Did you know Man of Medan had multiplayer? No, neither did we.
Man of Medan, the narrative adventure from Until Dawn developer Supermassive Games, launches in a few weeks. From what we’ve seen of the game thus far, it’s another game in the Until Dawn mould, featuring complex branching narratives and motion-captured performances that try their best to stay out of the Uncanny Valley.
But Man of Medan – the first game in Bandai Namco’s Dark Pictures Anthology – has another trick up its sleeve, one that’s very unusual for narrative games. Man of Medan has multiplayer.
And that’s not the sort of pass-the-controller-around multiplayer that goes so well with narrative adventure games. Nor is it the committee-friendly, ask-the-audience voting system that Telltale Games began to introduce to their titles before their closure. Man of Medan features proper multiplayer, in two different forms.
The first is two-player co-op, where two players get to control different characters in the scene. That means you can explore areas together, or split up and experience different parts of the story separately. Both players make branching narrative decisions independently of one another, with the other player unable to see the choice that’s on your screen. This means you have the ability to surprise one another, but you can offer them advice and guidance, as illustrated in this new developer video.
Co-op in a narrative adventure seems weird at first glance, but when you see it in action, it makes sense. It makes you wonder why – Josef Fares aside – more developers haven’t tried it before.
There’s more, however. Two-player co-op is just the first of Man of Medan’s multiplayer modes.
A second multiplayer reveal video, focusing on the Man of Medan’s Movie Night mode (whatever that is) will be made available by Bandai Namco next week.
