God of War Sons of Sparta Requires Story Completion to Unlock Co-Op

Some players are confused and angry in God of War: Sons of Sparta because they can't access the two-player local co-op mode right away, even after being told about it. The PlayStation Store page says the game can be played with a friend, but many people have learned the hard way that they need to finish the main story in single-player mode first.

People who thought they could play the whole game from the beginning are mad that that important detail was left out. There's something wrong with how the game's co-op features are set up. Sons of Sparta does have a two-player game that you can play with a friend nearby, but you can't play it until you finish the main story.

People have to finish the story on their own first, and then they can play with a friend. 

It was a surprise to people who got the game just to play with a friend on the couch. A lot of the anger comes from what people thought the store page would be like. A lot of people think that if a game says "two-player co-op," that feature is there from the beginning or at least is part of the major story.

The PlayStation Store description might not have made it clear that co-op is locked until the story is over. Some people bought Sons of Sparta so they could play the whole thing together, but they found out they couldn't do that until they finished the story for one person. They talked about it in public because things were getting harder to understand.

It was made clear on social media how the feature works: once the main story is over, players can access a challenge game that they can play alone or with a friend in local couch co-op. The claim was meant to clear up any doubts and show that co-op does exist, but only as a mode that can be played after the mission is over.

It's easy to see why this shocked some. You might think that you and a friend can start playing right away if the words "two-player co-op" are big and easy to see. Before you can play with other people, you have to finish the story by yourself. For people who bought the game to play with others, that kind of difference is important.

This is proof of how important it is for digital shop ads to be clear. 

An idea of a feature doesn't matter; how and when it's made available can have a big effect on what customers expect. A simple note saying that you can play co-op after the story is over would have stopped a lot of the bad comments. They filled in the holes on their own without being told, and many of them thought they could get in right away.

When multiplayer or co-op modes were locked behind development tools in the past, people had the same issues. Being clear can make the difference between being thrilled and being let down. People who were going to play Sons of Sparta as a full shared adventure from beginning to end may have felt lied to.

There's still no word on whether the store description has been changed or will be changed to better explain how the co-op works. But in a public statement, the studio says it is aware of the misunderstanding and wants to clear things up right away. Okay, I see. You have to finish the single-player story before you can buy the game with couch co-op.

The post-game challenge mode lets two or more people play together, which may still interest fans of the series. Still, the fuss shows that feature names don't always tell the whole story. It doesn't matter how true the reasoning is if what you expect and what you get don't match up.