painaxl

Co-Op story-based games?

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So, I was thinking of finding a game my girlfriend and I could play through together. We tend to play lots of party/rhythm games (e.g. Karaoke Revolution, DDR, etc.) and I was trying to stretch her enjoyment of these video games into other ones :). Something that has a two-player co-operative mode with a good story (a co-op RPG would be awesome, yet I don't know that too many exist). Preferably for Xbox (I've got the most working controllers for that), but I've got a PS2 or Gamecube at my disposal (but only one working Gamecube controller). Anyone got any suggestions?

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Well, it's not really an RPG, but I've heard good things about playing Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and Dark Alliance II in co-op. The first one is available for both Gamecube and PS2, so maybe check that out.

Other than that... uh, Odama with supporting Donkey Konga-drums perhaps?

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It's on PC, but it will run on pretty much anything these days: System Shock 2! RPG FPS, 2 player co-op. Scariest game ever. Come on, you know the tune by now... :)

if it must be on console; hmm... Zelda: Four Swords? Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles? Can't recall any others right now but I'll have a think.

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I've been told that Rez for the PS2 is a nice coop game.

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Old one, but i finished "Secret of Mana" together with my sister back then.

If you got an snes emulator, you might want to give it a try.

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Lego. F*cking. Star Wars. Best co-op game for someone just getting into such things, and a whole lot of fun no matter what. Also, I had a decent time with The Warriors, but the camera and spray-paint can get annoying if you don't have inhuman command of all things analogue. Aside frm Crystal Chronicles, I can't really think of any RPGs either. Oh! and it's PC, but NOLF 2 had a co-op story mode option.

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The Secret of Mana on the SNES.

Final Fantasy CC hasnt really got a story, but is good fun to play - you'll need to get 2 x GBAs to play it together, it might be quiete hard with just 2 people too.

Neo contra on PS2 has a hilarious story band the best co-op gaming ever man... best.

OK maybe not ever ¬¬

Fox Xbox? you are screwed, only Halo really exists for co-op mode - Doom3 required Xbox live.

Time splitters 2 was fun to test, I'm sure it would provide co-op laughs.

Overall I'd reccomend SOM though. A classic Snes / Square RPG but it's 3 player real time fighting.

Buy a snes, your girlfriend will love it.

http://secretofmana.planets.gamespy.com/

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Lego. F*cking. Star Wars.

Speaking of which, check out this new interview on the Original Trilogy. Looks awesome. :tup: :tup:

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Lego Star Wars is a great co-op game but it's not story-driven. Still awesome though, so it gets my recommendation. Oh wait, I even reviewed it. Good choice for Xbox, also.

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The mention of Timesplitters 2 reminded me that a while back a friend and I blew about 10 hours one night on the co-op in Future Perfect. The lesser of the two games (at any rate, not a classic like TS2) but has the better co-op. Also, the Xbox version is supposed to be the best of them.

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Ico has a co-op mode, after you play it once, where one player controls Ico and another controls Yorda.

And you might be able to get some of the classic side-scrolling beat-em-ups on Wii.

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One thing: I tried Halo 2 co-op the other night and it was complete shite. Worst map design I've seen in a long while, it bored the hell out of us in about 45 minutes. Plus the multiplayer doesn't even have any bots. What the hell?

Timesplitters 2 & FP are really good with some friends. I've blown a lot of hours on those games.

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It's on PC, but it will run on pretty much anything these days: System Shock 2!
Won't run on my machine. :(

As for Rez for the PS2, it is near impossible to find and when you do it is hideously expensive.

The ICO co-op mode probably only exists in the PAL version of the game.

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Thanks for all the responses.

As for the PC games, my computer, which is probably capable of running most of them, has decided to randomly freeze at any time for no discernable reason, so I'm not messing with that.

Secret of Mana is one of the first games I thought of and I've got a way to play that, so I just might try it again. I played it before back in the day (I don't think that I finished it) and I never realized until recently that it was 2 player.

Someone mentioned The Warriors, a game I was thinking about getting anyways. Is there a two-player story mode? I thought I read that you could go back and play the levels in co-op only after you finish them.

They don't necessarily have to be RPG's, I just thought it would be a good place to start since the action is paced slower and it's harder to fall behind.

Anyhow, this is great. Keep them coming if you have any more.

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Someone mentioned The Warriors, a game I was thinking about getting anyways. Is there a two-player story mode? I though I read that you could go back and play the levels in co-op only after you finish them.

Nah, I was home for christmas and I ended up playing through the Warriors story mode with my mom's boyfriend. Neither he nor I had even started a file in the game, so we went co-op straight from the beginning. The only problem is that little camera glitches that I later found quite forgivable in single player become very exaggerated and irritating when you've got 2 people going at the same time. When you get too far apart from each other, it goes into split-screen very abruptly. So much so that at least one player will almost always get thrown off by it.

What's the deal with this Rez co-op thing? I can never convince many other people to play it for long, and as such didn't know it existed. Is it any good?

EDIT: Ah, looking closer at elmuerte's Rez link, I see that it points to the vibrator article. You got my hopes up, man. You and your veiled sexual innuendo...

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EDIT: Ah, looking closer at elmuerte's Rez link, I see that it points to the vibrator article. You got my hopes up, man. You and your veiled sexual innuendo...

I got it now. I'm an idiot. :) They need that for the DC version since I'm too cheap to shell out for the PS2 one.

Anyone know if any of the LOTR games are co-op?

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As for Rez for the PS2, it is near impossible to find and when you do it is hideously expensive.

unless it's pal, in which case its in most bargain bins for £10-£15

:)

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As for Rez for the PS2, it is near impossible to find and when you do it is hideously expensive.

It was re-released a short while ago, though I really couldn't tell you what it has done to the overall availability.

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Tales of Symphonia for GameCube. Besides being one of my all-time favorite RPGS, this is a full-fledged traditional Japanese RPG, warts and all. (It's extremely story driven, though the story is quite...hokey. If you enjoy laughing along with video game plots while also being engrossed by them, you'll like it.)

But the best part: The battle system is real-time, sort of like a fighting game, but with RPG trappings like hits, misses, skills, etc. It's pretty easy to get the hang of, though they don't advertise the co-op feature very well. (To turn it on, you have to go through some very non-obvious menus.) But once its on, it's pretty sweet. My sister and I played through the game like this - you can set each player to any party member you want (the CPU will control the others), but only one person gets to interact with characters in towns and shops and the like. So, I still suggest you take turns being player one so everyone gets a little plot-time. (If you like, each time you switch off, you can also switch in the menus who the "main" character is, so you can both feel like you're associated with a particular character.)

Anyway, it's a great game, I love it to death. I've only ever played it in co-op mode, and have had great experiences with it. :)

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I think Half-Life for the PS2 had a 2 player coop where you play the stupid women that are responsible for putting the sample into the tube for Gordon to play around with. They screw it up, predictably, and the downfall of Black Mesa/ Earth gets placed squarely at their tiny little ladies' feet.

Apparently it was quite good, but your girlfriend possibly needs to have a good working knowledge of Half-Life in order to 'get' it... there'll be something on it over at Wikipedia, no doubt...

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Tales of Symphonia for GameCube. Besides being one of my all-time favorite RPGS, this is a full-fledged traditional Japanese RPG, warts and all. (It's extremely story driven, though the story is quite...hokey. If you enjoy laughing along with video game plots while also being engrossed by them, you'll like it.)

As you mentioned, it's not a well-advertised feature at all. I've read two full reviews of the game that don't mention this at all. Weird.

These are all great suggestions and I'm assembling my list. Anyone here have any experience playing the Baldur's Gate games co-op?

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I think Half-Life for the PS2 had a 2 player coop

Yep, that's Half-Life:_Decay. Apparently there's a fan port to PC in the works. I haven't played Decay yet because I only recently found out about it, even though one of my best friends is a huge HL addict.

I love co-op games because I don't like competing. I don't know if I know a ton of story-based games though. ToeJam & Earl, maybe?

Non-story: Burnout 3/Revenge "Team Crush" mode! Twisted Metal 2/Black. Contra? Ikaruga. EyeToy Play "Kung Fu"! Technically not co-op, but you can easily fit two people if you back up, and it's tons of fun. :)

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As an update:

Started playing Badlur's Gate with the girlfriend. Pretty fun, although, we haven't gotten the timing down to actually get that far. We'll probably try and finish this one and see where we go.

I also picked up The Warriors and started playing with my brother. Fun, but, WOW, saying the split screen is disorienting would be an understatement. We just started and we've spent most of our time trying to avoid the split screen and waiting for the other to catch up and the screen to merge again. I'd put the split screen on permanently, but it's just too small to see enough.

Shamrok43 suggested both Gladius and LOTR: the Third Age. Anyone played these? I've had an eye out for LOTR: The Two Towers since I found out that it's 2 player co-op.

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