Can anyone suggest some good co-op games for two people?
Can anyone suggest some good co-op games for two people?
Hello all! My buddy and I finally finished up Baldur's Gate 3 this week and we are not left with a giant co-op game shaped whole in our hearts. It was such an incredible experience and it was truly even more fun running through it together. We are excited to hop into another game, but we have no idea what to play. We've played a lot, and some games we've finished or tried recently included:
- Borderlands 1, 2, and 3
- Minecraft, Terraria, Vintage Story
- Raft, 7 Days to Die
- A Way Out, It Takes Two
I'm posting here today to ask if any of you have some suggestions for co-op games we could check out! I've Googled for suggestions to no end and 90% of what's there is games we've already played. If anyone has any recommendations for us they would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
~ Hyrulian
Thanks for all the great suggestions everyone!! I'm going to compile a list and check them all out one by one!
Abiotic Factor has been really fun for my buddy and me. Especially with the new update that came out last week. It's a Half Life themed survival game.
Others that get my vote:
Valheim - Norse mythology themed survival game with Playstationesque graphics
Phasmophobia - THE ghost hunting game(see also Ghost Exile, Ghost Exorcism Inc., Forewarned)
Left 4 Dead - the original Zombie FPS series (see also Back 4 Blood, it's kinda alright) PILLS HERE!
Risk of Rain - Pretty tough shooter series
Stardew Valley - A modern Harvest Moon, farming/life sim
Don't Starve Together - If you played Stardew valley in hell, but everyone's name started with a W
Factorio/Satisfactory - Resource harvesting and logistics sims. One's isometric, ones first person, one has zerg rushes
Grounded - Honey I Shrunk The Kids: the survival game
Deep Rock Galactic - Left 4 Dead for Dwarves. ROCK AND STONE!!!
Overcooked - cooking and serving game, lots of communication required
Portal 2 - First person puzzle game, also lots of communication required
Barotrauma - Submarine sim on Europa, requires marriage levels of communication
Binding of Isaac - Roguelike shooter that's sort of Zelda inspired, multiplayer was a little janky last time I tried it, but that was a while ago
The Forest - Excellent horror survival series
Starbound - Terraria in space
Trine series - A modern Lost Vikings, side scrolling puzzles and platforming
Subnautica 2 - A beautiful and terrifying diving/exploration game, original game has a coop mod 8 years in development, but it's been very buggy
Diablo - First and second games are still very solid experiences and there are some excellent mods out for both
Escape Simulator - Literally an escape room simulator. Has workshop support on steam for even more puzzles.
Green Hell - The Forest, but in the jungle, much more focus on the reality of being stranded in a place where just about everything is likely to kill you.
No Man's Sky - Space/planetary exploration sim
Dead Island - another zombie FPS
Dying Light - a zombie game with parkour
20XX/30XX - Megaman X styled platformers with roguelite elements
GTFO - Extremely hard, stealth based, alien FPS
Most "Souls" games - Very fun coop summoning, if you don't mind the sometimes extreme difficulty
Goat Simulator series - Goofy exploration games
Magicka series - Isometric action adventure games where you combine different elements to cast spells
Barony - a true roguelike FPS RPG, voxel based, very hard
Void Crew - Space sim, mission based, sort of Egyptian mythos themed, meant for up to 4 players but definitely possible with just 2
Human Fall Flat - Puzzle/exploration game
Half Dead series - Cube: the game
Orcs Must Die series - Tower defense
Dungeon Defenders series - also tower defense, but with class based
Secret of Mana - One of the first action JRPGS, the remake has drop in coop just like the original, but I believe it's couch coop, so if you're not right next to each other, you'll need something like Parsec to play it
Have a ton more, but those are the ones I can recall having the most fun. Others have probably listed a bunch of them and I probably missed a few good ones, but hopefully a few of them are new.
You could always tinker with some emulators for some retro coop games!
Survival Coop
Actiony
- BIGFOOT
- Children of Morta
- Content Warning
- Broforce
- Gauntlet
- Generation Zero
- Road Redemption
- Warhammer: Vermintide 2
- Worms Armageddon
- Shadow Warrior 2
Sportish
RPGish
Strategy
Puzzle
Cozy
Permanently Deleted
i'll just add a few i haven't seen yet:
- Chained Together - running gauntlets while ... chained together
- Children of Morta - adorable graphics meet solid gameplay and vivid storytelling
- Core Keeper - top-down Terraria with great pixel art, full release in a week!
- Cosmoteer: Build your 2d-Spaceship and do what you want! Full workshop support with tons of available mods.
- (hmm so much stuff starting with c, gotta change my game)
- Element TD 2 - classic tower defense experience
- Heavenly Bodies - Adventure game with physics!
- Kingdom: Two Crowns - the right thing for chilling :-)
- Necesse: even more Terraria, but with a huge world and settlements to build and manage. Still in EA, and needs polish, but great game even now!
- Neon Chrome: Cyberpunk twin-stick shooter
- Operation Tango: Asymmetric Coop, one is a hacker, the other is the agent on the ground
- Streets of Rogue: "immersive sim"-top down twin stick action roguelite - i cant even describe it well, but it is heaps of fun and chaos can pop up around every corner!
- Synthetic: twin-stick shooter with tons of guns and a hefty difficulty later on
- Grim Dawn: ARPG, and one of the best in its class. Dated, but still updated (and gets a new expansion soon-ish!). community is running seasons which add new areas, items and whatnot! i've sunk 1500 hours into that one, so i am probably biased when i say give it a whirl.
I didn't see this mentioned but it's a great couch co-op indie game. Has a 93% rating on steam. https://store.steampowered.com/app/252110/Lovers_in_a_Dangerous_Spacetime/
I haven't seen Rayman Legends mentioned, so I'll throw it out there. It's a pretty flawless game for what it tries to be, and it's a lot of fun to play with a friend. The musical levels are just extraordinarily crafted. Definitely recommended if you're into platforming at all (and even if you're not it's worth a shot!)
Stardew Valley. My wife and I have sunk well over 1000 hours into it and we still aren't bored. The amount of mods for it is insane and gives so much more depth to the game, but vanilla is super well done as well.
Maybe Valheim?
Remnant 2 and Deep Rock Galactic are the best that come to mind rn.
Remnant 2 is dark souls with guns and coop actually changes the game in some ways to better enable teamwork to make the dream work.
Deep Rock Galactic is just a wonderful little title about space dwarves mining a crazy bug planet. 100% randomly generated. Each of 4 classes feel like they bring something unique to each mission.
I didn't see these in the list:
Wyldermyth - indie fairly unique story building campaign with turn based tactical combat.
Wastelands 3 - post apocalyptic RPG with good story, choices, and characters. Great tactical turn based combat. Other than the other Larian games this is closest to filling the BG 3 shaped hole.
Halo Master Chief Collection; 1 - 3, Reach, and ODST are amazing co-op. We've played through all of them multiple times. 4 is... disappointing.
You can play Stardew Valley in multiplayer co-op mode, it's also quite cheap at $14, it's available on every platform and even has excellent Linux support
Divinity original sin 1 and 2.
The first one is harder. 2nd one if better to start with. Good fun if you like strategy and storytelling.
If you're open to silly casual games, Untitled Goose Game
Also, I heard Cult of the Lamb was getting a co-op update
Earth Defense Force. You can probably get 4.1 on a sale really cheap and that could be a decent introduction to the series as a whole, it also has the best overall story tone in my opinion, made of 110% grade B cheese
If you two enjoy it and don't feel burnt out, you can later get EDF 5, which has several QoL updates compared to 4.1, but tends to have a higher price.
The whole We Were Here series is marvelous. Asymmetrical co-op puzzle games. My friend and I’s recent games list looks very similar to this.
We also do a lot of single player games with one of us streaming over discord. When it’s a slow-burn puzzle or mystery game, it doesn’t really matter who is actually controlling.
For those types, I really recommend Return of the Obra Dinn. We’re currently working our way through the entire Frogwares Sherlock Holmes collection. The old ones are so terrible, which is a greatness all by itself.
I play a lot of couch coop with my kid but adults would enjoy all these too. Most can be found under $20 on Steam and a lot are fairly lightweight games but have good coop mechanics and can be a lot of fun to sit down for an hour or two with.
- Overcooked 1 + 2 (but 2 really is better) you will love or hate it depending on your personalities, nothing in between. We loved it
- Ship of Fools
- Enter the Gungeon
- Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime
- Moving Out
On Switch
- Cadence of Hyrule
- Don't starve together (only split screen on console not PC... Wtf)
- Pikmin
Divinity Original Sin 1 & 2
Edit: Oh, Neverwinter Nights
My wife who is a huge Minecraft fan has been playing stardew valley with me.
She also loves the portal 2 coop
My wife and I just finished Super Mario Wonder. It was a lot of fun. Every level has a weird psychedelic section that completely changes the players or the level temporarily. It shakes it up and gives a lot more variety than the other side scrolling Mario games.
BattleBlock Theater is a good action platformer that has coop.
Escape Room Simulator is a good 3d puzzle game that can be played coop as well.
Halo
Torchlight 2 and 3 are fun looting co-op experiences.
Don’t Starve Together
Elden Ring with the Seamless Coop mod looks like great fun if you enjoy that type of game. I've wanted to try it for a long time.
A couple titles that deserve mention and I don't see in any other lists:
Children of Mora - Narrative driven action RPG with some light Roguelite-ish elements. Amazing world building and story telling, good character choice/building and gameplay.
Cassette Beasts - Pokemon, if it were good. Much more mature story, tons of quality of life systems that makes building things fun, a weakness system that matters a lot more than "number big" and the entire game is double battles. I've played the game start-to-finish in couch co-op and it was incredible. They've recently added online multiplayer, but I cannot say with 100% certainty that the online allows you to engage with the story together. Couch co-op has one player play as the companion character in an otherwise unchanged experience whereas online has one player character hop into another player characters world.
Weird enough, the Monster Hunter franchise - I'm not sure how this isn't anywhere else in this thread. Use large weapon to hunt large monster. Build bigger weapon to hunt bigger monster. World and Rise are both on sale on Steam right now. World is dumb to move through the story together though, despite the fact that most fans who aren't me are likely to call it the better game.
If you don't mind an MMO subscription fee, you might try A Tale In the Desert:
It's fairly niche, and it's been years since I've played it, but it seems to still keep an active player base. It's much more cooperative than most MMOs, with very little PvP. It's like the whole community is working together to build a civilization.
I'm currently playing V Rising right now with my wife after Divinity 2. We are LOVING it. Definitely give it a try!
Satisfactory
Stardew Valley has really good multiplayer now. Might scratch some of that Minecraft and Terraria itch.
V Rising - 49.2 Hours
- Online Co-op
- Isometric perspective
- Vampire survival/crafting
- Be a vampire lord with a keep, thralls, blood banks, cast magic, wild shape to a wolf, decorate a castle, posess a horse, make your Castlevania/vampire fantasy come true!
Enshrouded - 123.3 Hours
- Online co-op, 3rd person perspective
- Absolutely beautiful and haunting exploration/survival/crafting/action rpg.
- Early access and already has had large updates
- Wonderful and detailed building system. Will post pics if I remember when I'm at my PC.
Remnant II - 22.5 Hours
- Online co-op, 1st/3rd person
- Soulslike shooter
- Has been quite challenging playing it single player but co-op seems like it could be good with easier progression
Stardew Valley - 252.2 Hours
- 2d Pixel graphics
- Online co-op
- Huge game that has had many updates
- Has been $14.99 since 2016 and will always be $14.99 per the one man developer. All DLC is free and included.
Edit to add: 9 Monkeys of Shaolin - 7.0 Hours
- 2.5D Kung Fu ARPG Brawler
- Open skill system is fun
- It's kung fu. I am not familiar enough with Shaolin staff styles to say if the moves are authentic or not.
for local coop of course portal and as a bonus, kid safe, - it takes two, biped.
Unravel 2
I’m playing through BG3 with a good friend too, we’re actually planning on doing another, wildly different, playthrough when we’re done with this one. We’re playing sorta chaotic/neutral good right now and intend to do an evil campaign next with different characters and classes and possibly even modded.
Now I obviously haven’t tried it yet but the game has so much hidden stuff, branching paths and different-to-play classes I’m fairly confident you can play it at least twice and have an almost entirely new experience!
Assuming Steam?
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Halo, obviously. Master Chief Collection is pretty cheap to pick up these days, don't miss out on the Halo 3 ODST DLC.
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Ready Or Not can be a challenge with just two people, but it is very rewarding to get a good score.
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Zero Hour is very similar to Ready Or Not, but it has different features and I find it a bit easier.
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Deep Rock Galactic
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Risk of Rain 2
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Elden Ring (Seamless Coop Mod is highly recommended)
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Monster Hunter World (include Iceborn DLC)
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Generation Zero
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Project Zomboid (if you like this one you'll probably sink hundreds of hours into it)
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theHunter Call of the Wild (chill hunting shooter)
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Farming Simulator 2019 (new ones may be better, haven't researched)
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Barotrauma
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Factorio
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Elite Dangerous
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Green Hell
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The Forest
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Sons of the Forest
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Morrowind has an OpenMW fork that supports multiplayer, if you get it set up this can be a fun game to play
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Most of these have been mentioned before, but I'll mention them again.
Halo Master Chief Collection. Everything before 5 is local split screen. 5 requires two Xboxs. I would just avoid Infinite, but I believe it also requires two systems, maybe including PC.
Diablo 3 is very accessible. 4 should be as well. I'm told Diablo 2 is the best, so I need to try to get back into it. All should be good options.
Monster Hunter requires more patience. At least for World, cooperation is good but really the game is geared towards individuals being able to take charge as necessary. Track, set traps, bait, capture, etc. Multiplayer is VERY useful during fights though.
Stranger of Paradise is kinda Souls-like but more forgiving. In my experience it's A LOT more friendly to Multiplayer. It's also a ton of fun with a friend.
Psi-Ops: Mindgate Conspiracy. An old PS2 game. One person controls the body, the other controls the mind. Especially if you have a Gameshark and you can go Godmode.
Any of the old Street sports games were a blast back in the day.
Older Twisted Metal for another old-school recommendation.
Subnautica can be played together using the Nitrox mod
I believe the entirety of the Gears of War series has a co op mode
Also if you don't know anything about the series like I did before playing Gears 5 with my kids, don't play it with kids....
Solasta crown of the magister
If you're into souls-likes, try "Stranger of Paradise"
Its fantastic, nobody has heard of it for some reason. I played this last year with a friend and it was really fun (if you're into that playstyle)
Darksiders Genesis was also very fun with my little cousin, more hack n slash, one player gets to be pure meelee and the other half meelee half twin stick ranged.
Sniper Elite (4?) is pretty good as a chill co op FPS mission progression game.
Otherwise, probably any survival craft will do, you already played a few. I enjoyed Valheim and Planet Crafter and wish Subnautica had Multiplayer.
Warframe
The "We Were Here" series is a fun puzzle co-op game. The first one's free if you want to try before you buy.
Nine Parchments - Top down Magic slinging romp. Similar to the Majica series, but with less knowing how to do certain key-press combos.
Orcs Must Die 2 - 3rd person tower defense where you place traps and use spells and weapons to take down foes. Continues the story of the first game, which did not have multiplayer, unfortunately.
Children of Morta - Top down dungeon crawler. Take on the roles of a family trying to hunt down an ancient evil. Like the Belmont's of Castlevania fame.
Full Metal Furies - Top down action fighter. Fight the Titans as some of the last remaining survivors of Ragnarok. Fun dialing with a good-sized world map to explore.
Astroneer - 3rd person survival crafting on a randomized planet. Cute component designs and a unique air management system. Plays best with a mouse & keyboard.
Deep Rock Galactic - Space Dwarves Corporate mining simulator. You and up to 4 friends drive do into infested planetoids in order to make some Gold. Destructible terrain and shenanigans.
Rayman Legends.
Grounded
Grab a PS2 emulator and give Kuri Kuri Mix a go.
It's by FromSoft of all people and it seems hardly anyone has heard of it.
For crafting/exploration/survival I'd recommend Valheim. Don't judge it by its looks, the game is insanely fun with friends.
Serious Sam - almost any version!
As of last week, Cult of the Lamb
Not played most of the games you mentioned so not sure this'll be your thing, but I've gotten back in to Sky: Children of the Light recently and it's been great.
It's beautiful, f2p (ad free!!!) on a bunch of different platforms, and going in as a pair will give you a head start since it has a social aspect and is designed to occasionally get players to cooperate (though you can play alone just fine, I do most of the time and cooperate with and befriend other platers). It's mostly chill and you can take it at your own pace and make what you want of the world - follow the spirit guides and play through "proper" or fly/run/swim around and discover things on your own. You can use skills like playing instruments and taking photos, decorate your own or shared spaces, customise your character, chat to people from all over, or just chill in your favourite spot.
It's an old game, but Pixel Junk: Monsters is a ton of fun as a co-op tower defense. Don't bother with the sequel - s'bad.
The Division 2 is fantastic co-op and often gets put on sale.
It's a very different experience, but have you considered Baldur's Gate 2?
PlateUp can be fun in 2 player co-op. If you've played Overcooked, its basically a clone of that, but turned into a roguelike. Its not the longest or deepest, but its still solid, and the price is very fair IMO, esspecially if you get it on sale.
Unraveled 2 is a beautiful and fun game for 2 people.
Dark Souls 1 (remastered) & 3 along with Bloodborne are good options.
I have a co-op buddy too and heaps of good suggestions from others here. Two that I've been enjoying as 2 person co-op:
Wartales: started this after completing BG3 and it was a real interesting change in thinking. This is fantasy party adventure, but you run a team of mercenaries, so it's more about the team build and strategy, rather than the specific character focus that you have in BG3.
The Wild Eight: an isometric survival, crafting, set in a plane crash in the snow. Some story, discovery elements included.
Outward is made to be played by two players. It's a really beautiful survival rpg with difficult combat.
Sea of Thieves.
My recommendation for two people is a Brigantine, just for challenge.
You’ll fight better in a Sloop, but a Brigantine is more fun to operate for two people.
Since you played all Borderlands and just finished a D&D game, why not play "B&B" on Borderlands, there's a game called Tiny Tina's Wonderland which plays like Borderlands but is set in "medieval" fantasy (but still has gun for some reason)
Cat quest 2 if you like cat puns and something casual. (Cat quest 1 is single player and doesn't (really) connect to the storyline of the sequel)
Ark survival evolved is something my husband and I enjoy playing together that's quite fun. The base building and dino taming together is very enjoyable if you're on a private server.
If you give this one a try, make sure whoever is hosting sets their server to private and invites the other person via steam. Otherwise you might get randos.
It takes two was really fun
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1426210/It_Takes_Two/
It's on multiple platforms.
I enjoyed playing Toodee and Topdee with my roommate. Fun puzzle game. Can be played singleplayer or multiplayer. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1303950/Toodee_and_Topdee/
Minecraft Dungeons is also quite fun for co-op. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1672970/Minecraft_Dungeons/
Has nobody mentioned Barotrauma? Had a few hundred hours of fun with this, my buddy and I. Especially if you don't mind shit being not very shiny. It is unique, and it keeps on giving.
BattleZone (the one from like 2016) is surprisingly fun and has optional VR support
Abiotic Factor. It's basically a co-op Half-life.
Core Keeper comes out of Early Access soon I think and should be up your alley
Prodeus is still EA, but it has a solid first episode with good Co-op gameplay if you're into retro style shooters.
If you really want to go old school, OG Doom from 1993 and Bungie's Marathon Trilogy(1994-96) support co-op. I haven't tried Doom yet, but you do need to be technical to figure out Marathon co-op.
You should try a wholesome cute game called Bread and Fred!!! It's got penguins!
I couldn't find it mentioned already, but I really loved Vagante. https://store.steampowered.com/app/323220/Vagante/
I'd highly recommend Stolen Realms. Pretty cheap too
It's a hex grid turn based game. You can have up to 6 characters (difficulty scales per character) and can each control as many in the party as you want. Turns are taken as enemy, and players with the players able to act at the same time so you aren't waiting too long if you are communicating about what you want to do.
It has multiple "classes" with skill tiers that require you to take a few from that "class" but you can spec however you want.
The roguelike mode is very fun for quick sessions and will reward you with a choice of random skills and armors after every fight, but it also saves if you need to go and play later.
Super Mario 3 is pretty sweet
Outriders. And a bit more tame but Unravel 2 for in-person.
Wildermyth is an awesome indie RPG that I've had a lot of fun with as a two-player coop game. It's a turn-based dungeon crawler with a strong focus on role play and party dynamics.
I hear great praise for Across the Obelisk as a coop game from my friends, although I personally bounced off of it. It's a roguelite deck builder like Slay the Spire, but with multi-player, lots of meta progression, and a heftier time commitment for each run.
Gunfire Reborn is a roguelite looter shooter that's a blast in coop. I think it's still in Early Access, but what's already there is enough for me to be happy with it as a full game. To me it's a spiritual successor to Borderlands in combat and gamefeel, but without the grinding.
Remnant 2 is sweet!
Here's a co-op indie game I made for Windows PCs. $1.
Outward is pretty fun (and at times bs and challenging). It is also not that long of a game to finish. The soundtrack is also good.
Cult of the Lamb's latest content release is bringing 2-player local coop
There's a game on Kickstarter called Outbound. It's in alpha access right now.
The game looks like it's literally Raft in a camper van. Haven't tried it yet but I plan to.