Confessions of an Anti-Social Gamer

“Do you fancy doing the raid tonight?”

“I can’t tonight, I’m out, I’m free tomorrow lunch time though...”

“Argh, that’s no good for me, I’ve got family around”

“Crap, OK, well, I’ll let you know when I’m free in the week and we can attack it then, how’s that?”

“Yeah, whatever”

Does that sound familiar? You’ve probably had hundreds of conversations like this, working around your mates trying to establish the best time meet up, get online, kill some bad guys and reap the rewards. It can be a great couple of hours once everyone is connected and together, but my god, it’s a pain in the arse to plan.

I’ve never really been one for multiplayer or huge MMOs. I mean, I’m not even a fan of a quick local 2-player on FIFA if I can help it. I’m an anti-social gamer and that’s the way it’s always been.

Don’t get me wrong, I do play online when it is required, I’m not that stubborn. I had to have my armed twisted to get Destiny, and once I did, I sunk well over 100 hours into it with my undermanned fireteam of three, taking on the same old strikes and daily missions while testing our metal in the crucible as often as we could. But here lay my problem. I hated having to rely on other people for me to play games on my console. Very rarely, maybe once or twice a week, did all of our freetime align, perhaps for an hour or two during weekdays and a little longer over the weekends and it really stopped me getting the full experience.

Not only that, but the internet is a temperamental mistress and as much as she has brought to gamer’s lives, it has caused many more to go insane. Once you have agreed a time to get connected, you run the risk of a lazy router, or worse, an idle server on the game developer’s end. There is no guarantee that your pencilled in, space adventure with friends will come to fruition, and for someone who is reluctant to jump in online, it can be the nail in the coffin… bring me my single-player game.

February saw the first few, truly sought after AAA titles of 2015 hit the shelves. Evolve and The Order: 1886. Evolve had been getting a lot of hype with its new take on the multiplayer genre, a 4v1 monster hunter that had aspiring eSports athletes drooling with anticipation. Me on the other hand, a quick look and realisation that it’s mostly online and my excitement was soon gone. “Great, now I have to wait for everyone to get home from work and trust that the servers and my internet are all in tip-top condition”. Rather than bite the bullet, I didn’t take the plunge into Evolve; I kept my arms folded, mouth shut and enjoyed a lovely bit of offline single player on The Order: 1886.

A game with any sort of story has me in its grasp, an excuse to put my feet up and get away from any form of communication with another human; be it in person or over the web. For all of its downfalls (mostly its length), I really enjoyed The Order: 1886, an interesting steampunk tale, that has no doubt paved the way for an ongoing series. I spent a solid 8-10 hours with it and it was done. I was perfectly happy to put it down and find something else to keep myself, and only myself occupied. I have no problem with that. The Order might not remain a particular highlight, or leave a legacy but for what it’s worth, I enjoyed every second!

An always online future is almost inevitable, but I stand by the fact that we need to have these thorough single-player experiences to balance the playing field, not everyone wants the same thing, and I’m more than happy to be a story mode ambassador! While you have a crack at the new Battlefield: Hardline online modes, Evolve or Destiny, searching for some pals, I’ll be racing my way through single-player Counterspy, moving onto Hotline Miami 2 when I’m done and I wouldn’t want it any other way!