10 Awesome Video Game Mechanics The Industry Abandoned

The Perfect Dark series had some ups and downs. The original game, built with the Goldeneye engine, was well-regarded. One feature that puts the original game above similar Goldeneye clones of the era, though, was Counter-Operative Mode.

In COM, one player played through the single-player campaign as the main character, Joanna. The other player played in an asymmetrical fashion by taking control of one of the low-level goon enemies in the stage. Player 1 had all the sweet moves, good equipment, and special tricks – but player two could respawn as another goon elsewhere on the level if they were killed.

I'm surprised this feature didn't get more use a few years ago when the whole 'asymmetric gameplay' fad ran its course where every game had to have different experiences for competitive play – the likes of Friday the 13th, Left 4 Dead, and Evolve.

Imagine playing Uncharted, but while one player is Nathan Drake, the other one is playing the unnamed goons he has to gun down between set pieces. Or playing a stealth game, like Tenchu, where one player is an elite ninja infiltrating a castle and the other player can control one roaming guard at a time.