A lot of things are better with friends, but one of the things that seems to be a dying genre is the co-op game.
The days of sitting on a couch with your buddies and ploughing through a game together seem to be all but gone, but on the upside a reasonable amount of games these days are at least including online co-op to their tiles.
So if you want to have some spooky fun with your friends, this is the list for you.
15. Hunt: Showdown
Hunt: Showdown Gameplay
In Hunt: Showdown, you enter an online map filled with dark creatures that all want to kill you. You collect weapons and gear, and work your way through these lesser monsters in search of our bounty targets, which are much more powerful monsters that are generally somewhat hard to take down on your own (but possible). You won’t be the only one looking to take down these terrible beasties however, and the other players can present opportunities for teamwork, as well as being a major threat to your well being.
What makes Hunt: Showdown such a great co-op experience, is the brilliant horror atmosphere, with danger around every corner. You aren’t just fighting some npc monsters with your friends; more often than not you are dealing with other players as well. This general sense that everything is out to get you makes the teamwork really rewarding and fun.
14. Friday the 13th: The Game
Friday the 13th: The Game Counsellor Gameplay
Friday the 13th: The Game puts a group of players in the role of camp counsellors trying to survive/defeat Jason in the typical fashion of a Friday the 13th movie. This is an asymmetrical multiplayer game, so seven players play counselled , and one player plays Jason,with the mission of killing the other players in some gruesome fashion.
This is a really solid co-op experience, because working together with the other counsellors is key to surviving. There are seven of you and one of him for a reason, the deck is heavily stacked in his favour. Work with your friends, watch each other’s backs, and you. Might just be able to take down the vengeful boogeyman of Camp Crystal Lake.
13: Pacify
Pacify Gameplay
In Pacify, you take on the role of a paranormal investigator checking out a house that is haunted by a creepy little girl (everyone loves a ghost girl, right?). You can group up with up to three other players and use teamwork to achieve the goals of the game and watch each others’ backs.
What makes Pacify such a solid co-op experience is the constant sense of danger from the ghost girl that is hunting you, and the real lack of ways to fight her. You aren’t going to be able to do more than pacify her for a time. Good teamwork is essential to get everyone out of this house, without that the whole team will end up making this haunted house their forever home; and not in the nice way.
12. Depth
Depth Gameplay
Depth is a really cool take on the asymmetrical multiplayer genre. In this game, you either play the part of one of four treasure hunters, whose job is to find treasure on the ocean floor and get it to your small, unmanned submersible. The other team of two players take on the role of sharks trying to eat the divers. Each team has a set amount of lives, and it’s up to them to effectively use teamwork and strategy to accomplish their mission before the other team.
Depth is such a cool co-op experience because it’s fresh and different. You aren’t running around some ruin or house trying to avoid one movie monster, or mowing down the undead by the score. No, you are in the dark quiet abyss of the ocean, and your death could lurk anywhere just waiting to swoop in with blinding speed and tear into you with it’s razor-sharp teeth. The divers have tools and are more versatile, but the sharks are much faster and deadly. It is really up to you and your team how you are going to leverage these traits to pull through to a win.
11. Dying Light
Dying Light Co-op Gameplay
I can’t say enough good things about Dying Light, it’s just one of the rare examples of an open world zombie game done well. In the game you take on the role of a fellow named Crane, who has been dropped into the city of Harran that has been taken over by a zombie plague leaving relatively few survivors. It is first person, and allows you to explore the large city map through fun parkour mechanics and a whole lot of zombie smashing, slashing, and gashing. On top of being fantastic in single player, it also features a beautifully integrated co-op mode that allows up to three of your friends to enter your game world and play through the entire campaign with you, as well as just generally wander around and slay the undead.
What makes Dying Light such a fantastic co-op game, is that the co-op is so seamless that it neither really feels tacked on, nor does it feel like the game isn’t complete if you don’t use it. It’s just there as a wicked fun option. Let’s be real, there’s few things quite as fun as mowing down the undead with your friends. Consider it teamwork practice for when the actual zombie apocalypse happens. (I totally don’t think that will happen….that’s crazy...hah).
10.Resident Evil 5
Resident Evil 5 Co-Op Gameplay
Resident Evil 5 is one of those unicorn among video games, a game that includes couch co-op. In this game, you and one friend can take on the role of Chris Redfield and Shiva Alomar, two BSSA agents hunting down illegal bio weapons. Their hunt brings them to Kijuju, Africa where they immediately run afoul of the infected local and enter into a battle to survive, and get to the bottom of what is happening there.
Resident Evil 5 is an excellent co-op game because it was designed specifically to be one. You can play it in single player of course, with Shiva being controlled by AI, but it just doesn’t feel right. It’s meant to be played in co-op, and it’s one of the few co-op games out there to support couch co-op. I have very fond memories of powering through this game in one sitting with a friend, a great deal of pop, and an Xbox 360.
9.GTFO
GTFO Gameplay
GTFO is a no nonsense kind of co-op FPS. You and three other players take on the role of prisoners, being forced to explore a massive underground complex in search of artifacts to extract. You will have to find gear and weapons as you go, and work with your team to survive the onslaught of twisted creatures that have overrun the complex.
What makes GTFO such a great co-op experience is that it doesn’t try to be anything other than it is. It doesn’t throw in a vs mode or anything, it’s just a pure, solid co-op survival FPS. It doesn’t hold any punches, and if you aren’t fast with your aim and good with your teamwork you will die. A lot. It’s everything you could want, if you are hoping for an intense co-op FPS with a horror twist.
8.Secret Neighbor: Hello Neighbor Multiplayer
Secret Neighbor: Hello Neighbor Multiplayer Child Gameplay
Secret Neighbor: Hello Neighbor Multiplayer takes the concept behind the Hello Neighbor games (You being a child trying to investigate the house of your neighbor who is hiding a dark secret, without getting caught by said neighbor) and gives it an Among Us twist. In this iteration you play with five other players who take on the rolls of children trying to get into the neighbor’s basement. However, one of you is actually the neighbor in disguise, and he’s not going to let you meddling kids get into his basement without a fight.
What makes Secret Neighbor such a good co-op game is that you don’t know who is your friend and who is your enemy. One of you is out to sabotage the rest of you, but who? Maybe your best friend? The combination of co-op with that Among Us style paranoia-inducing gameplay really subverts the co-op gameplay and that makes it all the more interesting and fun.
7. Left 4 Dead 2
Left 4 Dead 2 Co-op Gameplay
Left 4 Dead 2 is a legend in both the co-op genre and zombie game genre. It’s nearly 12 years old now, and still going fairly strong. If you somehow haven’t heard of this one, basically it follows the story of four survivors of a zombie outbreak (each of which can be either controlled by AI or another player) as the fight their way through various environments with the eventual aim of reaching a helicopter that is going to bring them to freedom. You will shoot, smash, and chop zombies by the dozen as you and your team desperately try to make it to the end.
Left 4 Dead 2 is an amazing co-op game, and would have scored a lot higher if it wasn’t as old as it is. It’s built around the idea that you will play with friends, and the game does generally work a lot better with friends (especially when you end up being pinned by a special zombie and need to be rescued). On top of all of that, it’s both possible to play online and via split screen. (Split screen is more easily used on xbox 360 but it is possible to do on a pc, you just have to look up one of the available online guides to activate it). Honestly, this game is one of my all time favourite games, and after all of these years I still go back to it and have a lot of fun.
6. Killing Floor 2
Killing Floor 2 Co-op Gameplay
Killing Floor 2 is another fun co-op zombie killing game, though it takes a different approach to Left 4 Dead. If you’ve ever played one of the zombies modes in a Call of Duty game, then the format will be fairly familiar to you. Kill a bunch of zombies and horrific undead monsters, which gets you points, then you use the points to buy better guns and equipment in between the rounds that consist of more and more powerful monsters until you either get killed or make it to the last round.
Killing Floor 2 is really good if you want to just have some mindless fun. You aren’t going to play this for a narrative, but if you want to just unplug with your friends and plough through a gorey mess of enemies then this is the perfect game for you.
5.Don’t Starve Together
Don’t Starve Together Gameplay
Don’t Starve Together is a standalone multiplayer release of Don’t Starve. You and up to five friends explore a strange world willed with bizarre monsters and threats. It’s up to you all to collect resources, build structures, and survive. Most of all your goal is, don’t starve.
Don’t Starve Together is a fun co-op experience to have with some friends. It’s a nice departure from the large amount of combat and shooting co-op experiences, and let’s you try to focus on man vs nature instead of the typical man vs man.
4.Phasmophobia
Phasmophobia Gameplay
Phasmophobia is similar to Pacify but with a lot more options. In Phasmophobia you and up to three other players take on the role of ghost hunters, and you will haven’t use various tools and methods to try and figure out what kind of haunting is happening. The ghost will get more and more aggressive the longer your team is in the location, and the end goal is not to defeat it but to find enough information on the haunting to get paid at the end. Each ghost reacts differently and your strategy has to be different for each.
What makes Phasmophobia such a good co-op experience is how varied the gameplay is. It’s really fun how different each of the ghosts are, and the different tools and methods you have to employ to suss them out. It’s also really cool that your goal isn’t to escape or defeat the spirit, but to rather to try to survive long enough to gather information on the haunting and then get the hell out of dodge. It’s an interesting different take on the ghost horror genre.
3.The Forest
The Forest Co-op Gameplay
In The Forest you take on the role of a survivor of a plane crash that finds themselves in an isolated peninsula and has to find the means to survive. The catch? Well, this peninsula is populated by cannibal mutants of course. Whilst the game does have a plot line that can be pursued, the meat of the game is really just in the crafting, building, and exploring. The cannibals were intentionally written so that their role in the game was somewhat ambiguous; are they the enemy? Or are they just defending their home from an unknown invader?
What makes The Forest so great as a co-op experience is that with an extra set of hands and eyes survival becomes a lot easier. It’s great to have the help, and it makes the otherwise lonely experience of trying to survive in an hostile environment a lot lighter. That and when dealing with cannibal mutants, it’s always ideal to have someone that runs slower than you do on your team.
2.Dead by Daylight
Dead by Daylight Survivor Gameplay
Dead by Daylight is basically very similar to Friday the 13th: The Game except that you have a massive list of possible killers to deal with rather than Jason, and it’s arguably a lot harder for the killer to win in some ways. In Dead by Daylight you and three friends take on the role of survivors, against one player who plays the killer. Your job as a survivor is to try and repair generators around the map. When enough are repaired the power to the exit turns on, then you have to open said exit and escape. The killer on the other hand, has to hurt you, carry you to a sacrificial meat hook and try to make sure you don’t escape or get rescued before you finally run out of strength to resist and are taken by the dark deity that is behind all the terrible stuff you are experiencing.
What makes Dead by Daylight such a great co-op game is that it’s simple. The maps change, and different killers present different problems, but at the end of the day the game stays much the same. If you get a good group of friends together and you communicate, you can become the worst nightmare for the killer. A good team of survivors will win a lot more often than not, and that can be a really good feeling, especially in a game that from the offset feels so weighted against you.
1. 7 Days to Die
7 Days it Die Co-op Gameplay
7 Days to Die is very nearly the perfect open world zombie survival game. You pick a character and are dropped into either a pre-made campaign map, or a randomly generated one. From this point you (and up to 7 other players) have no real goal beyond trying to survive. You can scavenge, build, craft, and even hunt for meat from the local fauna. The game has a day and night cycle, and when playing the game with normal settings the undead become a lot more of a problem during the night, moving faster and being a lot better at generally just being a lot more aggressive. As you might guess from the title, after your first week in the game, things get harder as the game starts sending much larger groups of zombies after you as well as more powerful types of zombie.
What makes 7 Days to Die so great as a co-op game is much like what makes Minecraft so great (a game this game gets compared to a lot) it allows you to build a lot more complex stuff in much shorter times. This is especially good given that this game does get harder after a set amount of time. Not only does it benefit gathering and crafting, it also makes it much easier to fight off a horde of hungry zombie when you have a few extra people there fighting beside you. Surviving on your own is much harder, which can be great if you like that; but doing it with friends is much better.
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