Bjorn

The Great Co-op Thread

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This is a thread I've thought about making for awhile, someplace to babble about co-op games that may not be big enough for their own thread, and would just get lost in the other general gaming threads.  There's a lot of games we never finish, we just kind of have our fun and move on, but I wouldn't say we quit them, because we ultimately really like most of them, just have other things to do.  But we have been chewing through some games lately.  

Cook, Serve, Delicious (PC, local, 2-player)

I saw this had some kind of co-op mode and figured for a buck, it coudln't hurt to try.  Holy shit, we got to giggling so fucking hard at one point that we totally failed an inspecton because I couldn't wash dishes fast enough and the lady kept serving raw potatoes to customers and we almost tanked our restaurant in one day.  One person plays as the cook, who has to prep food and take care of chores like cleaning and killing rats.  The other person is the expeditor, who sends orders and chores to the cook and serves some of the food (the division of labor is kind of weird and unbalanced, but oh well).  We set a personal limit that the cook wasn't allowed to read the orders, they had to fulfill them based solely on the expeditor reading the order and we had to switch roles each day. It's cool when you hit a groove of working as a well oiled machine together, but it's at its best as an experience when all hell breaks loose and you can't help but laugh at it.  There's also apparently a Battle Kitchen mode where you tag team in your partner every 15 seconds, each alternating as cook, which sounds like an argument waiting to happen.

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I am a huge fan of Coop and used to buy coop console games almost exclusively. 

Goat Simulator Coop is alright. There isn't too much you do together aside from trash the map more quickly and stumble upon messes left by others. Its a good way to show the game to someone with out having them watch you. Also 4 player split screen coop on PC is a rare thing.

 

PayDay 2 is a well done coop shooter heist game. It does a good job of balancing player skill and a well tuned class upgrade system. The random elements in maps and varied strategies make it a lot of fun to replay the same levels if you can find a good group. The biggest issue is that you cannot form groups and join games as two or three players, so it can be hard to group up with friends. 

 

I really enjoyed Far Cry 4 coop, despite the connection issues. It just works so well for clearing out outposts. I want to try Valley of the Yetis coop (just picked it up in the steam sale).

 

Best coop experience I have had in recent memory is Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (Vegas 1 is alright) you can pull of so many great room clears with 2 human players and two AI teammates. I am becoming more and more interested in Rainbow Six Siege since they showed the coop terrorist hunt. 

 

Ghost Recon Wildlands might be a fantastic 4 player Coop FPS. From the trailer it looks like there are multiple tactical approaches to missions, day night cycles, open maps. As you might be able to tell I am a big fan of Coop shooters. 

 

I would also point out that many RTS games allow for Player v. AI gameplay.

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Best coop experience I have had in recent memory is Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (Vegas 1 is alright) you can pull of so many great room clears with 2 human players and two AI teammates. I am becoming more and more interested in Rainbow Six Siege since they showed the coop terrorist hunt.

 

Vegas 2 remains my Gold Standard for all FPS co-op games.  Great campaign plus the fantastic terrorist hunt mode.  I really don't think any single shooter has done as well as Vegas 2 did.  We would boot it up to play for years after it was released.  I really wish the PC version had split-screen built into it.  We do have 2 PCs, but generally prefer couch co-op over sitting in our office except for a few games. 

 

 

 

I should play around with Sandboxie some more and see about getting two instances of a game running on the same PC.  Something like Vegas 2 should be totally doable on a modern machine. 

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Man, that makes me miss the original Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter. Terrorist hunts on hard with no respawns were so intense. I don't know if I'd have the patience for failing that many times these days though.

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Hero Siege is on sale for $0.89 for the next 14 hours, and it's a fabulous local co-op game (also has online, but it's considered to still be beta).  When we first fired it up, I honestly thought it was just a cheap knockoff that was cribbing everything in it from Binding of Isaac and Diablo.  Which, it is!  But it turns out to have done it really well.  Simple skill tree with 9 skills, you clear maps that are about 4-6 screens big, waves of enemies and random mini-dungeon popups.  There's like 10 different classes that are all pretty neat, including a Redneck class that should be in all RPGs.  It's half roguelike and half Diablo, in that when you die, you lose a ton of your bonuses (all relics, bonuses from statues/potions and shop purchases), but you keep your level and equipped gear, so you're not having to start from scratch. 

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RPS just published a best 25 Coop games article: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/06/18/best-coop-games/6/

25: Saints Row IV

24: FIFA 15

23: Viscera Cleanup Detail

22: Realistic Kissing Simulator

21: Dawn of War 2

20: Towerfall Ascension

19: Payday 2

18: Swat 4

17: Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance

16: Arma 3 

15: Artemis: Spaceship Bridge Simulator

14: Don't Starve Together

13: Killing Floor 2

12: Divinity: Original Sin

11: Borderlands 2

10: Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

9: Rainbow Six: Vegas 2

8: Spelunky 

7: Far Cry 4

6: Diablo III

5: Minecraft

4: GTA V

3: Left 4 Dead

2: Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition

1: Portal 2

 

Portal 2 coop is short and not super fun the second time through. The first time I played it my partner had also not played it yet so we explored and solved the puzzles together. After that playing with a newbie is annoying and playing with an expert is dull. This really limits its appeal as a coop game to me.

P.S. Personally I liked Diablo 2 more than 3, Borderlands 1 more than 2 and Dawn of War 1 (except for Soul Storm) more than 2.

 

 

 

This list did remind me of the Little Big Planet series (2 & 3 are better for coop imo) and the Lego games (Star Wars, Lord of the Rings etc). The lego games are great to play with non-gamers since you have unlimited lives and you respawn without losing progress.

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I was going to link to that list as well.  I agree that Portal 2 is an amazing co-op experience... the first time.  Figuring out puzzles cooperatively is such a great feeling.  I felt the same way about 'Splosion Man.  I loved the co-op there for the same reasons but it's not nearly as fun a second time around.

 

Meanwhile, I picked up the new Gauntlet during the Steam sale.  I haven't yet played it co-op but I can see it being a lot of fun.

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I feel like I want a good mix of replayability and one time through games in my co-op experiences.  We usually have one or two evergreen games we play at a time, while going through more one off experiences for diversity.  I don't think I would give anymore weight to replayability than I would a single playthrough.  If a game is simply sublime the first time though, that makes it worthy in my mind (though I doubt very much I would put Portal 2 in the top spot, it can devolve too easily into one person tells the other one what to do).   Also, to be a stickler, it's technically the 25 best PC games (yeah, I know that's all RPS covers, but the headline is just silly), which I think is worth pointing out because there are so few same screen games on that, and local co-op brings something to the table that online can't (and vice versa). 

 

I don't know what I would pull out of that list, because they are all good choices, but I also know there are other games I would put in my top 25. 

  • I'd be hard pressed not to include the Halo series in a best ever list. 
  • Lego games definitely. 
  • Terraria is certainly one I'd make a case for. 
  • Original Majesty is up towards the top of my favorite games ever, so it would have to be high in a list of best co-op games as well. 
  • Rayman Origins or Legend
  • Gears of War series...maybe?  It would be close
  • Mass Effect 3 MP would probably be my number 1
  • I think I might go with Torchlight 2 over Diablo 3
  • This is a deep personal bias....but Resident Evil 5.  My daughter and I found ourselves returning to it over and over to get all the emblems and upgrade all the guns.

That's just off the top of my head, I'm sure I'm forgetting something. 

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My (mostly non-gaming) girlfriend and I didn't enjoy Trine or Lego Star Wars (OT) - too fiddly. What we have enjoyed, though, is single-player games. Limbo we took turns having a life each and figuring out the puzzles together, and The Swindle beta (sorry for another plug!) she would play while I advised and helped with timing - that reminded me of teaching her to play pool irl.

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Terraria is certainly one I'd make a case for. 

 

Which reminds me of Starbound exploring together is a lot of fun. The game is very much still a beta and has some progression issues, but is overall quite fun.

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Super Mario 3D World. This has been one of my favorite co-op experiences in years. Trying to sync up your platforming with your teammates on the more difficult levels is super fun and you feel like a badass when you finally pull off that perfect run. It strikes such a good balance at encouraging players to work together while simultaneously competing with each other.

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Splinter Cell Blacklist and Conviction and Chaos Theory all have 2-player co-op campaigns that are pretty great. On PC they're all online/LAN (except Blacklist which is online only?) and the console versions have split screen, possibly excepting Blacklist. Ending of Conviction does a cool surprising thing 

Mission's over, you're on a plane, in different parts of it, and one of you gets ordered to kill the other and the other finds out about it, each in their own simultaneous cutscenes. If you're splitscreen it's one thing, but if you're playing online with your co-op partner not in the same room, it can be nuts - you don't know if the other guy knows you're coming to kill him, and you don't know if he's trying to kill you. So you stalk your best buddy through a plane in sudden 1v1 stealth deathmatch. When I was playing it online, we both stopped voice chatting at pretty much the same time rather than risk giving the situation away to the other one. Then, emotional cutscene because your characters spent the whole game becoming friends. Best.

 

Max Payne 3 also has co-op if you get the Deathmatch Made In Heaven DLC. It's just two levels, horde mode, but it is really really fun and a lot of people don't know about it.

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I didn't know CSD! had a co-op mode OMG

 

I wonder, how much juggling of dishes will me and my girlfriend do in the game before we start hurling actual dishes at one another? Only one way to find out!

 

Anyway, Hammerwatch has quite a good online multiplayer mode. For those unfamiliar, it's a top-down dungeon crawler where you pick your class and boldly go go boldly into a dungeon, down and down, killing baddies and bosses and dodging traps until your eventual demise. Along the way you can spend collected loot to permanently buff your stats or give your special move a bit of extra oomph.

 

I liked it, but I would have preferred if

a) the dungeons were a little smaller and not so maze-like

B) there weren't quite so many monsters, which probably sounds an odd complaint but it did get a little fatiguing

 

Edit: BOI:Rebirth has a local co-op mode, but one player has to be (would never choose to be) this tiny baby follower who can't pick anything up or make any decisions or do anything at all except shoot. It's boring.

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To go all the way back, I've probably spent more co-op hours playing Zombies Ate My Neighbors than any other game.

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Anyway, Hammerwatch has quite a good online multiplayer mode. For those unfamiliar, it's a top-down dungeon crawler where you pick your class and boldly go go boldly into a dungeon, down and down, killing baddies and bosses and dodging traps until your eventual demise. Along the way you can spend collected loot to permanently buff your stats or give your special move a bit of extra oomph.

 

Hammerwatch also has local co-op, and I really liked that game.  I remember thinking the expansion was just as good, if not better, than the original game.

 

 

To go all the way back, I've probably spent more co-op hours playing Zombies Ate My Neighbors than any other game.

 

I played that as a kid, but haven't seen it in years now.  Does it hold up playing it today?

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Lately I've been deep into Dungeon of the Endless with a couple of friends. The co-op mode really amplifies the moments of tension and chaos, but in a way it's a little more forgiving since each player can focus on managing one or two heroes (instead of up to four in the single player game). Only downside is that permadeath can take a player fully out of the game until the team discovers a new hero, which can be pretty brutal (especially for new players).

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Zombies ate my neighbours is still incredible, I can confirm. I spent a lot of time playing it as a kid - always seemed to get stuck at that level with the "Tremors" worms. Just a great game in every single way

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I played a few hours of Don't Starve Together with a couple friends, never having played the base game. I didn't really know what to expect going in, but we ended up having a ton of fun. 

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We finished up Obscure this evening, a PS2 era co-op survival horror game, but it is available on Steam as well. It's Resident Evil 2 mechanics except you can walk slowly and shoot. You need to do some very light puzzle solving (mostly finding keys/levers). It's definitely a bit on the janky side, both because of its age and design, but if a co-op RE2 sounds like a game you'd like, I highly recommend it, particularly given that there are so few games like it. 

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Today is some of the most fun I've had in couch co-op in forever.  BroForce came out of Early Access, which finally got us to try the free version, Expendabros, which immediately convinced us to buy BroForce. They are both a fucking hoot.  Like, holy shit good, laughing, screaming, shouting for hours on end.  They're 2D run and gun games with retro/pixel graphics themed around bro action movies.  Fast, short levels where you die a lot, but usually in entertaining ways.  Cascading, chaotic explosion chains which end up throwing you or your partner into bottomless pits.  Dozens of wonderful and ridiculous characters. 

 

I don't think I would find single player nearly as engaging, but if you've got someone to play it with, this is the easiest recommendation I've been able to make ever (especially since it has such a fleshed out free version to try first). 

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I'd be up for a bit of Broforce if anyone wants to try it out online. It's great fun local and online multiplayer (wait, can it do both? I forget but suspect it might)

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Lovers in a Dangerous Space Time is definitely worth a punt, although it might be a friendship ender rather than a good Co-Op game. Really interesting to see how different people play it.

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My wife and I ate our way through Lovers. One of the best games to come out this year certainly.

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Has anyone else here tried Warframe?  I'm usually pretty tentative about F2P games, but the few hours we put into it this weekend really impressed me.  I know I tried it a couple of years ago, in a much earlier and rougher state, and disregarded it.  But it's come a long way since.  Looks great, the movement feels really good, the combat can flow from gunplay, to melee to powers...not quite seemlessly, but better than  lot of other games I've played.  We've been looking for something to scratch the Mass Effect 3 MP itch for a couple of years now, and this might be it.  A very long tail in terms of unlocking and leveling up equipment (which we don't mind in this kind of game, when it's something we want to be able to play for a year or more).  It's actually got a story/progression route now that seems interesting enough (also seems pretty typically sci-fi tropey: "You're a member of a lost, technically superior race who has awaken from a long slumber just in time to save the universe!").  But the evil people seem to be humans who've managed to genetically modify and clone the entire race to a disastrous brink of extinction, so that's neat. 

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