8 Lies The Video Game Industry Can't Stop Telling

7. That Any Squad Game Is A Worthwhile Single-Player Experience

If there's one gameplay template currently doing the rounds, it's the squad shooter.

A hybrid of late 2000s third-person action games like Gears of War, the burst of co-op mechanics Left 4 Dead added to the mix, and the loot-drive of Diablo 3, everything from The Division to Outriders, Avengers, Anthem, Back 4 Blood, Aliens: Fireteam Elite to Redfall has trailers of multiple main characters going up against hordes of enemies.

Nothing against these games existing of course, but it's become a go-to statement to point out that "Hey, this game can totally be played single player too!"

A throwaway line in marketing that still ensnares those who just don't want to play online squad shooters, the reality in every.single.case of these, is that no game designed for group combat remotely works as a single player experience.

You can play a co-op game solo, but that's not the same as a single player game. Health pools aren't balanced, enemy aggression and A.I. doesn't adapt, and if you go into the arbitrary "downed state", you're just stuck there with no one to revive you, forever reminded that the game is not meant to be played this way.