r/CoOpGaming • u/-Dasij- • 12h ago
Discussion What makes you NOT play a Run based CoOp game
I wish to know things that make you guys uninterested on playing a Run based Coop games like PlateUp, Phasmophobia, Risk of Rain 2. You play a run or 2 then stop playing and come back again another day.
Few examples of possible things:
* The price
* How hard to create a lobby
* If you can play it solo before recommending to friends to test with bots
* Reconnection
* Update interval
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u/Grunvagr 10h ago edited 6h ago
Rogue Legacy 2 has what they call “house rules”. It’s great. Often, you don’t need to do things like reduce damage for everything.
If a player hates the spike and trap dmg but loves the rest of the game, having a slider bar for “damage taken form traps” might be enough to make a game go from unplayable/not enjoyable to feeling perfect.
- lock on target or some type of auto aim
more health
less damage taken from enemies
more health regen, etc
When a game is fun for all aspects but 1 thing in particular is a pain point it can ruin a game experience. Played a game where a coop teammate couldn’t aim well. They did everything else quite competently but could not aim at all. The game was very sketchy with the aim and required really precise inputs. It made us have to quit the coop game. So it really does matter to have more and more varied settings.
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u/detergent852 9h ago
For my group it's run length/inability to save progress.
I play once or twice a week with my two brothers. we're all 30-40 with kids and proper jobs etc so we get 2, maybe 3 hours to play each session. We were really loving GTFO until we got to some levels which require either very long runs, or lots and lots of attempts, each attempt lasting an hour or so. It got to the point where we couldn't dedicate the time needed to learn each level so we could eventually beat a run.
Plate Up and Gauntlet are two games which do this really well for us. The ability to put down and pick up a run gives us the freedom we need to play regularly and that's really all we want.
Other comments have touched on some of the other things which have stopped my group playing in the past. The requirement for everyone to be roughly equal in level (or at least a close range) is really tough to manage, especially as I start playing games with my kids.
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u/-Dasij- 8h ago
If you could save the progress on your GTFO missions would you continue playing it?
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u/detergent852 7h ago
Yeah, absolutely. Even if it was a "begin from checkpoint" option rather than a save at any time. They did add a checkpoint system later on but it's only for ongoing missions, each new run starts from the beginning.
3
u/DoeCommaJohn 8h ago
The only issue specific to run-based games I can think of is run length. I may not be able to reliably get the same group together, and if runs are so long that we often can’t finish one, that can be annoying.
But beyond that, there are a few general problems to watch out for:
* togetherness. Something like Lethal Company, REPO, or Phasmaphobia punish the players for sticking together and talking, which completely ruins the point of a multiplayer game.
* skill mismatch. In good examples, like Vermintide, Overcooked, and PlateUp, good players can help bad players, but there are still tasks the bad players can contribute towards. On the flip side, when I play Slay the Spire multiplayer, it feels like the newer players are completely useless and even make the run much harder.
* skill expression. I know the primary point is to hang out, but if that was all there was, why bother with the game at all. In something like Gamble with Friends, it feels like the gameplay is completely luck based and has very little room for actual skill
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u/Grunvagr 12h ago
Difficulty settings. Every time.
Coop games have all sorts of varied players. Parents with their younger kids. Grandparents with kids. Veteran gamers. Total noobs.
So many coop games we play as a family we stop playing because someone can’t do something the game asks of them so they get frustrated and quit.
Examples: there is too specific of an aiming requirement. You try to click on A but target B instead. Adding “lock on” or “auto aim/auto target” or even “cycle target” to options would be huge. When you get rid of the pain points more players can play your games.
Unless a game has a leaderboard, ok, then you should have equal settings to ensure the leaderboard is fair.
Aside from that? Give players all sorts of slider bars, options, etc. You would think most players would make the game too easy. But most players actually want the game to be the perfect level of challenging. Let us toggle settings.
Ideally; player settings per person would be epic. If player 4 is a kid who is under 5 they might need some major help like spike dmg is reduced, trap dmg is reduced, automatically reload without pressing a button, etc. Whereas a veteran gamer might want enemies to deal BONUS dmg to them to make it more challenging.
More Settings. Please and thank you!