Nothing seems to kill a sense of tension and underlying fear quicker than having a tooled-up companion eagerly watching your back and protecting you from any emerging threats. Whilst cooperatively play has had some fun dynamics in Resident Evil 5 and 6, it ultimately casts away any of the fears of exploring the world at your own pace. Having this buddy system also allows for some unnatural gameplay elements such as your character dying if your AI or human-controlled buddy gets slaughtered, along with some unusual world and level design that clearly caters for two players. In removing the safety net of cooperative play in the story it allows you as a player to take caution with your decisions as you're now essentially a one man army - there is once again a sense of urgency and solitude that play to the strengths of a survival-horror environment. How many times have you shouted at your AI-controlled (or even at times human) compadres for running off ahead to only get surrounded by hordes of murderous villagers and lost your rag with them hogging all of the ammunition or wastefully depleting your shared resources? With these frustrations forever present in co-op play (no matter how smart the AI thinks it will get) it cements even further as to why going solo would be the series putting the best foot forward.
Ardent gaming enthusiast who lusts for a taste of working in the industry. Fighting game bruiser who would play professionally if he could learn to block just that little bit more. Bartender on the side and used to be a freelance Makeup Artist. Enthralls everywhere he goes.
