Dead Island Makes a Strong Case for Co-op Elder Scrolls

After playing a good 5 hours of co-op in Dead Island with a group of friends this past Monday, I think Dead Island answers a very pressing question for certain fans of The Elder Scrolls games: should there be online co-op. After playing Dead Island the answer for me is a resounding "YES!". The reason I use Dead Island as a gauge as to whether co-op would be fun in The Elder Scrolls is because the basic design of the two games is very similar. Both feature a large, open play space, main story quests and side quests, leveling, the ability to pick up most anything, etc.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is one of my all time favorite games, and I've felt like online co-op would make it so much better. I spent many nights wondering around Cyrodiil, talking to a friend over Xbox Live while he did the same thing, and wondering why we couldn't just adventure together. RPG's, and specifically The Elder Scrolls, are derived from the original RPG, Dungeons & Dragons. The funny thing is that while pen and paper D&D is all about playing with others, video game RPG's have always been solitary affairs. I think it's time developers start putting the comaraderie of co-op back into the RPG experience.

I realize that the counter argument is that putting time and attention into a multiplayer mode could potentially detract from the single player campaign, but I see little to no evidence to support this. When it was announced that Uncharted 2 would feature multiplayer fans shouted the same argument, that a multiplayer mode would ruin the single player, but in reality Uncharted 2's single player ended up being far superior to the first game's. There are other examples of multiplayer being added to a previously single player only game that didn't hinder the single player experience. Some good examples of this are Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Bioshock2, and GTAIV. Another thing to consider is that usually when a developer decides to add multiplayer to a game, another team is brought in to work on the mode that otherwise wouldn't be there. Honestly, I've found that many of the people who don't want multiplayer in typically single player games tend to be people that don't like multiplayer at all.

Uncharted 2's multiplayer ended up being very well done

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood also had a very well done multiplayer mode

The way that Dead Island handles story mode quests in co-op is simple, straight forward, and works incredibly well. The objectives aren't changed for quests between single player and co-op, but certain quests can't be completed until all players are in a red circle area (the circle of trust!), but even then any stragglers can be "teleported" there by tapping the D-pad. This type of system could be directly applied to games like Fallout or The Elder Scrolls.

We pretty much know that The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim won't have any kind of multiplayer, but that doesn't mean I'll stop asking for it in future installments. The beauty of multiplayer is the longevity it creates for a game, and considering we get a new Elder Scrolls game every 5 or 6 years, co-op could keep people playing right up until the release of the next game.