(the app is forcing me to put a link so I put Timesplitters 2 gameplay cuz this is mostly a text post)

Hi everyone! I’ve been feeling frustration about games lately, remembering experiences I had as a kid playing co-op story games with my friends, like Timesplitters and Destroy All Humans, etc.

Modern multiplayer games sometimes have some co-op elements, but many of them are party games like Human Fall Flat or Among Us, or big Battle Royales or Multiplayer shooters. The co-op ones seem to only be survival games like The Forest.

I’m always looking for good co-op experiences to play with my friends, but it’s hard to find what I am looking for. I recently played It Takes Two with my partner and that was so wonderful.

Does anyone know any games like what I am looking for? It seems these kinds of games are so few and far between, sadly.

  • AndrasKrigare@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    I’m a bit surprised by your premise, games with local co-op have certainly almost disappeared entirely, but I haven’t noticed a trend in online co-op. Some good ones off-hand (that haven’t been mentioned). These are in descending order if my personal playtime as a rough proxy for how good I think they are.

    • Remnant
    • Wasteland 3
    • Outriders
    • Gloomhaven
    • Risk of Rain 2
    • Warhammer Vermintide 2
    • Monster Hunter World
    • Left 4 Dead series
    • Back 4 Blood
    • Borderlands series
    • Magicka
    • Star Wars the Old Republic
    • Helldivers
    • Barony
    • Barotrauma
    • Gods Trigger
    • Action Squad
    • Aragami 1,2
    • Evil West
  • lotanis@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 year ago

    Have you played Deep Rock Galactic? It’s a wonderful games where you play a dwarf mining things, fighting off bugs while you do it. You play in a group of up to 4 people trying to complete your objectives together.

    I find it really hard to explain what makes it great, so you’ll just have to trust it’s avid fan base!

    • hardypart@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      Tried Overcooked with my wife, but unfortunately the game got frustratingly hard pretty quickly… (Note that I’m not a gaming novice)

      • GreenAlex@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        I recommend giving Plate Up! a look. As good as it is, we also found Overcooked incredibly overwhelming/frustrating. Plate up is much better in that area, we feel. It eases you into the more hectic situations and you actually have agency over the design of the restaurant.

  • DarbyDear@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    If you and your partner enjoy RPG’s, I highly recommend Divinity: Original Sin (and Divinity: Original Sin 2, though we haven’t finished that one yet). Very story-driven, the tactical combat is a blast when you get into strategizing and collaborating, and there are all sorts of non-combat shenanigans you can get up to as well (the second even more so than the first).

  • irongamer@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Here are some rough categories and hours included.

    Builder / Survival Sounded like you were not that interested in this genre but they can be fun co-op experiences.

    • Terraria (850 hours) - Two of my friends I have done clean slate full play-throughs of this game.
    • Core Keeper (77 hours) - Also played through the content of this game with same 2 friends.
    • Valheim (344 hours) - Did a co-op play through with a friend on this one. Might do it again with Mistlands or with other updates.

    Boss Encounters / Building

    • V Rising (79 hours)

    Played through V Rising with a friend, co-op pve, and it was a blast. We really enjoyed the different boss battles. We are going to revisit this one soon as they dropped / are dropping new content.

    Exploration / Melee Combat / Story

    • Dying Light 2 (87 hours)

    Enjoyed playing Dying Light 2 with a friend, playing the game turned out to a mix of playing solo and playing co-op.

    Platformer

    • Trine

    Someone else mentioned this and I’ll add it as well. Fun co-op platform with some fun story telling aspects.

    MMO

    • Guildwars 2

    Saw someone else mention this game in the thread. There is a ridiculous amount of content in this game with no subscription required. Combat feedback/force has always felt weak imo but there is a massive world to explore and jumpy puzzles if you are into that (love them).

    More story focused co-op

    Also watching this thread as I’m curious what shows up. I haven’t played many games in this area on PC.

    • analisys@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Can you expand about V Rising for Diablo and Stardew valley fans? Somehow I’m still on fence but sounds like great combo!

  • AlexisLuna@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    You probably played it already, but if you didn’t, Portal 2 has a Co-op campaign and it’s really good.

    Edit: I opened my steam library for more games and and saw that apparently an unofficial mod Portal reloaded had a co-op update if you already played the original. Anyway here’s some more games.

    Battleblock theater: a co-op puzzle platformer. It has a bit of a party game vibe with it’s humour and ability to mess with your friends, but it has a story.

    Don’t starve together: a 2d survival game with an interesting drawn style.

    FEAR 3: a horror FPS.

    Payday 2: a co-op FPS where you rob banks (and other places).

  • Jaxia@toast.ooo
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    1 year ago

    When I started to read your post I was going to reply with ItTakes Two, but then I saw you already played it. IMO that is the best co-op game ever. A little bit of everything, amazing graphics, gameplay, music. I only wish I found something close to it.

    My friend and I played We Were Here Forever. Not an action game whatsoever. Graphics were meh. Story ok. The challenges were fun but difficult. If you are looking for a “thinking/puzzle” co-op that requires good communication, you may want to give it a try.

    Following this post to see other comments, as I would love to try out a good co-op as well.

  • Fox@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 year ago

    The Trine series is a fun 1-3 player game with a nice story and a few puzzles to play trough.

    If you want to explore and do story on the side i can also always recommend Guild Wars 2. Base game is f2p so worthy of a look IMO.

  • terrrmus@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Use the Local Co-Op tag on Steam and you can filter them down pretty well. I played through these with my wife. They were a ton of fun. I put an asterisks beside my favorites.
    Darksiders Genesis*
    It Takes Two*
    Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (with the Legacy of Kain DLC)*
    Secret of Mana Remake*
    Unravel 2
    Full Metal Furies*
    Castle Crashers*

    These are good too.

    Helldivers*
    Road Redemption
    Rampage Knights
    Broforce
    Streets of Rage 4
    Huntdown*
    Any WORMS game, WMD is great.
    Overcooked
    Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime*
    Speedrunners
    Shadowgrounds

  • n0stalghia@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    We recommend V Rising. It’s an ARPG (Diablo-like), but with big focus on base building.

    You mine, you craft, you build a cool looking goth castle, and then you hunt enemies or bosses using your upgraded weapon and new skills. It’s very fun. You can spin up a local server and modify your own server/game rules to increase progress speed (as some features are designed for a 24/7 server, and your game only advances when it’s running, so some speedups are necessary)