by Iron Gates
By themselves, I think the co-op options are awesome in terms of gameplay and design, but I generally would rather play as the overlord.Monsters in the co-op modes often make sub-par decisions compared to a human overlord, which of course is understandable. It is just difficult, as an overlord player, to watch monsters do things that a human overlord likely would not do. This is compensated by random events, which in general seems to be the way AI is assisted in many co-op games. Still, rather than play co-op, I would prefer to just be the overlord and activate the monsters differently!
If the game were designed from the beginning as a co-op, I would not think about how the AI could be different; I would just enjoy the game. With Descent, since the overlord mode is available, I would rather play that.
(There is one specific situation where I would prefer to play the co-op mode, and that is when only two people are available. As an overlord I like facing a party of heroes rather than just one.)
What do you think? Would you rather be the overlord than play co-op?
If not, and you'd rather play co-op, is it because you want to be the overlord but you just like the "dungeon crawl" mode for co-op more than the "scenario race" of the overlord mode? Or is it because you actually find it more fun to be a hero?