Though I am an RPG enthusiast and love me some solo RPG experiences, I often find myself wanting to play games with others.
Odd I know.
Yet often these multiplayer sessions are not as fun as I want them to be. I guess it all boils down to what I expect: Not a race for the end of the level, but a mix camaraderie and friendship.
One of the best times I’ve had playing a Mulitiplayer game is when I played Bauldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance on the Playstation 2 many years ago. I played through the game with two different people: My brother and my friend.
I understand that BG: DA may not be considered a classic, but it was fun multiplayer game. You see, back in the ‘day,’ My brother and I often played my PS2. In fact he played it almost as much as I did. When I brought BG:DA home, I talked my brother into playing the game with me. One weekend when his kids were off on vacation or gone with friends, we tackled the game whole heartedly. We started mowing through the enemies en masse while collecting loot and just generally killing anything that got in our way. We eventually beat the game and were sorely disappointed when there didn’t seem to be anything else to kill. No other game on the PS2, at that time, came close to the fun we had with Baldur’s Gate. At least not that I could find…
Later that year, on the Fourth of July, my friend and I were aimless and doing nothing. So we loaded BG: DA up and I started a play through again with him in tow. He came over 2 or 3 days in a row while we beat the game.
It was just fun. We were able to sit in the same room and joke, eat, and just have a good time.
I think BG:DA helped implant in me a love of Co-op gaming. Up until very recently there has been a void of true cooperative games, I think. Luckily that is changing. I own many Co-op games for my Xbox 360 and many, many more for my personal computer. I look for games that are Co-op now just so I can play them with my friends.
Yet playing over the internet isn’t the same as playing with your buddies in front of a TV.
I don’t know if I will ever find that same experience again. At least I’ll always have that dark, dark alliance.
In fact i still have the memory card with the save games on it from those by gone games. I found it just the other day as I was hooking up my trusty ol’ PS2. I should still have the actual game somewhere…
