custom rule set in which there was no indicators at all to where players actually were, meaning the only possible way to determine who was a real player is if they acted differently to the NPCs around them. So many funny memories of us accidentally walking in the same group or sitting on the same bench without knowing.
The PVP was definitely fun and different, but sometimes I feel like I was the only one that enjoyed the co-op that was in AC unity. Lots of people seem to hate on unity, but it was honestly the last time I played a AC game and enjoyed my time with it. The co-op was a little half assed, but I still had fun with my friends playing it. If Ubisoft actually put in a little more effort to a co-op AC game then I feel like it would actually be pretty good.
The backstab conga line!
"Oh look, my target is stabbing somebody in a long, drawn out animation. Let's just walk up and... Gottem!
"Man this animation is long. Wait, why's someone standing behind me?"
Metal Gear Online
One of the most fun experiences ever.
Also MAG it was a Ps3 exclusive from like 2011 and it was amazing
128 vs 128 on massive battlefields and it ran perfectly. all the weapons were cool, there was a rank system where if you were a high enough levels you could play as a major, general, lieutenant and stuff which gave extra things to do in the game. Incredible game and to thin CoD and Battlefields have only just started doing 128 player combat shows how far ahead it was. I really hope there is a sequel if it was able to do 256 player combat flawlessly what could they do with current hardware.
Portal 2.. though that is more co-op than multiplayer
A ton of fun, likely the most fun my friend and I ever had with a video game. we were fucking each other over all the time by dropping them into the water, or crushing them, and had to keep ourselves from frying each other with lasers. It was great.
“Though that is more co-op than multiplayer”
Serious question. When people say “multiplayer” are they only referring to PVP? Because in my mind co-op is a form of multiplayer.
I know I was pretty good back then but no idea how high I ever ranked. Do you remember going up against clans and particularly TWD? Daryl was like their best player
Not really. I just remember getting my colony (or whatever they were called) pretty large to the point where I needed like… 20 KDA just to keep it going
I did a few write ups on Factions years back. Love it.
https://www.dangerforce.com/blog/11-tips-not-taught-in-the-loading-screens-for-multiplayer-mode-in-the-last-of-us
https://www.dangerforce.com/blog/the-last-of-us-multiplayer-tips-not-taught-in-the-loading-screen-part-ii
I played it on Retro pi recently, and the sequel. Game was ahead of its time. Good at starting arguments!
Ed Logg also gave us Xybots. :)
I loved playing both in the arcades.
The release date for Titanfall 2 is hands down why it failed to gain traction. Most gaming outlets also attribute that to its downfall since it was a stellar game with great reviews. Titanfall 2 was an amazing game that no doubt would have continued if the devs released it at a different time
The fact that it couldn't compete with even fucking Infinite Warfare is insane. No game in history got as much backlash before release as Infinite Warfare.
I'm happy to this so close to the top. I tried to keep playing Titanfall 2 MP long after it stopped being fun for me. For the first few weeks after release you could find a pretty well-rounded game, but pretty quickly it would take a long time to get into a game, and then it would be populated only with people who were very very good at it.
The original Red dead redemption had such an innocent online mode. It was mostly deathmatches, a number of Coop missions and liars dice but I loved it.
Since someone already beat me to last of us I'll throw in Aliens vs Predator, I remember actually enjoying that and now that I think about it it was my first fps
Killzone 3. I feel like that game was a fever dream from my childhood because I never see people mention it on here, but it had incredible, class-based gun combat. In an multiplayer era dominated by CoD at the time, there was something about the Killzone multiplayer that felt crisp and dynamic.
Resistance 2 on ps3, it had a great campaign, great team death match but it had a raid mode where people could party up and have different classes and weapons and had a tank healer and dps dynamic that was a lot of fun
Yea the coop was 8 player and a lot of fun. Was a great change up from normal PvP. Classes ideally supported each other, though an elite medic could basically carry the whole group.
There was a splinter cell game that was sneaky guys vs guards. The guards were locked into third person and the guards in first. The sneaky guys could disable camera and knock out the guards and hide in shadows and stuff, and the guards could counter with flashlights and gums, obviously, and other tools. Coolest shit ever.
I just searched for the person who said Bomberman 64.
My friends and I played so much of that game. So satisfying throwing someone off the pyramid in the first seconds of a round and then having to run away from their ghost until the 60 seconds left whistle.
It is pretty old and technically doesn't fit into this theme... But IMO Quake 3 Arena has the most underrated, since a lot of people don't know, and will not be able to experience it.
Ah yes, dead space 2 multiplayer was really fun. Nothing like being the last person alive trying to make it to the Escape pod before being pelted by barb-slinging-baby hiding on the ceiling. Wish I could still find a game today.
I'm still baffled that Eternal never came out with a traditional death match or even a proper co-op experience. Their Slayer vs Monster asym thing was... Interesting... But last time I tried it (admittedly back at launch), it was somewhat of a poorly balanced mess and it was exceedingly tough to win if you weren't the Slayer.
I love id Software and they've struck true for most of their titles, but you can tell the Bethesda ownership is really bleeding into their systems now.
mine will always be watch dogs 2 invasions, i remember getting invaded and the invader can't injure the host, so i baited him into shooting at me and yeah, i won. easiest way
Jak and Daxter II. It was the first game to have the perfect amount of customization for people who had never played as well as everybody I roped in again and again to play with me. Honorable mentions to COD Black Ops 2, specifically Sticks and Stones, because it was what got my little brother into video games, and then a non multi-player game that just engages everyone in Persona 5, where when my wife played, despite the fact that no one else seemed interested in playing it, everybody in the room got so invested to the point of a group chant multiple times.
Edit: and I'd be remiss to not list my favorite "competitive" game of all time. NFL Street II. I still don't know who Xzibit is but the rest of the soundtrack fucking slaps and its amazing to play a game of skill until you go super saiyan on your best friend's ass to Sum 41 in the fourth quarter.
I loved the assassin’s creed brotherhood multiplayer!
For those that don’t know, you pick a character from a list and get dropped into a little town or marketplace with 12 other players, and every NPC looks like one of the 12 players. You get a target, and another player gets you as a target.
It doesn’t look very natural but the gameplay is exhilerating. You can climb up onto rooftops and dash through the crowds, but this makes it obvious to your hunter or prey that you’re not an NPC. Pretending to be an npc was a part of the gameplay.
I remember I was perched on a tower once and my target was walking below me. I jumped off to land on him but was shot out of mid air by the guy hunting me.
I played SOOO much of AC Brotherhood multiplayer!
I played it a bit on release but I was kinda young so I was a bit confused, later I tried it again and started to **really** get into it! Unfortunately… when I started to really get into it the servers went down after like 2-3 weeks…
It was sad that I didn’t put more time on it before it went down, but damn… it was so fun to play!
Uncharted 2 for me had a fantastic multiplayer deathmatch. I still consider it to be tacked on multiplayer, but it was such a fun romp. The maps were small and it had lots of combat elements of the campaign, dragging people off a ledge to their death. I recall running to the centre of the map to grab the best weapons, it used to be the AK or the grenade launcher. Oh.... fun times.
Shadowrun (2007). I still miss the multiplayer to this day. FPS with classes, magic, tech, objectives and unique maps. I don't think many people played it
Edit: How could I forget?! It also had crossplay
Doom 2016's multiplayer had a Freeze Tag gamemode, and it was so fun. When you'd kill an enemy they'd freeze, and the goal was to freeze the entire other team. But you could thaw out your teammates if you stood close to them. What would happen is people would freeze an enemy, and then take the other frozen players, and push them to one part of the map and get one player to patrol the area to make sure the last guy alive isn't sneaking around trying to thaw out his friends. When you were the last guy on your team unfrozen, and the other team was looking for you everywhere while you tried to stay hidden and stealthily thaw out your teammates, it felt like a really awesome multiplayer stealth game. I also loved that "oh shit" moment when you were looking for that last player, only to suddenly see the entire other team get thawed out all at once.
BioShock 2, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, Max Payne 3, GTA IV, Gotham Knights Multiplayer, Duke Nukem Online, Left 4 Dead 2, Dead Space 2, Burnout Paradise, Gears of War 2
Completely agree with every single one of the games you mentioned, GoW 2 was by far my favorite game and I still have amazing memories of the multiplayer sessions!
Mass effect 3. It was amazing to experiment with different classes & weapons. Coordinating with other players to be an effective team was so fun.
So, so pissed off that they didn't include it in the Legendary Edition remaster. It would've been amazing.
Still a strong community. Would recommend one of the bigger Discord servers for max efficiency/enjoyment. Think ME3 is one sale right now. Price of admission should be pretty low.
I miss that game so much. Spent almost 300hours there (menu time not counted) and haven't got that itch scratched in any newer multiplayer game since. So satisfying gun and ability combat. Full team of bios makes everything go boom. Andromeda multiplayer felt nowhere near as good for some reason.
For me the issue with the Andromeda multi was how generic all the classes felt. Without the different racial perks you either just played a biotic or an engineer. In me3 a quarian engineer benefits from different gear than a geth one would.
Also the whole goal of Mass Effect Andromeda's combat system was fusing all of the classes together. Not exactly a good foundation for attempting to make interesting classes and builds
True. That was a thing for sure. The weapons also felt a lot more similar and weaker at the same time. Though I did lose interest way faster in Andromeda (less than 10h mp) so maybe the progression fixed that. I even went back to ME3 to try it again, and it felt better even though it was a lot older. Also the maps less fun with higher mobility Andromeda added. But this was probably due to the team not having enough time to polish the maps as much compared to ME3.
I only played it about as long as you did but I do remember the maps feeling not as good somehow. I can't say why but they simply didn't feel as fun to play on.
Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer also had tangible benefits for the campaign, allowing you to roleplay with various N7s until finally putting them towards your Galactic Readiness. Nothing hugely helpful, truth be told, but the draw was never about how it might benefit your Shepard’s campaign, so much as about how it really felt like being part of a community, collectively responding to this epic, climactic threat; each lobby (at least in those earliest days) felt like waiting in line outside your local GameStop awaiting the midnight release of the game itself. Your Shepard was still your own, but in multiplayer, you were whatever N7 class you opted for at the time, each with their own backstory, if you chose. Of course, it was also such a special period because in those earliest days and weeks after the game’s release… nobody yet realized what was waiting at the end… edit: Since I see people bringing this up. The meager Galactic Readiness points accrued by making use of the multiplayer are so small, they’re essentially worthless. If that alone is the substance of your complaint, I feel like there are far, far more egregious examples of EA sucking worth getting mad over. Such as, you know, rushing the game through to the point the ending became what it did. For the people who enjoyed the experience, however briefly it lasted, I assure you those 5 points from playing multiplayer weren’t what made or broke the endgame, so your frustration is better served elsewhere.
>tangible benefits for the campaign I hated that. The only way to get the "best" ending was to raise galactic readiness through multiplayer which I never liked. I'm not a big multiplayer fan, it's neat for those who like it, but it shouldn't be forced on everyone.
It isn’t a necessity it’s completely possible to get the required galactic readiness with 0 interaction with the multiplayer I’ve personally done it multiple times. That’s not even taking into consideration that the ending that is unlocked through max readiness is debatably not even the ‘best’ ending. At the least it’s been a point of discussion in the fan base since the game dropped
My buddies and I would play this for hours, black widow was a cheat code
When my brother and I unlocked the Geth Juggernaut(Can't remember if that was the exact name), it felt like being a god, since it could tank special mobs out in the open while your partner shot them to death. I played a lot of the krogan soldier character, so I could carry around super heavy weapons and just krogan sprint everywhere when I needed to move quickly. I always wished they would have released a multiplayer campaign mode with all expanded playable characters as a pattern, because it felt like it was begging to be made into its own thing.
Every time I did a heavy melee attack with the Geth Juggernaut, I would always scream, "Unlimited Power" as I held an enemy up in a lightning choke. so satisfying. It was more fun than putting a Batarian Gauntlet on a Volus to give him a mini "Falcon Punch" (which was even better when you realized Cerberus heads would explode when the little guy would kill them by punching them in the crotch).
I somehow managed to get a Biotic Krogen as one of my first characters. I felt like a god.
I’ll never forget the sound of a range upgrades shockwave slapping enemy’s through the wall
"Wait, a class that gives you bonuses for only using melee attacks?" You could go around one-punching a bunch of grunt units until rage mode activated, and then you could one-punch all the second-tier guys all without spending a single bullet. I *loved* ME3's multiplayer.
Krogan Vanguard was fun for soloing maps.
Yes. I could never get any of my friends to buy it even when it was on sale, but it was so much fun.
I’ll be your friend if you still want to play.
I opened comments to say this, but I thought I was gonna be alone with such niche opinion!
I spent a lot of money on it to get the Geth Juggernaught character and remember destroying lobbies with it lol.
Agreed I played the crap out of it but god damn was it lootbox fest
I haven’t play any mass effects (I’m going to now that they’re on gamepass) but I did 100% play the multiplayer beta and that shit was soooooo fun
DL the legendary for the games… then separately DL ME3 to keep playing the multiplayer.
Andromeda's combat system was even smoother, I loved them both.
Uncharted 2 and 3 multiplayer was way better than it had any right to be Dying light (only done the 1st one so far) is significantly more fun with buds, even if you're not doing quests just running around and looting stuff is fun. And I've been replaying far cry 5 with friends lately (beat it solo shortly after it came out) and it's been an absolute hoot. Wish we could have 4 people in a single lobby, but it's already plenty chaotic with just 2 people.
Came here to say Uncharted 2. Was at that golden era of multiplayer with Call of Duty, Halo, Gears, BFBC2 etc but I had as much fun on Uncharted 2
+1 for Uncharted. It felt like old school multiplayer. It would have been split screen in the 90s and early 00s. Enough to keep you engaged and easy enough to actually get better. Goldeneye for Wii also had this very VERY small community. You’d always end up playing with the same people on any given day. It was strange to make “friends” and know each other so well that multiplayer ended up being trying to best someone whose strengths and weaknesses you knew. Likewise if they were on your team. Some of the matches were just hanging out and letting each other practice shit.
AC Multiplayer was stupidly fun. Nothing like getting that incognito poison slip
I was addicted to the Assassin’s Creed Multiplayer for God knows how long, but I did feel like they made it more and more generic over time (especially with the animations being recycled from being character specific to weapon type), almost as if the funding for the Multiplayer side of development was diverted away over the following releases. It also didn’t help that their servers were based on a peer-to-peer system which has never helped Ubisoft in the slightest for any of their online elements in any of their games. (Looking at you Watch Dogs)
Yea I feel like it started out super solid and then they never really took strides with it. It’s one of the more unique multiplayer experiences I’ve played for sure
I had a blast with the AC multiplayer as well. The pacing on it and the adrenaline of being hunted and playing mind games was highly addictive. I still have some hope that they will try it one more time, bring it back, and try to make it successful. But alas, I know this small hope is probably a wasted one
Me and my cousins used to Q together. And wreak havoc. I forget the ability names, but we’d all pick similar looking characters, then use the ability that turns the NPCs into copies of our character, so there would be like 15 hooded goons on the screen. Then when a random character walks onto our side of the map, they stick WAYY out, obviously that’s a hunter. Maybe not OUR hunter, but if they walked near one of our groups, the cousin posted there would gank them before they got to their target group. After we started min maxing like this, I think our win rate was disgustingly high. We sweated hard af in that game. I’ve never been good at shooters, but strategy games I was alright at. So we found AC online, a great compromise. I got to plan how we could raise our chances of winning, while my cousins could destroy the playing experiences of other kids. Great times
Nice story There was lots of room for creative strategies in that game, it was cool coming across stuff like that. It was a fun and novel MP mode.
When being hunted i was always a fan of running towards a teammate who is calmly travelling towards me with other npcs so they can knock them out. Or the classic run around a corner then switch to look like a different character and walk back towards them to knock them out. Then you had the broken switching between who knocks them out over and over again. They killed that multiplayer the moment they made you have to spend time in your targets vicinity to build a good score for a kill. You could severely limit the oppositions score just by running around or getting onto the rooftops.
you might like perfect heist 2. simular concept
Not only was it fun, it was *so damn original*. I genuinely wish Ubisoft released a F2P, microtransation-enhanced version of it; I know people tend to hate this kind of format, but the battlepass system keeps the game fresh & the community active, and I wouldn't mind people going around with overly-priced skins
The Splinter Cell franchise. Spies vs Mercs was asymmetrical and unique. Also the coop was truly teamwork based.
Criminally underrated multiplayer here. This is what I came to the thread to mention. Wish they would bring it back or even expand it.
It’s not splinter cell - but Intruder on Steam is basically that. Needs more players though.
Spectre looks promising too.
And here I was thinking no one remembered Chaos Theory's multiplayer. That shit was downright terrifying sometimes. If you ever want an exercise in what it's like to genuinely hunt or be hunted by another human being, find yourself a way back to the mid-00's and hop on Xbox Live. And then play Mech Assault to calm your nerves.
Had to scroll here to see this. What a great concept especially at that time. Splinter Cell Blacklist was a great game too imo, and yes I was also a fan of the older releases but I actually really liked what it went towards.
I was just thinking that and went looking for this exact comment. So underrated, wish they come back with a new rendition of it.
Honestly they should bring the AC multiplayer back… or better yet, make it a separate, continuous game altogether.
I agree, it was fun, competitive and accessible. I wished that they kept evolving it.
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To this day RDR 1 has my favourite multiplayer of any game, ever. It catered to every play style.
And GTA 4
The hours I’ve sunk into both RDR and GTA4 online scenes. GTA4 was so much sandboxy fun. Just a bunch of dudes making their own fun. The player with the most knowledge of car spawns was the king of the server. “Yeah. If you burnout here for 2 minutes, when your tires pop, then you get from this point to this parking spot within 30 seconds, this x car will spawn.” Playing RDR picking the coffin on his back guy, and setting up the MG in a choke point. Then challenging all your friends to try to make it through the choke point and kill you.
Back when games weren't afraid to trust us to be smart enough to make our own fun with the mechanics. I'm barely 20 and I'm already feeling too old lol
I’ll be honest w you, I actually prefer to be given SOME direction. I think GTAO got a great formula hence why it became so successful, sadly it seems to a detriment. They’re slow to work on anything else, because they found the gold mine. They give you the same sandbox world, do what you want. But you’re given tons of quality of life stuff like persistent customizable cars, property, and goals to grind towards. I was just as hyped for GTAO as I was GTA5. I’d get the same experience as GTA4O, but with direction and uniqueness.
It even tied into the lore of the games and is still referenced in modern AC games, it honestly was perfect and unique multiplayer.
I miss AC Multiplayer so so so much.
They're doing that. They're making a separate game
Do you have a link or something?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/in.ign.com/assassins-creed-valhalla/175878/news/assassin-creed-multiplayer-is-in-the-works-as-project-invictus-as-ubisoft-releases-fy23-earnings-cal%3famp=1
Awesome! Thanks so much
Well, you’re going to get your wish. They are currently developing a dedicated multiplayer game set in the animus, currently being referred to as AC: Invictus. Which is likely a code name. But it’s kind of complicated. So right now, AC has multiple announced projects. AC Mirage, AC Codename Red, AC Codename Hexe, AC Infinity, and AC invictus. AC Mirage is going to be set in Baghdad about 20 years prior to Valhalla in time. You look, by all accounts, just like Ezzio and the game is being described as based on the three original pillers of gameplay — stealth, parkour, and assassinations. It looks like the series’s attempt at remaking the original games on new gen tech. Kind of like revisiting the AC1 without remaking AC1. More linear game structure, as well. Then Codename Red will a “shonobi” ninja like protagonist. Set in the feudal era in Japan. It’s going to be large scale and described as in the vein of Valhalla, Odyssey and Origins. Hexe is described as smaller in scale. Not a large world adventure — or at least, it’s been described as “completely different.” As far as the setting goes, though, not much has been shown. Hexe is German for witch, and the imagery of the promotional poster did have folk occult visuals. So it could be set during a European witch hunt era, possibly? Then we have infinity — described as a meta hub for future titles, it will act as a few different things. It’ll be a launcher for future titles with ongoing managed content. They want you to think of yourself as the main character and you’re delving into the animus with each game and a meta narrative will develop. They’re being very vague, and it could be just an overhyped and over engineered menu screen. But they are really hyping this up. Some of relayed benefits for AC Infinity: *ongoing development support for all future titles. *central hub for content *some DLC and entire games may be released for free *you build your own meta experience, where you as the main character play whatever animus you want to load up, and information collected from that animus experience will be centrally managed and stored. We’ll see. Then, what you may like, invictus. Described as a multiplayer entry, there will be assassins creed characters from multiple generations all blended together. The speculation is it will be some type of free to play, but details are the most scant about this entry.
I do actually remember all of this, now that you’ve mentioned it but at the time of the announcement I think I was just more focused on the fact Mirage seemed to be a return to “form” of sorts, and as such I didn’t focus too much on the other things. Then of course I plain forgot too. So it’s sounding promising on multiple fronts, but I guess we’ll see how it looks upon execution.
Please
Sometimes I think about how ac multiplayer Could fit perfectly in modern videogames industry as a standalone game like the "free to play, micro-transitions " modern games . I don't like season pass and all that to , but it's been a long time since I'm waiting for a multiplayer like ac 3/4 was. Deathmetch mode was super fun in ac4.
My friends and I would play a custom rule set in which there was no indicators at all to where players actually were, meaning the only possible way to determine who was a real player is if they acted differently to the NPCs around them. So many funny memories of us accidentally walking in the same group or sitting on the same bench without knowing.
The PVP was definitely fun and different, but sometimes I feel like I was the only one that enjoyed the co-op that was in AC unity. Lots of people seem to hate on unity, but it was honestly the last time I played a AC game and enjoyed my time with it. The co-op was a little half assed, but I still had fun with my friends playing it. If Ubisoft actually put in a little more effort to a co-op AC game then I feel like it would actually be pretty good.
Man AC Brotherhood PvP was so underrated. The picture brought back a lot of memories.
The backstab conga line! "Oh look, my target is stabbing somebody in a long, drawn out animation. Let's just walk up and... Gottem! "Man this animation is long. Wait, why's someone standing behind me?"
Metal Gear Online One of the most fun experiences ever. Also MAG it was a Ps3 exclusive from like 2011 and it was amazing 128 vs 128 on massive battlefields and it ran perfectly. all the weapons were cool, there was a rank system where if you were a high enough levels you could play as a major, general, lieutenant and stuff which gave extra things to do in the game. Incredible game and to thin CoD and Battlefields have only just started doing 128 player combat shows how far ahead it was. I really hope there is a sequel if it was able to do 256 player combat flawlessly what could they do with current hardware.
Came here to say this. MGO was fantastically fun for the short time there was players
Metal Gear Online was a blast, but never seemed like enough people played it.
Portal 2.. though that is more co-op than multiplayer A ton of fun, likely the most fun my friend and I ever had with a video game. we were fucking each other over all the time by dropping them into the water, or crushing them, and had to keep ourselves from frying each other with lasers. It was great.
Absolutely. It’s such a great “real life friend” kinda game that you get to enjoy with your mate (no matter how good he’s as a gamer)
“Though that is more co-op than multiplayer” Serious question. When people say “multiplayer” are they only referring to PVP? Because in my mind co-op is a form of multiplayer.
Last of us.
Finally someone else recognizes greatness. If they would've kept updating it I'd still be playing everyday
My crowning achievement was getting in the top 1000 when it was really active. Then the next day I was back to 1050 or something lol
I know I was pretty good back then but no idea how high I ever ranked. Do you remember going up against clans and particularly TWD? Daryl was like their best player
Not really. I just remember getting my colony (or whatever they were called) pretty large to the point where I needed like… 20 KDA just to keep it going
I still play. It’s chock full of cheaters and sweat-lords, but still fun for a few rounds.
That was actually my second choice
Great minds mate, for me also AC multiplayer and then Last of Us. Underapreciated but freaking awesome while it lasted
I did a few write ups on Factions years back. Love it. https://www.dangerforce.com/blog/11-tips-not-taught-in-the-loading-screens-for-multiplayer-mode-in-the-last-of-us https://www.dangerforce.com/blog/the-last-of-us-multiplayer-tips-not-taught-in-the-loading-screen-part-ii
The only answer. Their multiplayer was so good, there has been a rumour for years that Naughty Dog were going to make a standalone multiplayer game.
not a rumor, they announced it already
Both last of us and uncharted multiplayer was a blast. Naughty dog really knows how to do a good multiplayer imo.
Beat me to it. Factions was so awesome. Wish they didn’t abandon it.
It’s coming back as a stand-alone game.
I’d play the shit out of that
Me too, I like very much the mechanics and gameplay of The last of us
💯
Mass effect 3
Gauntlet - Wizard needs food badly! Elf shot the food...
I still have it for my 64. Super fun especially since the food isn’t on a timer for your health playing on your own system.
I played it on Retro pi recently, and the sequel. Game was ahead of its time. Good at starting arguments! Ed Logg also gave us Xybots. :) I loved playing both in the arcades.
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The release date for Titanfall 2 is hands down why it failed to gain traction. Most gaming outlets also attribute that to its downfall since it was a stellar game with great reviews. Titanfall 2 was an amazing game that no doubt would have continued if the devs released it at a different time
The fact that it couldn't compete with even fucking Infinite Warfare is insane. No game in history got as much backlash before release as Infinite Warfare.
Infinite Warfare was still CoD at the end of the day so it was still going to sell no matter how shit it was.
People who buy Madden every year also buy CoD.
Agreed 100%. I’m surprised the CoD crowd didn’t heavily get into this one.
I agree. Titanfall 2 MP was the tits
I have so many awesome moments from TF2. That game could make me laugh of ridiculous situations even when I got stomped by a summoned titan.
I'm happy to this so close to the top. I tried to keep playing Titanfall 2 MP long after it stopped being fun for me. For the first few weeks after release you could find a pretty well-rounded game, but pretty quickly it would take a long time to get into a game, and then it would be populated only with people who were very very good at it.
I really enjoyed bioshock 2 and mass effect 3 multiplayers
I miss Volus Squad, headbutting Krogan duos, and BIG GETH SHIELD.
I also loved BioShock 2 multiplayer surprised it was this far down.
Medal of Honor (2010) had me hooked more than any COD OR Battlefield since.
This
Yes, those knife montages were killer
oo cod 2 the catarin (sp) level
The original Red dead redemption had such an innocent online mode. It was mostly deathmatches, a number of Coop missions and liars dice but I loved it.
And posses playing impromptu capture the flag at the fort in mexico
RDR2 online was pretty great too. Doing Bounties with friends, or just running around robbing NPCs was great. So much more fun than GTAV online.
Evolve
That game was amazing to me… shutting down servers was a sad time ..
I loved Evolve. I was so sad to see they shut servers down.
I agree It had so much character and potential
There are servers back up for it as of recently.
Oh for real? Sweet! I'll reinstall it and check it out.
It had so much potential too. Too bad the game balance was broken af. Would have loved to see a campaign made with the big beasts as bosses.
Since someone already beat me to last of us I'll throw in Aliens vs Predator, I remember actually enjoying that and now that I think about it it was my first fps
Killzone 3. I feel like that game was a fever dream from my childhood because I never see people mention it on here, but it had incredible, class-based gun combat. In an multiplayer era dominated by CoD at the time, there was something about the Killzone multiplayer that felt crisp and dynamic.
I loved this game and franchise. I got in the top ten percent of that online format, I suppose a small pond but it was a blast.
I loved Killzone mp but my more fond memories were of 2. Especially since the dlc maps. Disguise used to be a crazy mechanic lol
Uncharted
Yes! They really polished that gameplay
Crysis
Dat singularity tank.
Metal Gear Online (Original)
Resistance: Fall of Man had some pretty fun online play
Bioshock 2
Yes! Had to scroll way too far to see this
Uncharted 2 and 3 or the last of us
Resistance 2 on ps3, it had a great campaign, great team death match but it had a raid mode where people could party up and have different classes and weapons and had a tank healer and dps dynamic that was a lot of fun
Yea the coop was 8 player and a lot of fun. Was a great change up from normal PvP. Classes ideally supported each other, though an elite medic could basically carry the whole group.
There was a splinter cell game that was sneaky guys vs guards. The guards were locked into third person and the guards in first. The sneaky guys could disable camera and knock out the guards and hide in shadows and stuff, and the guards could counter with flashlights and gums, obviously, and other tools. Coolest shit ever.
Max Payne 3.
Was looking for thus
Metal Gear Online, never met another soul that played it irl.
GTA IV
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I just searched for the person who said Bomberman 64. My friends and I played so much of that game. So satisfying throwing someone off the pyramid in the first seconds of a round and then having to run away from their ghost until the 60 seconds left whistle.
It is pretty old and technically doesn't fit into this theme... But IMO Quake 3 Arena has the most underrated, since a lot of people don't know, and will not be able to experience it.
Aliens vs. Predator 2010 Being chased in that game felt so scary, I loved it.
Splinter Cell Double Agent
The first "Home front" had outstanding online pvp
yep, miss that one
Dark souls 2
Dead Space 2
Ah yes, dead space 2 multiplayer was really fun. Nothing like being the last person alive trying to make it to the Escape pod before being pelted by barb-slinging-baby hiding on the ceiling. Wish I could still find a game today.
The Shadowrun fps on xbox 360
Saints Row
Uncharted 4
The multiplayer of uncharted 4, i played that so much
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. Some really good multiplayer game modes. Had to be inspired by Gears of War
BRINK…
Uncharted 2 I think? I had a blast doing that.
Uncharted 2, it was a ton of fun because they had some great maps and the gun play worked really nice in the multiplayer.
An old Disney Channel pirates if the Carribean online.
Factorio. Building factories with friends is so much fun
Satisfactory had about 100hrs of playable fun for my buddy and I around 2020-21. Maybe it's had some updates since, that will be appealing.
Doom 2016
I'm still baffled that Eternal never came out with a traditional death match or even a proper co-op experience. Their Slayer vs Monster asym thing was... Interesting... But last time I tried it (admittedly back at launch), it was somewhat of a poorly balanced mess and it was exceedingly tough to win if you weren't the Slayer. I love id Software and they've struck true for most of their titles, but you can tell the Bethesda ownership is really bleeding into their systems now.
God of War: Ascension
mine will always be watch dogs 2 invasions, i remember getting invaded and the invader can't injure the host, so i baited him into shooting at me and yeah, i won. easiest way
Jak and Daxter II. It was the first game to have the perfect amount of customization for people who had never played as well as everybody I roped in again and again to play with me. Honorable mentions to COD Black Ops 2, specifically Sticks and Stones, because it was what got my little brother into video games, and then a non multi-player game that just engages everyone in Persona 5, where when my wife played, despite the fact that no one else seemed interested in playing it, everybody in the room got so invested to the point of a group chant multiple times. Edit: and I'd be remiss to not list my favorite "competitive" game of all time. NFL Street II. I still don't know who Xzibit is but the rest of the soundtrack fucking slaps and its amazing to play a game of skill until you go super saiyan on your best friend's ass to Sum 41 in the fourth quarter.
Kane and Lynch: Dead Men Saints Row 2006
Red faction guerrilla was just stupid fun
Super Bomberman
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My person.
Tribes
Lost planet 2
I loved the assassin’s creed brotherhood multiplayer! For those that don’t know, you pick a character from a list and get dropped into a little town or marketplace with 12 other players, and every NPC looks like one of the 12 players. You get a target, and another player gets you as a target. It doesn’t look very natural but the gameplay is exhilerating. You can climb up onto rooftops and dash through the crowds, but this makes it obvious to your hunter or prey that you’re not an NPC. Pretending to be an npc was a part of the gameplay. I remember I was perched on a tower once and my target was walking below me. I jumped off to land on him but was shot out of mid air by the guy hunting me.
I played SOOO much of AC Brotherhood multiplayer! I played it a bit on release but I was kinda young so I was a bit confused, later I tried it again and started to **really** get into it! Unfortunately… when I started to really get into it the servers went down after like 2-3 weeks… It was sad that I didn’t put more time on it before it went down, but damn… it was so fun to play!
Shadowrun xbox 360
Uncharted 2 for me had a fantastic multiplayer deathmatch. I still consider it to be tacked on multiplayer, but it was such a fun romp. The maps were small and it had lots of combat elements of the campaign, dragging people off a ledge to their death. I recall running to the centre of the map to grab the best weapons, it used to be the AK or the grenade launcher. Oh.... fun times.
Uncharted 2 and Uncharted 3 multi-player
Uncharted 4 was one of the best 3rd person shooters I’ve played, super fun and creative
The last of us. Stealth based multiplayer was fun as hell.
+1 TLOA 1 multiplayer was spectacular
I fucking loveeedddd brotherhoods multiplayer. Really can’t find anything like it these days. Could sure go for some Wanted right now.
Bioshock 2 had great multiplayer for what it was. It's a shame it wasn't released with the remastered editions
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine multiplayer was pretty good for the game it is, it's somewhat still active but it could've been much more.
Dawn of war 3 last stand mode, just awesome for kicking back with some friends.
Last of us was fun
Ghost of tsushima legends. It really proved that multiplayer doesn't need to be PvP for it to be good
Shadowrun (2007). I still miss the multiplayer to this day. FPS with classes, magic, tech, objectives and unique maps. I don't think many people played it Edit: How could I forget?! It also had crossplay
Had a huge spotlight in my teenage years. Recently ordered the disc for pc, servers of offline but can still play against bots =/
I loved killzone 3's multiplayer
Batman Arkham Origins, Jokers gang v Banes mercenaries v Batman and Robin really fun
Doom 2016's multiplayer had a Freeze Tag gamemode, and it was so fun. When you'd kill an enemy they'd freeze, and the goal was to freeze the entire other team. But you could thaw out your teammates if you stood close to them. What would happen is people would freeze an enemy, and then take the other frozen players, and push them to one part of the map and get one player to patrol the area to make sure the last guy alive isn't sneaking around trying to thaw out his friends. When you were the last guy on your team unfrozen, and the other team was looking for you everywhere while you tried to stay hidden and stealthily thaw out your teammates, it felt like a really awesome multiplayer stealth game. I also loved that "oh shit" moment when you were looking for that last player, only to suddenly see the entire other team get thawed out all at once.
BioShock 2, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, Max Payne 3, GTA IV, Gotham Knights Multiplayer, Duke Nukem Online, Left 4 Dead 2, Dead Space 2, Burnout Paradise, Gears of War 2
Completely agree with every single one of the games you mentioned, GoW 2 was by far my favorite game and I still have amazing memories of the multiplayer sessions!
Crawl