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Save our Saturday mornings. [Game Recommendation]
ZeitgeistHeist
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
My boyfriend is a very casual gamer, but occasionally becomes enthralled by a title if he finds it suitable and something we can both play. I like this. I would like it to keep happening.
Knowing he loves RPGs, tabletop, and roguelikes, I brought out Hand of Fate. It was easy for us to swap turns and enjoy the adventure when one of us wasn't playing, and that lasted for a few seriously solid weeks of heavy play. Towards the end, I seamed in Divinity: Original Sin, and he's been loving it. He's asked specifically if there are any games exactly like this one, and, well, the best I can do is probably make another good segue as we're finishing this one up.
We have a PS4, PS3, one gaming PC and one very meh PC. Other games I know he's enjoyed: Elder Scrolls Skyrim/Oblivion, Mass Effect, Rogue, Planescape: Torment, Pool of Radiance, etc. We blitzed through Diablo III, but he didn't find it very engaging.
Any suggestions? Something on the Playstations with decent co-op would be ideal, but if I have to resort to Neverwinter Nights on LAN, I will. I will do that thing.
Knowing he loves RPGs, tabletop, and roguelikes, I brought out Hand of Fate. It was easy for us to swap turns and enjoy the adventure when one of us wasn't playing, and that lasted for a few seriously solid weeks of heavy play. Towards the end, I seamed in Divinity: Original Sin, and he's been loving it. He's asked specifically if there are any games exactly like this one, and, well, the best I can do is probably make another good segue as we're finishing this one up.
We have a PS4, PS3, one gaming PC and one very meh PC. Other games I know he's enjoyed: Elder Scrolls Skyrim/Oblivion, Mass Effect, Rogue, Planescape: Torment, Pool of Radiance, etc. We blitzed through Diablo III, but he didn't find it very engaging.
Any suggestions? Something on the Playstations with decent co-op would be ideal, but if I have to resort to Neverwinter Nights on LAN, I will. I will do that thing.
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Binding of Isaac is a rogue-like (or rogue-lite, or procedural death-labyrinth, or whatever) that has local co-op and both PC and PS4 versions. Make sure to get the newer "Rebirth" version as the older one does not. It recently had an expansion called "Afterbirth". The humor in it is definitely really gross and irreverent, in case that's not your thing.
I'm considering something from the Tales series or playing FFIV on the Playstation and PC at the same time, but I know I'm grasping a bit.
Elder Scrolls Online definitely feels like an Elders Scrolls game mashed up with an MMO. While it's an MMO and generally scaled for solo play, my sig other and I have played through most of the content together (be sure to pick characters from the same Alliance column at character creation). There is no crossplay between PS4 and PC, so you'd have to get it and run it on both PCs to play co-op. There is a PS4 version, but you'd need two PS4s...
Don't Starve Together is the co-op extension to the game Don't Starve. It's a quirky survival sim, and playing it in co-op is a lot more fun than solo (at least to me). It's a very warped and twisted take on a Rogue-like. PC only currently, will be coming out on PS4 (the base Don't Starve is out on PS4, but it's single player).
If you don't mind platformers, the Trine trilogy is a nice diversion. But this is more actiony and less of an RPG than the other games. Story is very stereotypical fantasy, but the characters have nice banter. PC/PS4.
For more Diablo-like games, Torchlight II and Din's Curse are my recommendations. Torchlight II is just polished all around. Din's Curse has pretty bad graphics, but it procedurally generates random dungeons with some very unique mechanics (you can die in cave-ins or cause cave-ins to kill enemies, enemies will form rallying parties and actually invade the surface town, factions of enemies will fight each other and stage civil wars, etc.). Both are PC only.
Guild Wars 2 is currently completely free for the base game. Again, an MMO, but it's built from the ground up for team play and joining each others' personal stories. PC only, again.
Diablo III probably has the best same-screen co-op on the PS4 currently, but you said you guys already played through it.
Other co-op recommendations:
Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris - This isn't a normal Tomb Raider game. It's a top-down shooter with heavy puzzle elements and RPG elements built with co-op in mind. PC/PS4.
LittleBigPlanet 3 - Platformer with co-op and whimsical style. PS4 only.
Rayman Legends - Probably one of the best recent platformers, and it has co-op. PC/PS4.
Helldivers - Top-down tactical shooter IN SPACE! Very difficult without at least 2 players, and highly recommended with 4. Easy to drop in/out of online games, in a group of 2 or solo. Friendly fire. PC/PS4.
Magicka 2 - A humorous take on the co-op shooter, with a bunch of hapless wizards. A unique spell-creation system (press buttons on the fly to combine elements to create spells). Friendly fire is definitely enabled. PC/PS4.
Gauntlet - 4p top down co-op dungeon crawling. Based on the original arcade game. PC/PS4.
Towerfall Ascension - A very actiony arcade game, has a co-op mode. PC/PS4.
EDIT:
Also, Sentinels of the Multiverse is a tabletop co-op card game (players play against a villain deck) that has a faithful recreation on PC/iPad/Android. They have the base game and the first two expansions done. It has online co-op, so you could get two copies and run it on the PCs, or you can take turns on the same screen with a single copy (since you are just recreating the card game anyway).
I'd second Helldivers and Magica 2. Both are co-op in name only, friendly fire being non-negotiable, but they both work as silly takes on the co-op twin stick shooter.
Terraria
If you go with something from the Tales series, be aware that some of the animeisms of the games can easily put people off them. The best game to get someone into the series is probably Vesperia, but it is only available on the Xbox360. If you went with a PS3 game, Xillia 1 is okay. If Xillia 1 goes over well enough, you can try Xillia 2.
If you are looking at Co-op in general with a good narrative and characters, you might want to consider Child of Light. It is available on the PS3/PS4 and PC and doesn't take a lot of computer power.
Never Alone is another co-op adventure/physics type sidescroller with an interesting narrative that may work for the two of you.
If the co-op doesn't have to be actually playing the game, but experiencing things together you might want to try games like Dragon Age or similar RPG type games where there is a narrative and choices to be made. One person drives (you?) while the other makes decisions when they need to be made in the storyline. This can be a lot of fun with the right mindset and is kind of like building a story together. Fallout New Vegas is another option for this style of games, as are Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2 (get the restoration patch for this). Fallout 4 is okay, but since everything ends up in a killfest it may not be as satisfying a narrative experience as something like New Vegas where there are multiple endings that are very different from each other.
For something similar to a roguelike that is fun co-op, you might want to try Castle Crashers.
For a game to sit down and experience together, Bastion and Transistor might work. But it is mostly one person sitting passively and experiencing the narrative and characters while the other person drives.
It is, however, a fun sidescroller beat-em-up and a good co-op. A better game in this vein would be Dragon's Crown (PS3, Vita).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eye_of_Judgment
As far as the Tales series goes, they can be really fun to play together, if you find one you both really like, and I have found that taste can vary a lot. My husband is a huge anime nerd and likes most of the Tales games, but I am a bit more... picky, and some of them have fallen flat for me. Xillia, for example, is toward the bottom of my list (I also did not like the combat system in it), but I love Graces and Symphonia. You will have to experiment and see what you both like.
I mean... there's also, like, Secret of Mana.
Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. More are totally and wholeheartedly welcomed.