Co-Op Games for all Platforms

Basically, I want this to be a list of your favorite Co-op games for anyone who may be looking to play something with family/friends locally and/or online. If the suggestions don't overwhelm, I'll even try to move the running list up to this original post and sort them in some sort of way - probably online vs local coop.

I'll ask that if you post, you put the name of the game, platforms, maybe genre if you can manage to narrow it down, and if the coop is local, online, or both along with a description because some of us need that. Maybe a link to the [insert pc launcher here] and/or a youtube video.

UPDATE: I've added some of the suggestions to the top here. If I know of the game or if I've played it, I'll add my own description, if not, I'm copy/pasting from the poster

Local Co-op

Online Co-op

  • Fortnite Save the World (Everything) - Mostly wave based, but you also build forts to defend..something on each level and has tons of weapons and traps to unlock to assist in these defense missions. It's very good at what it does
  • Warhammer Vermintide 2 (PC, Xbone, PS4) - First Person Action
  • Deep Rock Galactic (PC) - FPS/Dungeon Crawler
  • Insurgency: Sandstorm (PC) - Tactical Military FPS(not just coop but the coop is fun yet difficult)
  • Path of Exile (PC, PS4, Xbone) - Diablo-Style Action RPG
  • Remant From the Ashes (PC, PS4, Xbone) - Soulslike TPS
  • Risk of Rain 2 (Everything) - Hmmm...Roguelike TPS that's procedurally generated and has a ton of upgrades
  • Don't Starve Together (PC, PS4, Xbone) - Survival + Crafting...Together
  • Factorio (PC) City builder/simulator on crack
  • Journey to the Savage Planet (Everything) - Space exploration/adventure game that is not No Man's Sky
  • No Man's Sky (PC, PS4, Xbone) - Space exploration/adventure game that's almost like a mini MMO. After all the updates, it's insanely good with quite a bit of a learning curve. Hit up the Discord and see if you can find someone to walk you through the beginning part if things seem overwhelming at first
  • Killing Floor 2 (PC, PS4, Xbone) - Zombie/Monster murder simulator with class loudout system - Left 4 Dead vibes
  • Dying Light (PC, PS4, Xbone) - Currently the best (yes I'm saying this) zombie game on the market. First person, survival, melee and ranged weapon combat AND has that Brink style of fluid parkour motion. Even has looter/shooter vibes
  • Sea of Thieves (PC, Xbone) - First person pirate ship game. Puzzles, melee/ranged combat and ship combat
  • Baldurs Gate 1 & 2 (PC) OG CRPG
  • Heroes of Hammerwatch (PC) Top down roguelike ARPG
  • Wargroove (Everything) - Advanced Wars
  • Terraria (Everything) - 2D sandbox survival game with lots of things out to kill you
  • Anno 1800 (PC/Ubisoft) - City builder
  • Mud runner (Everything) - Offroad vehicle simulator(not racing)
  • Euro/American Truck Simulator (PC) - Truck driving simulator

Both

  • Full Metal Furies (Everything) - 2D Brawler / puzzler
  • Castle Crashers (Everything) - 2D Brawler
  • Borderlands 1, 2, & The Pre-Sequel (Everything) - Looter Shooter
  • Portal 2 (PC, 360, PS3) - First Person Puzzle
  • Monaco: What's Yours is Mine (PC) - Top Down Coop Hiest
  • Divinity: Original Sin (Everything) - CRPG
  • Divinity: Original Sin 2 (Everything) - CRPG
  • Outward (PC, Xbone, PS4) - Action RPG
  • Kingdom: Two Crowns (Everything) - 2D Strategy
  • Magicka (PC) + Magicka 2 (PC, Xbone, PS4) - Fantasy RPG with Friendly Fire
  • Left 4 Dead (PC) + Left 4 Dead 2 (PC) - FPS
  • Overcooked! (Everything) + Overcooked! 2 (Everything) - Screamo Cooking Sim
  • Trine Trilogy aka Trinelogy (Everything) - Action Puzzler
  • Borderlands 3 (Everything) - Looter Shooter
  • ibb & obb (PC, Switch, PS4) - Puzzle platformer, possible relationship ender
  • Human Fall Flat (Everything including mobile) - One of those physics games where the fun is not being able to control your character as well as you feel you should and you laugh at everyone's failure
  • Battleblock Theater (PC and Xbox 360 - it's old) - 2D platformer from the great Behemoth
  • Earth Defense Force 5 (PS4 and PC) - a game that I have never heard anyone claim to play this and not refer to it as their guilty pleasur game. It's super anime, not in visual, but in how over the top it is. Third person. There's waves of giant bugs and gameplay that still feels like it's on PS2 or something you would spend credits to play at a barcade
  • Viscera Cleanup Detail (PC) - physics based first person game where you have to clean up the aftermath of an alien attack. It makes no sense until you turn around with your mop in your hand and you knock over the bucket full of bloody water, and realize it's going to be a long day at work. (never heard of, description by Pink Stripes)
  • Can't Drive This (Everything) - A funky asymmetric game where one person drives a car on a track the other person is building in real time using randomized track segments. The execution is not perfect, but it's worth it on sale. (never heard of, description by Pink Stripes)
  • Gears 5 (Xbone and PC) - The third person brofest shooter we all remember from the 360 days.
  • For the King (Everything) - Co-op SRPG that I honestly would suggest against playing coop unless you wanted to play with someone who is not good at this type of game since you are at a great disadvantage if you do not play right next to each other.
  • Warhammer 40K Gladius (PC) - Warhammer turn based strategy

Is there an age (of the game) or platform limit? Not sure how many people care about PC Engine games from 1993 anymore.

...though Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (side scrolling beat em up) for the Super Nintendo is still amazing for couch co-op.

The Save the World part of Fortnite is co-op and cross-platform. I'm not sure if all platforms are shared, or if it's just PC/Xbox/PS4.

Full Metal Furies (PC, Switch, XB1) - 2D Brawler / puzzler, online and couch co-op (mixed at same time)
Castle Crashers (PC, PS3 & 4, Xbox 360 & One) 2D Brawler, online and couch co-op
Borderlands 1, 2, & The Pre-Sequel (PC, PS3 & 4, Xbox 360 & One) Looter Shooter FPS online

Yoshi's Woolly World (Wii U) - 2D Platformer, couch co-op
Yoshi's Crafted World (Switch) - 2D Platformer, couch co-op
Super Mario 3D World (Wii U) - 3D Platformer, couch co-op

Upcoming:
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 (Switch) - 3D Brawler, online and couch co-op likely

I could go on and on, but I'll stop there.

EDIT You may want to consider dividing between games built for co-op as the focus (Full Metal Furies, Castle Crashers, Borderlands), and games that allow full campaign co-op, but do not feel like it is a focus (Yoshi games), and games with only parts that include co-op (not mentioned, but something like Super Smash Bros Ultimate allows co-op in classic mode).

AUs_TBirD wrote:

Is there an age (of the game) or platform limit? Not sure how many people care about PC Engine games from 1993 anymore.

...though Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (side scrolling beat em up) for the Super Nintendo is still amazing for couch co-op.

I guess current-gen or at least available on PC would be a good enough age/platform limit. Safe to include things available via streaming too (old playstation games via PSNow and old xbox/360 games via gamepass/BC)

Both Divinity: Original Sin and its sequel have great couch coop options. Outward also has this..

Kingdom: Two Crowns has Couch Coop (Switch) and Couch + Online Coop (all other platforms I think)

Its a sort of city building game with a chill atmosphere that turns tense at night when waves of Greed enemies come at your walls.

Left 4 Dead 1+2
Overcooked 1+2 (lots of yelling and screaming at your teammates)

I'm surprised no one mentioned Magicka or Trine yet.

Man, I could not keep my friends around to play Magicka because they would keep killing each other. Helldivers was a bit easier to manage, but when I got it, I was stuck playing with randoms. By the time it went free for PS+ I had moved on. Very fun coop games though. Fun enough for light party scene, but also difficult enough for those who want to be serious.

Does anyone have experience with Deep Rock Galactic? My friends and I were looking at it on Xbox a while back, but didn’t get it. It looked fun, but repetitive.

DRG is a fantastic game. It does get repetitive in the sense that you do the same actions every time, you swing your pickaxe to mine minerals and you defend yourself from the bugs with various firearms etc. What keeps the game different is customization and randomization. There are three major components to this:

1. You can choose your own class and equipment with various upgrades for each item which can result in vastly different playstyles. The combinations are virtually endless even if you assume that your teammates follow the standard party setup of one player of each class.
2. The enemy spawns are random and change their overall theme depending on the map and game mode. There are also lots of mutators that change the type and frequency of spawns. They have been steadily adding more alien types which shakes up the meta constantly.
3. The map generator in this game is very detailed. Maps will follow the same general theme depending on the game mode, a regular mining mission will typically be a linear tunnel crawl whereas a point extraction will have one central room with caves and tunnels around the perimeter. Picking a map with both high complexity and high length (size) can result in some amazing combinations like a giant Moria-sized cavern full of giant crystals that you enter from the ceiling and have to figure out a way to reach the ground without dying.

I play the scout class almost exclusively and I've barely scratched a fifth of the game in 50 hours of play.

It's fun stuff, I just stopped playing because, like Vermintide 2 (which I stopped for the same reason), if you hop in without friends or people who know what is supposed to happen, you pretty much waste your run. Or, spend a ton of time on something that should be pretty easy.

I like these types of games and if there's a group out there somewhere that knows what to do and doesn't mind bringing me up, let me know.

Yeah all coop games have that problem to some degree. DRG is a little more limited than VM2 because it's still in early access and the playerbase isn't huge. VM2 is starting to slow down as well but I still have no trouble finding games to play with decently skilled players, at least during daytime hours.

My wife and I played the Star Wars: the Old Republic MMO like it was a two-player game and we had a blast. The game kinda fell apart in the endgame, but the leveling stories were great. And that's the bit that they let you play for free.

Don't forget that a large chunk of the Lego games feature couch co-op options. I'm looking to get D.C. super Villians to play with my son as it's on sale right now for $19.

A buddy of mine works on a gaming site that focuses on Co-op so you might look there for some ideas as well: https://www.co-optimus.com/

Tamren wrote:

DRG is a fantastic game....I play the scout class almost exclusively and I've barely scratched a fifth of the game in 50 hours of play.

Seems like it’s worth a second look. Thanks for the write-up!

OK, let's bring this thread back to life!

Here are my recommendations:

Online:
- Risk of Rain 2 - Tough roguelike with a cool visual style. The Steam version just got out of early access and the console versions should get the 1.0 update soon.
- Don't Starve Together - Another tough roguelike, although this one has an "infinite lives" mode that can at least allow you to learn the ropes. This is your classic survival and crafting game.
- Factorio - Highly addictive city builder type that is all about automatization and production lines.
- Remnant from the Ashes - We've been playing this one a bunch on the Discord and it was free on Epic Games.
- Journey to the Savage Planet - One of my favorite games of 2020. It's a first person exploration adventure with lots of great humor, although the combat is a bit meh. It's on Game Pass for Xbox One. If you enjoy it, the DLC is worth it.
- Killing Floor 2 - Imagine Left4Dead getting a hoard mode where you buy upgrades between rounds and missions, and add boss fights. The difficulty levels work really well for adjusting the challenge to your liking.

Local:

- Flat Heroes - A minimalistic and frantic bullet hell platformer.

Both:

- ibb & obb - One of my favorite co-op games ever. It's a puzzle platformer designed as a 2 player co-op game so you will need to communicate in order to find solutions to the puzzles, and execute them.
- Human Fall Flat - A really funny ragdoll physics 3D platformer. I think games like Gang Beasts and Totally Reliable Delivery Services took some inspiration from this one.
- Battleblock Theater - From the people who made Castle Crashers, a really funny but harder platformer. If you tend to enjoy speedrunning or score chasing, this is great.
- Earth Defense Force 5 - My greatest gaming guilty pleasure, at the top of my "so bad it's good" games. A 3rd person action game where you defend the Earth from an alien-commanded invasion of giant insects. You can look at previous games in the series, but they can be a bit hit or miss so do your research. EDF! EDF!
- Viscera Cleanup Detail - A physics based first person game where you have to clean up the aftermath of an alien attack. It makes no sense until you turn around with your mop in your hand and you knock over the bucket full of bloody water, and realize it's going to be a long day at work.
- Can't Drive This - A funky asymmetric game where one person drives a car on a track the other person is building in real time using randomized track segments. The execution is not perfect, but it's worth it on sale.
- Gears 5 - (Or any of the games in the Gears of War series.) One of the best cover based third person shooters. Hoard mode in co-op is a ton of fun. Online PvP, even if it's still active, is not that good. It's on Game Pass.
- For the King - A turn-based RPG that kinda looks like a board game. It has been a free giveaway on the Epic store.

Okay, I don't have a lot of time but I am down for some of these!

Remnant from the Ashes, Earth Defense Force 5, Deep Rock Galactic .... No Man's Sky.

Oh boy!

EF5 is confirmed wonderful in co-op, as is DRG.

Also throwing in Dying Light and Sea of Thieves.

Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 have coop if you can find a way to enjoy a very old RPG. I tried them recently and the age makes things hard to stick with. That's not just art, it's design sensibility too.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 has amazing coop though. Best RPG with coop as far as I know.

Heroes of Hammerwatch is great too. Its an action RPG with a sort of 'run' concept, as in you get as far as you can, risking your collection thus-far. Do you take the opportunity to bank the ore and gold you've found so far or keep it in case the next level has a store which might help you push deeper?

From the games mentioned in the posts above, I've most recently been enjoying playing co-op in Remnant from the Ashes with other Goodjers.

I'd also be up for getting back into Deep Rock Galactic (played in early access and been meaning to get back to it). I've played a decent amount of For the King but not in co-op, I'd like to try that out. I did get into Warhammer Vermintide 2 quite late so I'm very much low level, but I'd certainly jump back in to play more of that.

Some other games in my library that have online co-op (I've mostly played solo):
Wargroove
Terraria
Warhammer 40K Gladius
Anno 1800
Mudrunner
Euro/American Truck Simulator

Ones in my backlog I've yet to try:
Barotrauma
Heave Ho
Ultimate Chicken Horse
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (local)

Vermintide 2 is back on Gamepass (just not PC)

I am looking for something similar to Yoshis Crafted / Wooly World

Oh, I totally forgot about Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes! Such a great party game. And it can totally be played over a video call, except that if you're playing the "campaign" levels, only one person will have the save file.

Ultimate Chicken Horse is a lot of fun, but I'd say it's a competitive game, rather than co-op.

I'm curious about Barotrauma, but it strikes me as a game with a steep learning curve.

Ultimate Chicken Horse can destroy marriages, beware! Like Overcooked, but meaner.

Updating for the upcoming International GWJ Days 2020. Would be nice to get some streams of folks doing coop...not as fast as you all post, but it's getting updated

My wife loves couch coop games, so I have quite a few of them.

Heave Ho
Out of Space (still Early Access)
Unrailed
Moving Out
Diner Bros (like Overcooked, but its more about working together than fighting the environment)
Moving Out
Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime

I recommend all of the above, and even better they are all Remote Play Together compatible on Steam so only one person needs to own it and you can get multiple people to play, or I'm sure they all work over Parsec as well.

Others worth noting:
Tools Up
Catastronauts

Carlbear95 wrote:

My wife loves couch coop games, so I have quite a few of them.

Heave Ho
Out of Space (still Early Access)
Unrailed
Moving Out
Diner Bros (like Overcooked, but its more about working together than fighting the environment)
Moving Out
Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime

I recommend all of the above, and even better they are all Remote Play Together compatible on Steam so only one person needs to own it and you can get multiple people to play, or I'm sure they all work over Parsec as well.

Others worth noting:
Tools Up
Catastronauts

Came here to nominate Moving Out and see you named it twice. My kids love playing that one couch co-op. Will need to check out some of these other ones as well :).