Gaming @beehaw.org emeraldheart @beehaw.org 1 yr. ago

Co-operative Video Games

(the app is forcing me to put a link so I put Timesplitters 2 gameplay cuz this is mostly a text post)

Hi everyone! I've been feeling frustration about games lately, remembering experiences I had as a kid playing co-op story games with my friends, like Timesplitters and Destroy All Humans, etc.

Modern multiplayer games sometimes have some co-op elements, but many of them are party games like Human Fall Flat or Among Us, or big Battle Royales or Multiplayer shooters. The co-op ones seem to only be survival games like The Forest.

I'm always looking for good co-op experiences to play with my friends, but it's hard to find what I am looking for. I recently played It Takes Two with my partner and that was so wonderful.

Does anyone know any games like what I am looking for? It seems these kinds of games are so few and far between, sadly.

22 comments

Dont Starve Together and Overcooked are my jam with wife :3
- Tried Overcooked with my wife, but unfortunately the game got frustratingly hard pretty quickly... (Note that I'm not a gaming novice)
  
  I recommend giving Plate Up! a look. As good as it is, we also found Overcooked incredibly overwhelming/frustrating. Plate up is much better in that area, we feel. It eases you into the more hectic situations and you actually have agency over the design of the restaurant.
You probably played it already, but if you didn't, Portal 2 has a Co-op campaign and it's really good.

Edit: I opened my steam library for more games and and saw that apparently an unofficial mod Portal reloaded had a co-op update if you already played the original. Anyway here's some more games.

Battleblock theater: a co-op puzzle platformer. It has a bit of a party game vibe with it's humour and ability to mess with your friends, but it has a story.

Don't starve together: a 2d survival game with an interesting drawn style.

FEAR 3: a horror FPS.

Payday 2: a co-op FPS where you rob banks (and other places).
Have you played Deep Rock Galactic? It's a wonderful games where you play a dwarf mining things, fighting off bugs while you do it. You play in a group of up to 4 people trying to complete your objectives together.

I find it really hard to explain what makes it great, so you'll just have to trust it's avid fan base!
- For Rock and Stone!
  
  Rock and Stone to the bone!
  
  Rock and Stone in the heart!
  
  If you don't Rock and Stone, you ain't coming home!
I'm a bit surprised by your premise, games with local co-op have certainly almost disappeared entirely, but I haven't noticed a trend in online co-op. Some good ones off-hand (that haven't been mentioned). These are in descending order if my personal playtime as a rough proxy for how good I think they are.

Remnant

Wasteland 3

Outriders

Gloomhaven

Risk of Rain 2

Warhammer Vermintide 2

Monster Hunter World

Left 4 Dead series

Back 4 Blood

Borderlands series

Magicka

Star Wars the Old Republic

Helldivers

Barony

Barotrauma

Gods Trigger

Action Squad

Aragami 1,2

Evil West
Deep Rock Galactic
If you and your partner enjoy RPG's, I highly recommend Divinity: Original Sin (and Divinity: Original Sin 2, though we haven't finished that one yet). Very story-driven, the tactical combat is a blast when you get into strategizing and collaborating, and there are all sorts of non-combat shenanigans you can get up to as well (the second even more so than the first).
- I think I will absolutely look into these, thank you!!
Here are some rough categories and hours included.

Builder / Survival

Sounded like you were not that interested in this genre but they can be fun co-op experiences.

Terraria (850 hours) - Two of my friends I have done two clean slate full play-throughs of this game.

Core Keeper (77 hours) - Also played through the content of this game with same 2 friends.

Valheim (344 hours) - Did a co-op play through with a friend on this one. Might do it again with Mistlands or with other updates.

Boss Encounters / Building

V Rising (79 hours)

Played through V Rising with a friend, co-op pve, and it was a blast. We really enjoyed the different boss battles. We are going to revisit this one soon as they dropped / are dropping new content.

Exploration / Melee Combat / Story

Dying Light 2 (87 hours)

Enjoyed playing Dying Light 2 with a friend, playing the game turned out to a mix of playing solo and playing co-op.

Platformer

Trine

Fox mentioned this and I'll add it as well. Fun co-op platformer with some fun story telling aspects.

MMO

Guildwars 2

Fox also mentioned GW2 in the thread. There is a ridiculous amount of content in this game with no subscription required. Combat feedback/force has always felt weak imo but there is a massive world to explore and jumpy puzzles if you are into that (love them).

More story focused co-op

Also watching this thread as I'm curious what shows up. I haven't played many games in this area on PC.
- Can you expand about V Rising for Diablo and Stardew valley fans? Somehow I'm still on fence but sounds like great combo!
Use the Local Co-Op tag on Steam and you can filter them down pretty well. I played through these with my wife. They were a ton of fun. I put an asterisks beside my favorites.
Darksiders Genesis*
It Takes Two*
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (with the Legacy of Kain DLC)*
Secret of Mana Remake*
Unravel 2
Full Metal Furies*
Castle Crashers*

These are good too.

Helldivers*
Road Redemption
Rampage Knights
Broforce
Streets of Rage 4
Huntdown*
Any WORMS game, WMD is great.
Overcooked
Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime*
Speedrunners
Shadowgrounds
We recommend V Rising. It's an ARPG (Diablo-like), but with big focus on base building.

You mine, you craft, you build a cool looking goth castle, and then you hunt enemies or bosses using your upgraded weapon and new skills. It's very fun. You can spin up a local server and modify your own server/game rules to increase progress speed (as some features are designed for a 24/7 server, and your game only advances when it's running, so some speedups are necessary)

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