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Fun, not too expensive co-op games for small groups?
Thirith
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm running regular sessions of Arma 2, which are usually great fun, even though (or because?) they tend to end in everyone being dead.
However, for the session before Christmas we were thinking of perhaps giving Arma a rest and going for some other online co-op games. Since we may not all have them already, the best would be stuff that's already pretty cheap on Steam and that may even be cheaper due to the Holiday Sale.
Our group is usually pretty small, i.e. 2-4 people, so we're looking for games that work best with that size of group. I've come up with some suggestions, but I'd be happy to hear some more. What would you personally recommend?
- Left 4 Dead
- Trine 2
- Monacco
However, for the session before Christmas we were thinking of perhaps giving Arma a rest and going for some other online co-op games. Since we may not all have them already, the best would be stuff that's already pretty cheap on Steam and that may even be cheaper due to the Holiday Sale.
Our group is usually pretty small, i.e. 2-4 people, so we're looking for games that work best with that size of group. I've come up with some suggestions, but I'd be happy to hear some more. What would you personally recommend?
- Left 4 Dead
- Trine 2
- Monacco
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
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- Diablo III
- Torchlight 2
are pretty fun with 4
Also, the Borderland series is best played with a small group, and they're pretty much interchangeable, so you can get the cheapest one.
you can also look at he fine, fine
- Iron Brigade
- Risk of Rain
are alot of fun
Then there are games such as
- Supreme Commander
- Starcraft II
- Dota / LoL / Smite / HoN
That aren't strictly speaking small co-op games, but can be played that way by forming parties.
There are also a slew of MMO's that you can play for cheap and in Co-op, Guild Wars 2, WildStar, World Of Warcraft are but a few if you go down this dark, dark path.
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
Borderlands 2 is like BL1 but simply more; More engaging plot, More creatures to fight, More interesting NPC's (including what is probably one of the best villians in any video game ever), Bad ass points (perks that persist between playthroughs) and more area's to meander through.
If any of that sounds appealing then go for it.
If you're looking at Left 4 Dead, you might as well just get Left 4 Dead 2 instead, as all of the first game's content was made freely available for the sequel, if I recall correctly. Killing Floor is similar in concept, but is a lot more gun-porny and has a different, less frantic feel to it.
Monaco is great because it can be played so many ways and all of them are hilarious and fun. With more players it can almost become co-op pac man with guns and helicopters as you're all getting chased by guards as you scramble to loot treasure, while one of you is just hulk-smashing through walls and generally making a glorious mess of things.
Battleblock Theater is an excellent co-op game that gives you the freedom to work together in harmony while occasionally being a sabotaging dick to your friends. Same goes for Magicka and the Trine games.
Guns of Icarus Online is a bit niche but incredibly awesome if you can get into the swing of things. Essentially you form a team of four people and you have to work together closely to operate a steampunk airship, which you use to fight other airships crewed by other teams of four people. Typically, one person is a captain and pilots the ship while giving guidance to the other team members, who variably play as gunners, who man the weapons, and engineers, who madly sprint from place to place trying to keep your boat in the air. I count it as co-op here because of the close knit teamwork aspect, but technically you are fighting other people. I do believe they are working on a solely co-op mode, though.
Also, and this is a bit more shaky of a recommendation, but while Aliens: Colonial Marines was a bit shitty, there's a co-op DLC for it called Bug Hunt that my group actually found to be pretty addictive. It's kind of COD Zombies, but with Aliens and generic human bad guys with pulse rifles and smartguns. You get to weld open doors, place sentry turrets, and generally hole up in rooms and fend off swarms of bad guys. YMMV.
Also Lord of the Rings Online. It's a solid MMO that is also free. There's a certain point much later in the game where you've exhausted the main portion and would have to buy expansions to get more content - but by then you can either quit and move on to something else, having had a good time, or save the credits you've made up to this point to buy the expansions without using real money.
There was that Star Trek style game recently too, where each player gets a different screen, and the captain coordinates the rest of the players through a crisis.
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
I will second Path of Exile if you are into Diablo-style games.
Aliens: Colonial Marines - As someone else mentioned, Aliens: Colonial Marines actually has a pretty fun coop horde mode. I would recommend playing it on the hardest difficulty though, as there are only three maps, and you'll blow through them quick if you play on the lower settings.
Commandos 2 - If you like strategy, nothing that has come out since really compares for what this game does.
Crusader Kings 2 - Kind of wonky getting it to work, but it can be a lot of fun playing it with people.
Interstellar Marines - Just updated recently with some of its first coop missions. I admittedly haven't played them yet, but the base game is solid.
Men of War: Assault Squad 2 - I recommend the second as it has better online support. If you like strategy/rts this game is the best I have personally played. The skirmishes are a lot of fun to play with friends.
Payday 2 - A fairly typical squad style wave defense type game, but with a bit more meat on its bones.
Takedown - The game is not good, to be honest, but you can usually pick it up for under 5 dollars, and playing with friends can make the small price of admission worth it. I've gotten my moneys worth out of it in any case.
Warframe - Free to play, pretty fun game, but very grindy. It also takes awhile for it to really open up. Kind of starts slow and painful.
Minecraft is another good coop'ing game. It, also, is not on Steam and, as far as I know, it never goes on sale, though...so it might be one of the pricier options.
Far Cry 3 is awesome in 2-4 player co-op.
Saints Row the Third or Saints Row 4 are also really solid...but only allow for 2-player co-op.
Transformers: War for Cybertron and Transformers: Fall of Cybertron both have 3-player horde modes.
A slightly older title that could lead to hilariously gory co-op antics: Bulletstorm
I got it for less than $4 when it was on sale and it does look like a lot of fun.
I've thought about this a bit more, and I think I can be a bit more precise now. RTS, while good options, aren't my cup of tea, and on the whole the group I play with enjoys objective-based coop more than more freeform games, i.e. less the Horde mode-style games than something like, say, Splinter Cell. Not that it's a clear-cut binary, obviously.
Anyway, this thread'll be a great repository for good coop tips. Thanks again!
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
Also Dragon Age Inquisition's four person coop multiplayer is really fun.
Shame the sequel is going for some weird PVP F2P MOBA thingy.
Speaking of Splinter Cell, if you haven't already got it, I cannot recommend Splinter Cell: Blacklist enough. It's awesome. As well as a cracker of a campaign, it has a whole bunch of two-player co-op missions (most, but not all, of which can be optionally solo'd) as well as the return of Spies vs Mercs for team-based versus, and you can have four players on one team - depending on the mode, it'll max out at 2v2, 3v3 or 4v4. Granted, that'd involve finding live opponents if you guys all want to team up together, so I know it's not quite what you were after, but it's worth a thought.
It goes on good sales on Steam quite regularly, and also on the Humble store (although Humble will only give you a Uplay code for it). The Steam version will still foist Uplay on you, but effectively in a "lite" version; it'll still install, update etc through Steam. Friends list, matchmaking etc are through Uplay, IIRC.
Steam | XBL
For 2-player co-op:
If you're into the "open world" Minecraft type thing: Planet Explorers or Space Engineers. Both are early access games though. I'm sure I left some out. I'll put some more up if I think of anything else.
Jamestown: Great 1-4 player vertical shmup
Race the Sun: Not strictly cooperative, but the average run is like 40 seconds at first so it's fun to learn with friends and trade the controller
Rayman Origins or Legends: Just great fun 1-4 player platforming.
Skulls of the Shogun: Solidly built tactical game if you've got people who are into a longer haul in terms of actually learning things.
Skullgirls: Great fighting game!
Nidhogg: Some of the best times I've had with a game, just entertaining as heck.
All of these are local play too, because that's the best.
I'd also second Castle Crashers and Left 4 Dead 2, and now I want to go home tonight and play all of these games.
PSN: PLD_Xavier | NNID: Xavier1216