Summary

• The best co-op games offer diverse types of gameplay for uniquely memorable experiences.
• Borderlands 2 shines in co-op with humor and exciting weapons, while Stardew Valley is a great relaxing alternative.
• Games like Portal 2 and Baldur's Gate 3 offer great campaigns for multiplayer.

From Baldur's Gate 3, the world of co-op games has an extraordinary amount to offer. A good co-op experience can foster friendship in a completely different way than a competitive game, but working together can also have the potential to induce a lot more rage than solidarity. In either case, a game that handles co-op well makes it easy to have a memorable experience.

The best co-op games come from every genre and style of play, from frenetic first-person shooters to impressively robust RPG experiences. If there's a uniting factor, it's that co-op needs to feel like a genuinely meaningful addition rather than just an alternate way to play. The latter can still be fun, but when everything really clicks with more than one player involved, the overall experience can be significantly elevated.

10 Borderlands 2 Is Chaotic FPS Fun

The looter shooter genre has become heavily populated over the past decade, but Borderlands 2 did things right in ways that other games still struggle to match. Perhaps most importantly, there's no shortage of memorable and unique guns to pick up, which can keep mindless gameplay feeling fresh over the course of a substantial adventure. A cel-shaded art style and memorable characters cement its iconic status, and it's possible to have a good time even playing solo.

Co-op gameplay, however, is where Borderlands 2 really shines. The over-tuned humor of the game works better with the silliness of two to four players bungling things together, and grabbing different kinds of guns helps back up the weaknesses of any one approach. The other Borderlands games offer similarly enjoyable experiences, but Borderlands 2 just feels like the most well-honed package.

9 Stardew Valley Makes Farming Social

Stardew Valley is about as far as it can get from an FPS, centering its gameplay loop around building up a productive farm rather than gunning down enemies. By nature, this means that the moment-to-moment experience isn't always social, as it's easy to focus on tilling the fields while another player runs some errands in town. As far as more relaxed experiences go, however, it's the perfect way to spend some downtime with a friend.

Stardew Valley's 1.6 update added 8-player co-op, which gives it a big hook that's hard to find elsewhere. Bringing that many people in for one playthrough might result in a well-oiled machine of a farm, or it might simply lead to a lot of idle chatter and inefficient production. Whatever the case, playing a co-op game is a nice way to breathe new life into an icon of the farming sim genre.

8 Deep Rock Galactic Has Great FPS Variety

A lot of the best co-op FPS games are starting to get up there in age, but Deep Rock Galactic is a major standout from recent years. The action focus is on blasting alien threats in procedurally generated, destructible cave environments, with a fantasy sci-fi flavor that has a lot of charm. What really makes it memorable, however, is just how many options are available, all of them with an impressive amount of polish.

There's something for everyone in the four different classes of Driller, Engineer, Gunner, and Scout, and the way that they synergize is notably well-balanced and compelling. Within those archetypes, there's also a lot of room for interesting build customization, which helps keep the game feeling fresh over time. Developers and community management who care a lot about the game have helped endear it to fans, and Deep Rock Galactic will probably remain popular for quite some time yet.

7 Battleblock Theater Makes Platforming Funny

Co-op platforming can be a lot of fun, but it also tends to be frustrating, with way too many opportunities to get in the way of another player. Battleblock Theater understands the fundamental absurdity of the concept and hones it into something hilarious. Tightly designed levels make smart use of co-op possibilities while leaning into the inevitable comedy of errors, resulting in a gratifyingly chaotic experience.

Battleblock Theater developer The Behemoth is known for its co-op chops, with the hack-and-slash Castle Crashers and tactical RPG Pit People being two other hits from the studio. It can be a lot of fun, but Battleblock Theater might be the best package that The Behemoth has ever put together, and it's easy to recommend to both platformer fans and anyone looking for a good multiplayer experience.

6 Terraria Is Better With Friends

Playing Minecraft socially has always been a pleasure, but as far as pick-up-and-play co-op goes, Terraria might be an even more convincing package. The side-scrolling sandbox game is exceptionally easy to play with friends, requiring absolutely no server shenanigans to get things up and running. Servers are also a possibility and can be especially useful for larger groups, but it's hard to argue with the ease of simply clicking "Host & Play."

Terraria also leans into RPG concepts on top of its sandbox play, with plenty of weapons to acquire and bosses to fight. This sense of direction can be helpful to make co-op play feel truly cooperative, although there's nothing wrong with focusing on building unique bases or simply mining deeper and deeper. Regardless of what seems most appealing, Terraria has a lot to offer any multiplayer group.

5 Portal 2 Has A Smart Co-Op Campaign

Portal 2 is often upheld as one of the best single-player campaigns of all time, offering a complete package of brilliant puzzling and sharp storytelling, but its co-op element is also worth checking out. As a completely separate campaign, Portal 2 co-op casts players as the robots Atlas and P-Body, who have to work their way through the Cooperative Testing Initiative after the events of the single-player story.

What makes Portal 2's co-op so memorable is how much it plays with the tension of working together, with GLaDOS attempting to weaponize this against the robots over the course of the campaign. It may not be something for the history books in the way that the single-player story is, but there aren't many other games out there that offer something as thoughtful on top of the solo experience.

4 Baldur's Gate 3 Is A Huge Co-Op Adventure

Tabletop Dungeons & Dragons is all about cooperation between a party, but that can be a difficult thing to bring to video game form in all of its complexity. Baldur's Gate 3 translates the concept with a shocking amount of ambition and accuracy, making it possible to form a party out of friends, NPC companions, or a mixture of both. Getting through its lengthy campaign could require some very open schedules, but it's an incredible option for anyone with plenty of free time.

There's always the potential to step on the toes of companions in an RPG, but Baldur's Gate 3 does a good job minimizing this frustration with turn-based combat and a seamless approach to starting up conversations. A compelling fantasy story rich with choices and challenging encounters makes for a truly memorable adventure, and playing it with friends might just enhance the experience.

3 Left 4 Dead 2 Still Looms Large

Left 4 Dead 2 released in 2009, but all these years later, there's still nothing of its ilk that quite compares. Only a year after the original Left 4 Dead, Valve released a sequel that honed the horde shooter setup of the first game into a nearly perfect package. Compared to many shooters that have come out since, it's refreshingly free of bloat, with no complex live-service systems or unnecessary mechanics getting in the way of immediate fun.

That doesn't mean that Left 4 Dead 2 is a slim experience, with plenty of great maps and modes to keep things fresh. Like other Valve games, it's also extremely well-ed by mods and community content, extending the replayability far beyond the core game's offerings. A lot of games have tried to be Left 4 Dead 2, but at the end of the day, there's a reason why everyone keeps coming back to the classic.

2 Overcooked 2 Is A Cooking Frenzy

Overcooked 2 is the kind of co-op game that can really put friendships through the furnace, thrusting players into level after level of kitchen nightmares that demand exceptional teamwork amid the fray. Even the most synchronized group will be constantly putting out fires, which is a lot of what makes the game so great. There's no downtime here, only fast, fluid gameplay.

Despite the intensity, failure in Overcooked 2 never ends up feeling too punishing, as snappy, efficient levels are as easy to replay as they are hard to master. It also steps up the variety from the original Overcooked, with a long list of clever environments that shake up the nature of the gameplay. From jungle rafts to enchanted castles, Overcooked 2 makes the prospect of getting bored seem like the toughest challenge of all.

1 It Takes Two Is Endlessly Creative

A Way Out felt like a breath of fresh air for co-op games, setting up a prison break-out adventure with a surprising amount of ambition and ingenuity. After developer Hazelight Studios followed it up with It Takes Two, A Way Out almost just feels like a trial run. It Takes Two tells the story of a couple turned into two dolls who then have to journey across a wide variety of environments and challenges as they work on their own issues.

Most great co-op games do one thing very well, but It Takes Two is never content to settle, trying out new kinds of gameplay and puzzles with reckless abandon. Although the story might never quite get to flourish in the way that it wants to, everything else is absolutely bursting at the seams. It Takes Two is everything but the kitchen sink of co-op games, and it never fails to make its new ideas exciting.