I hate it when any PC game with coop doesn’t implement a same-screen option. Luckily you can use nucleus coop to play network-multi games on one PC.
We need a list, a list of cooperative games on which systems and the ones that are getting flags of approval from members who play them as cooperative. It’s would be ongoing of course.
Oooh. This is new to me. Thanks! Will check it out.
Aw yeah! I love Overcooked too, it’s kept me, my girlfriend and friends entertained for years now. I keep meaning to check out Catastronauts and I’ve got my eye on We Are Screwed! as well.
I adore co-op but I don’t strictly agree with this. I recall Atom Zombie Smasher’s co-op just being an exercise in getting in each other’s way. Borderlands is apparently boring on your own but with friends I kept missing dialogue and I always felt pressured to hurry up when sorting through all my loot. And I still thought it was boring anyway :-) Maybe I’d have enjoyed it more solo? I’m not a fan of 4X co-op because it drags the pace down watching and waiting. I also think the atmosphere of certain games can be fragile with friends–sometimes you need peace and quiet to really feel it. The System Shock 2 co-op mod always confused me. @Rock8man brought this up recently in the horror thread when Secret World got mentioned and I think it’s a fair point. There are other games like Abyss Odyssey and Nuclear Throne where the co-op modes feel cramped and too busy compared to solo play, and I also had more fun with Saints Row: The Third and The Crew solo than I did with a friend. Even Fall Guys doesn’t really benefit much from playing with someone.
I’m not going to lie: I don’t think I can narrow this list down to one favourite ever co-op game because I’ve had such a blast with these and they’re all so wildly different.
- Overcooked 1/2
- Guns of Icarus Online
- Sea of Thieves
- At A Distance
- Portal 2
- Jamestown
- L4D 1/2
- Vermintide 1/2
- Risk of Rain 1/2
- Dungeon of the Endless
- Magicka 1/2
- Lara Croft and The Guardian of Light
- Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime
- Helldivers
- Rocket League
- Battlerite
- Rayman Origins and Legends
- Affordable Space Adventures
- Videoball
- Regular Human Basketball
- Soldiers: Heroes of World War 2 (had some great times with this over LAN back in the day)
- FORCED
@Bluddy I wish I’d been able to play more Monaco co-op but my friends bounced off the busy visuals :-(
I really want to play Deep Rock Galactic and Streets of Rogue. Dying Light is one I always forget about too.
Whoa, that’s like the opposite of Parsec!
How is this better than Parsec?
Whoops. Missed that comment. Ignore my “how is this better than Parsec” comment.
This happens with Divinity too. If you have someone that just charges through or splits off, you miss out. Games need to be designed for that one Wild Child in the bunch that you just can’t control. Sure 90% of it is not dialogue but keeping everyone together should at least be strongly encouraged. It was the best thing about L4D and Vermintide. Sure you can wonder off solo, but you’ll likely die and get yelled at for it.
If I may add a thing, we’ve recently begun testing this with co-op games like X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter and Starlancer as a virtual LAN.
So far it works GREAT. So many older, great co-op games that are LAN enabled.
Yeah this looks like Parsec but more limited.
Parsec seems like the opposite of what I want, which is to play co-op games on a shared screen. Parsec seems designed to play local co-op online.
Chances are I am confused, though.
Oh I’m sorry. There are a lot of co-op games that are local. Look at all the lego games.
Yes, to be clear the use cases are:
“I want to play this couch co-op game with my friend @BrianRubin who lives in Los Angeles - but it doesn’t support online play!” - Parsec
“I want to play this game with my family on our couch - but it doesn’t support split screen!” - Nucleus
Oohhhhhh
This is my favorite kid-friendly co-op game, because the difficulty can be tuned to really freaking easy, unlike for example Overcooked.
I have three brothers. One Xmas we actually set up 2 TVs back to back, and played 2 v 2 halo. Between that and worms, the most fun I’ve ever had gaming. Coop can elevate a decent game to a masterpiece.
I tried Nuclear Throne same screen co-op once and found it unplayable. For me, apparently, the game required the knowledge that my character was the center of the screen so I could look around and just use that guide to keep myself away from bullets. When I was no longer the center I couldn’t keep an eye both on myself and enemies at the same time.
A long time ago we gave our friend the nickname Pied Piper Rambo because he often just runs off getting himself into trouble and then we have to chase him down (and rescue him).
Yeah, and the thing with L4D and Vermintide (and Evolve (which totally would have been on my list if I’d had proper coop partners)) is that not only did the mechanics of the game force you to stay together, but the world-building was done via incidental and contextual dialogue in the downtime between encounters, often when you’re all listening out so you didn’t miss so much. That’s still one of my favourite ways to do it.
Oh, I bet you guys have had some great gaming sessions over the years. I only have one brother and I think our competitive gaming growing up led to my love of multiplayer, particularly local.
Hmm, I’m not sure I understand you but I just recall it being cramped and messy with all the gunfire, and the revive/health mechanics being opaque and unsatisfying. And to think YellowAfterlife reverse-engineered the game to give Nuclear Throne online co-op! His work was very impressive though and Nuclear Throne Together improved the game in various other ways.
I just remembered that SWAT 4 is still one I’d like to play co-op as well.
When you play solo, your character occupies the center of the screen and doesn’t move from it (it’s been months since I played, but this is what I recall). You don’t need to look at your character, your eyes can roam around the screen, keeping track of enemies. I found that I avoided enemy projectiles mainly by moving the stick so that they were not moving towards the center of the screen. I hardly ever actually focused the center of my vision on my character. However, when playing with someone else, this is no longer true; the center of the screen sort of moves in between you, so your character can roam around away from that center, which means I can’t just look at what I’m shooting at, making sure to track my projectiles towards it, I also have to look at my guy so I can make sure no projectiles are moving towards “him”. Do you follow me? Solo I can keep my gaze on my target; co-op I have to rapidly switch back and forth between target and avatar, which I found completely untenable. It totally changed the way I play, in a very bad way.
Ah gotcha! Yes, exactly. I think that’s probably what I was alluding to with ‘cramped’. The edges of the screen feel closer in because the camera centres between both players. I suppose it’s a case of staying together but it’s very easy to get separated by all the enemies and bullets, and crucially the screen space just isn’t that big for two players either!
Edit: I wonder about Assault Android Cactus coop too. It’s an insanely good twin-stick shooter solo but it feels so breakneck fast that I can’t imagine there being much actual co-operation.