Co-op Games, Where Are They?

I’m a PC gamer. I’ve been playing games since I was 9 years old on a 286. I play every genre, Arcade, RPG, RTS, FPS, MMORPG, you name it, I’ve played it. I enjoy most genres but there’s one genre which stands out above the rest and thats CO-OP gaming. There’s something very special about sharing a gaming experience with another person. And I don’t mean multiplayer games where you’re two or more entities duking it out in a virtual arena, I’m talking about 2 or more gamers sharing a campaign or single player experience that specifically crafted to 2 or more players.

I’m talking about games like System Shock 2. This game stands out as the most impressive CO-OP experience to date in my book. The funny thing is, the developer Irrational Games only added the multiplayer component as a patch after the game was released, it was a mere after-thought yet it made for a uniquely engaging experience. The code was rudimentary and very buggy and 4 player CO-OP games would occasionally stop working but the fun factor towered above all the problems and made them diminutive in size.

Can you imagine playing a single player game with 3 other people, each with their own skills and abilities, panting and sweating as you move from corridor to corridor, covering each others actions, taking point, hacking systems and using the power of Psi-ops to create impenetrable shields, advancing to higher and more ambient levels, experiencing something that you won’t find playing solo.

The game was a literary masterpiece with an incredibly original story. So it was with great surprise to find out that Bioshock, the spiritual successor to the System Shock universe was not going to include any form of multiplayer CO-OP component. You would think that the developers would have included it based on the critical success of System Shock 2. But alas they didn’t and we were forced to drudge through Rapture in a solo capacity. I read recently that Bioshock had just won 11 awards for various things, interesting but did it really deserve them, there’s practically zero re-playability in the game. System Shock 2 on the other hand has mountains of replayability. If they had made System Shock 3 or even re-made System Shock 2 I’m sure it would have been even more acclaimed.

Developers need to start focusing their efforts on CO-OP games now, I read that Valve just bought Turtle Rock Studios which was working on a zombie game based on the Source engine. I’m really looking forward to that. Admittedly I have not played Gears of War and I understand it’s great for CO-OP, it’s next on my to play list.
What are your thoughts on this, which games have you played, patched/modded that adds co-op support?