Early in the history of video games, cooperative and competitive play quickly became important to a game’s performance. What is called “couch co-op” now was once a vital staple of many games, especially in the 16-bit era. In more recent years, co-op games have become somewhat overshadowed by single-player and online multiplayer games.
Whether it’s your friends, family, or significant other(s)—hey, I don’t judge—playing a good co-op game together can be a whole lot of fun. Some cooperative games struggle because one seasoned gamer has to “carry” a less-experienced gamer to victory. I’ll do my best to include in this list a large variety of games, and I’ll assign a difficulty rating to each: Casual, Challenging, and Hardcore.
Left 4 Dead
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Difficulty: Challenging to Hardcore
Platform(s): Windows, Mac, Linux, Xbox 360/One
There’s a lot of misconceptions around this now-classic co-op shooter, so I’ll clear things up: It’s not really a “horror” game despite the zombies, it’s not narrative-based, and its gameplay is somewhat arcade-style with several ~45-minute campaigns. The great thing about L4D is while the path to the end of each level is very linear, it does not force gamers to play a certain way. You’re free to rush ahead of your team, work together, and everything in between.
You’ll just quickly find out that being caught alone is a terrible mistake.
I love L4D because it’s fairly psychological despite its run-and-gun presentation. There’s nothing “deep” about the plot or setting, but the gameplay itself can prove fascinating.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had someone on my team who had all of the maps memorized, great aim, good positioning, but all of that immediately became moot if the player was snagged by a Special Infected and didn’t have someone nearby to help them.
Despite the game’s somewhat intimidating presentation, it’s pretty forgiving on the lower difficulties and there’s no shame in starting there. On Easy, you can get slapped around by Common Infected 100 times before getting knocked down, while Expert mode only allows for 5-10 hits.
Valve intentionally kept the game accessible to all levels of gamers.
L4D is great for online co-op as well as couch co-op. The frame-rate does drop a little if you play it splitscreen on an Xbox, but it’s not a deal-breaker.
Battleblock Theater
Genre: Platformer
Difficulty: Casual
Platform(s): Windows, Mac, Linux, Xbox 360/One
This is a real goofy one and an easy pick-up-and-play game that requires absolutely no dedication from players. With straightforward goals and controls, even the most novice of gamers can easily grasp Battleblock Theater.
What sets the game apart from its co-op platformer contemporaries is its goofy humor and the ability for players to interact with each other.
Is a ledge too high for one character to jump to alone? No problem, just hop on the back of your friend and have them give you a boost. Once there, you can hang your arm over the ledge and assist your ally in getting there themselves.
You can also beat the living crap out of each other with no real repercussions. Sweet!
Battleblock Theater is just silly fun. I’ve played with people who were completionists like myself and insisted on grabbing every item and hitting the target time on each and every level, as well as folks who just wanted to have fun and blaze through. It was a joy with both types of gamers, and there’s something to be said for that.
Divinity: Original Sin
Genre: Role-Playing Game
Difficulty: Challenging
Platform(s): Windows, Mac, Linux, Xbox One, PlayStation 4
A throwback to the isometric Dungeons & Dragons-based RPGs of the Infinity Engine–namely, Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment–this game is an authentic role-playing game, it does not follow the current trend of “kill monsters and do quests and we call it a RPG.”
Although, yes, there’s plenty of killing monsters and doing quests.
Divinity: Original Sin combines all of the character customization, optimizing, and leveling-up goodness of any enjoyable RPG with the interactivity of good co-op games. Even Baldur’s Gate, one of my favorite games of all time, suffers from the “you go talk to ____, while I go do ____” issue.
Not so with this game. You’ll both be talking to NPCs, and if you happen to disagree on the correct course of action, the two of you will actually play rock-paper-scissors to decide who gets the final say.
Your actions even influence your character’s stats–not only can you be good or evil, you can be romantic or pragmatic, spiritual or materialistic, forgiving or vindictive, and so on.
It’s truly unique, because while games such as Darkest Dungeon have the same feature, in Divinity: Original Sin the traits are actually based on your gameplay decisions rather than the will of RNGesus.
My only word of caution on Divinity: Original Sin would be this–it is not a pick-up-and-play. This is definitely a game to play through with someone you know you will have plenty of opportunities to game with.
In my opinion, this game is absolutely the best virtual substitute for tabletop Dungeons & Dragons, which requires a lot more time, dedication, and money.
Apparently Wizards of the Coast–the company which owns D&D–agrees with that sentiment, since they've placed Baldur's Gate III in the hands of Larian Studios.
Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime
Genre: Top-Down Shooter
Difficulty: Challenging
Platform(s): Windows, Mac, Linux, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch
Let me tell you a quick story: One night, while I happened to be at my best friend's house, my girlfriend at the time started having second thoughts about our relationship and chose to share those concerns with me over the phone. Fearing–correctly, as it turned out–that a breakup was imminent, I was pretty emotional.
My bestie fired up Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime and we binged it for hours, playing all the way through to the end. It proved to be an excellent distraction and I remember far more about the game than I remember about the disastrous relationship.
In a nutshell, you and up to three friends man different stations of a spaceship. You can hop between turrets and the engine, upgrade the turrets and engine in different ways, and create unique combinations depending on what type of crystal you use to upgrade the spaceship.
Enemies guard animals you must rescue to complete the level, which is initially covered in the ol’ fog-of-war.
I’ll admit the gameplay can get a little repetitive, and as such it doesn’t have tons of replay value. But the core gameplay makes for great co-op, frenetic action and a good variety of exploring space one moment and desperately blasting at alien swarms the next.
It’s definitely worth a playthrough with a friend.
Overcooked
Genre: Simulation/Puzzle
Difficulty: Casual
Platform(s): Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch
Take control of a chef and rush to cook food and serve it to impatient customers as quickly as possible… While it’s absolute hell in real life, it’s a blast in a video game!
It makes for an interesting puzzle to optimize different cooking/serving tasks depending on the time and place it takes, and the fun of that is only accentuated with a friend next to you. The game is also more forgiving when played co-op rather than solo.
As with any game published by Team 17–the studio responsible for the Worms franchise–it features zany characters and settings. My personal favorite to play is the raccoon chef in a wheelchair. Brilliant.
I would highly recommend exposing new or inexperienced gamers to this title. It’s appealing to newbies, and fun even when you’re struggling.
Portal 2
Genre: First-Person Puzzler
Difficulty: Casual
Platform(s): Windows, Mac, Linux, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360/One
While I’m of the opinion that Portal is the most overrated Valve game ever, that doesn’t mean it’s not a solid game. The first Portal was the result of Valve noticing indie game Narbacular Drop, employing the whole staff, and having them make a quick and quirky four-to-five-hour campaign that felt more like a test-run than a full game.
With unique portal-based gameplay, and plenty of bizarre and quotable humor, it quickly gained popularity.
Portal 2 was Valve’s decision to make a fully-realized Portal game, and it really makes for an infinitely better game. The base campaign is a whole lot more intriguing, and the game has loads more objects to interact with and as such, has more opportunity for a greater variety of puzzles.
But by far the best addition to the franchise is the co-op multiplayer. It can be played online, LAN or splitscreen, and after playing Portal 2’s multiplayer–which is an entirely different campaign than the single-player one–I realized how absolutely perfect the concept is for cooperative play.
Expect plenty of teamwork, occasional mindless in-fighting, and loads of “a-ha!” moments as the two of you put your heads together. Not much replay value, but definitely worth a playthrough or two.
N
Genre: Platformer
Difficulty: Hardcore
Platform(s): Windows (N), Mac (N), Linux (N), PlayStation 4 (N++), Xbox 360/One (N+), Xbox One (N++), Nintendo DS (N+)*, PlayStation Portable (N+)*
Is this the Dark Souls of platformers??
Sorry about that.
What started out as a flash game in the early era of flash animation eventually became a full-fledged game released on a variety of consoles. The concept is simple: you control a parkour-proficient ninja who must flip switches to open a door–get to the door and you win the level. Collect gold pieces to increase the time you have available to complete a series of stages.
But it gets a whole lot worse. Everything is a one-hit kill, fall damage is on, and loads of droids and landmines are strewn about most levels to make your life a living hell. The original game is infamous for the tagline: “Your lives are unlimited. Your patience, however, may not be.”
Add in cooperative play and this frustrating-but-brilliant game stays just as brutal, but with the bonus of having a friend along for the ride to boost morale. A particularly memorable stage for me and my bestie is one where one player is forced to keep a heat-seeking missile active while the other takes care of the switches. If that missile should strike a wall, the other player dies. Talk about a weird symbiotic relationship…
*The servers for playing the Nintendo DS and PSP versions of N+ were taken offline back in 2009, disabling multiplayer. Sad day.
Diablo III
Genre: Action RPG
Difficulty: Casual
Platforms: Windows, Mac, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch
If you enjoy fantasy games that are more hack-and-slash than role-playing, Diablo III has been the champion of that niche since its release in 2012. The action-RPG has aged pretty well, with plenty of updates to keep the game alive and fresh.
While a lot of games with so much mindless killing and looting end up taking half of your time just sorting through your inventory–glaring at you, Borderlands–I’ve found Diablo III to be pretty straightforward in that department. I can spend most of my time hacking through endless hordes of monsters with my co-op partner.
Personally, this game actually tends to put me to sleep–it’s rather repetitive. But it’s a calming and enjoyable experience and once in a while, when insomnia comes a-knocking, it’s nice to have a game that will help.
Blizzard Entertainment pulled a big oopsie when they announced Diablo Immortal at BlizzCon 2018, a mobile phone game, without saying anything about Diablo IV until BlizzCon 2019, amidst the company being embroiled in controversy for playing a little too nice with the Chinese government.
Did I miss any killer co-op games? I'm sure to write a follow-up some day–let me know in the comments!