Spec Ops: The Line lead designer Cory Davis has spoken candidly about the game's multiplayer component.
He reveals that team at Yager adamantly did not want the game to have multiplayer but ultimately it wasn't their decision to make. “The publisher was determined to have it anyway," said Davis in an interview with Polygon. "It was literally a check box that the financial predictions said we needed, and 2K was relentless in making sure that it happened – even at the detriment of the overall project and the perception of the game".
Development of the game's multiplayer was outsourced to Darkside Studios. Davis describes the experience as a "low-quality Call of Duty clone in third-person" and criticised since it "tossed out the creative pillars of the product".
it's another game rammed onto the disk like a cancerous growth, threatening to destroy the best things about the experience
Ultimately, Davis seems to be smarting from the way in which the game's multiplayer detracted from the single-player experience Yager crafted. "It sheds a negative light on all of the meaningful things we did in the single-player experience," said Davis. "The multiplayer game's tone is entirely different, the game mechanics were raped to make it happen, and it was a waste of money. No one is playing it, and I don't even feel like it's part of the overall package — it's another game rammed onto the disk like a cancerous growth, threatening to destroy the best things about the experience that the team at Yager put their heart and souls into creating".
He's not entirely down on 2K, however. He praised the publisher for backing a risky project that "other publishers would not have had the balls to take". Davis said. "I'm proud of what we were able to achieve, and it was not easy". He just sympathises with developers who are forced to create what he calls "tacked on multiplayer". He remains unambiguous that Spec Ops: The Line's multiplayer is "bulls**t, should not exist... there's no doubt that it's an overall failure".
Daniel is IGN's UK Staff Writer. You can be part of the world's worst cult by following him on IGN and Twitter.
Source : ign[dot]com
