Poll: Directed Multiplayer in FPSs

[Korias]

Back in the day, I used to play Unreal Tournament, and there was a particular game mode that seems to have altogether disappeared in today's FPS market. While I don't remember the exact name, the players were divided into Attackers and Defenders, with the Attackers having to complete a set of goals and the defenders holding off for as long as possible. For example, there was one map where you either had to launch a rocket prematurely to cripple a military group or defend the rocket from being launched. There were often multiple stages to each objective: Crack the doors, unlock the control panel, destroy the SAM battery to allow additional reinforcements, and then defend the launch platform.

This mode of game play, where there is established objectives, seems to be completely absent. In CoD, B:BC, Resistance, Killzone, FEAR, ect, it basically boils down to team Deathmatch. While there may be similar functions, such as MW2's "Sabotage" mode, it's not the same. The exception to this is MAG: the entire game is built around this kind of game mode, save for Suppression mode.

Does anybody know why this mode of game has died out? Should it be brought back?

 

[TheTaco007]

Section 8 has this. Too bad the game doesn't look very good...

 

[Carlston]

I miss that destroyer level...

Ya know the ship you had to defend. That was tons of fun.

 

[TheFacelessOne]

I think I know what you're talking about...

But yeah...those kind of things were kool.

 

[Korias]

@TheFacelessOne : That's why I'm trying to figure out what happened to them. Those missions were more fun than any Team Deathmatch or Domination game was.

@Carlston : So true. I think a trip to go get the Unreal Anthology is in order, the more I think about it.

@TheTaco007 : I didn't know that. How did you find that out?

 

[latenightapplepie]

Yeah, I remember that vaguely. It was very fun. I think Brink might be bringing it back. In a big way.

 

[BeeRye]

Ah, the underwater base was an amazing map, as was Overlord. I loved that type of gameplay. It could get so frantic trying to desperately defend the last objective, I'd be hammering on my keyboard everytime I died because the respawn was taking too long.

I haven't played it in a long time, but doesn't TF2's gameplay recreate this somewhat, in some of the maps at least? Sure it's capping points sequentially rather than using demo charges, but the concept remains the same. Really it's just a trick, it funnels everyone to a very specific set of chokepoints, which are designed to hold attackers for a certain time, before moving the fight on before those chokepoints become boring.

 

[YuheJi]

Would Bad Company 2's Rush mode or TF2's Payload count?

 

[Korias]

Ah, the underwater base was an amazing map, as was Overlord. I loved that type of gameplay. It could get so frantic trying to desperately defend the last objective, I'd be hammering on my keyboard everytime I died because the respawn was taking too long.

I haven't played it in a long time, but doesn't TF2's gameplay recreate this somewhat, in some of the maps at least? Sure it's capping points sequentially rather than using demo charges, but the concept remains the same. Really it's just a trick, it funnels everyone to a very specific set of chokepoints, which are designed to hold attackers for a certain time, before moving the fight on before those chokepoints become boring.

I suppose. My rig never ran TF2 very well so I never got the chance to experience it. But I suppose that it does, looking at some of the gameplay videos. But that makes four games: MAG, Brink, Section 8, and TF2, that have this mode out of all the other current gen FPSs. The real question is "Why?"

Edit: B:BC2's Rush mode is sort of similar, but it still feels more like MW2's Sabotage mode than UT's Assault mode. But I suppose that it does qualify as "Directed Multiplayer".

Perhaps I just need to play more.

 

[BeeRye]

The real question is "Why?"

Part of it is difficulty in making the maps work well. You have to set up a map where you control the chokepoints. You need to get your timings for both teams perfect and even then someone will probably find a trick to circumvent your carefully planned encounter points and essentially break the game. So it can be difficult to do properly. Valve illustrated in their TF2 blog when they noted that their planned engie upgrades actually destroyed the normal encounter points and made the desired gameplay breakdown.

http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=3539

 

[Fenreil]

Objective based games have always been my favorite. I love Battlefield games for their lack of true deathmatches.

 

[Irishhoodlum]

What Killzone are you playing? Agreed though

 

[ethaninja]

Assault? I miss that game mode. You can still see it in some games these days. But yeah, I wish there were better objectives. I don't teamwork based objectives, nobody works together and it all goes to hell. At least with TDM you can still fuck shit up without working together.