Why Valve Nuked Portal 2's VS. Multiplayer Mode
The competitive multiplayer aspect was a "hot mess."
Valve Software writer Erik Wolpaw revealed that Portal 2 almost had a competitive multiplayer component, however it was removed after early tests. The news came during 1UP's visit to the developer during its 1UP Cross Country Game Tour.
"Along with co-op, [we had] the idea of sort of a competitive Portal multiplayer," he said. "We went down that path, actually, for a little while and had something up and running--the best way to describe it is sort of speedball meets Portal. You know, a sports analog."
Called "spite-your-neighbor," the multiplayer mode involved moving a ball from one end of a space to the other using portals. Competitors would attempt to stop the player by using portals as well--an example described trapping the player with a portal shot onto the ground.
"It quickly became apparent that while it's fun for about two seconds to drop portals under people and things like that, it quickly just devolves into pure chaos," he admitted. "It lost a lot of the stuff that was really entertaining about Portal, which was puzzle-solving. Cooperative puzzle-solving was just a much more rewarding path."
Portal 2 will "ship" with a longer campaign than what was experienced with the original Portal. The sequel will also provide players with a cooperative multiplayer experience when it launches in February 2011.
You can probably still greif in the Co-Op. Just because its not VS mode doesn't mean that your portal gun can't shoot portals under the person just to screw with them.
You can probably still greif in the Co-Op. Just because its not VS mode doesn't mean that your portal gun can't shoot portals under the person just to screw with them.
Maybe they could find a way to revisit the game in both Cooperative and "Deathmatch" style? I for one really enjoyed bizzare fun games like Rocket Crowbar for Halflife 1. Some of those maps and games were pretty close to a "Hot Mess"
Maybe add in puzzle traps into the maps to make it more fun and more interesting?
Exactly, Capture the Flag, King of the Hill, these were Mods. The original games (Quake, UT, etc..) were straight up deathmatch. True, deathmatch isn't exactly in the Portal storyline, but that doesn't mean people wouldn't want to play it for a little while. I guess the biggest problem would be how you keep all the portals straight with so many people running around shooting them.
Give the portal beam a little force, and you could knock people off their oh-so-carefully prepared trajectories, etc.. etc... You don't need guns to make it fun.
i can see how a portal multiplayer could just turn into griefing of a new level. thankfully they acknowledged that, but perhaps they could also come up with something else that is competitive-ish. look at all the modes they come up with for TF2. valve can do it
*cough cough**bioshock**cough cough*