Looking for a Good Co-op game.

[ShadowImmor]

My wife and I are big gamers, and enjoy playing games like Don't Starve, Starbound and the like together.

I am currently trying to find another game we can play together that would be fun, engrossing and scratch this itch. We both have experience with the Heroes of Might and Magic Series and enjoyed 3 the most. I have suggested Age of Wonders III, and we will possibly pick that up (as I'm a fan of the whole series)

We tend to like more light-hearted games, (Such as Don't Starve and Starbound). However, my wife insists on games having decent Graphics (Minecraft is out apparently, despite desperate attempts to get her to play it) and we have already got Ark.

Does the hivemind have any good suggestions it can be either on Xbone or PC?

Dan

[Triaxx]

Factorio is quite fun in co-op, and it has a difficulty level you can adjust by altering how many if any enemies you want. Plus it has a nice selection of mods so you can replay it, spiced as you prefer.

Space Engineer's is also a good bit of fun with a couple of people and has good mods available. It's a rather massive sandbox without a clear end goal though so you'll have to make quite a lot of your own fun.

[Iruka]

We tend to like more light-hearted games, (Such as Don't Starve and Starbound). However, my wife insists on games having decent Graphics (Minecraft is out apparently, despite desperate attempts to get her to play it) and we have already got Ark.

Does the hivemind have any good suggestions it can be either on Xbone or PC?

Dan

Minecraft not even with one of the photorealism texture packs?

Satisfactory might be the right thing for you. An open-world factory building game, has fancy graphics and co-op. However in Early Access ...

edit: I enjoyed the Trine games (1&2), fantasy action platformers with puzzles.

[Toric]

I'm currently enjoying Earth Defense Force 4.1 on the PC. You're a Japanese B-movie foot soldier fighting giant insects, even more giant robots, and eventually full-on kaiju. It supports both online and split-screen local co-op. Each mission lasts 10 to 30 minutes.

[Kaptin Keen]

Girlfriend and I had fun with Trine 1+2. Or you could go full retro and play Bubble-Bobble, which I'm sure is available somewhere for free. It's like ... photo-realistic rendering of pixel graphics. I mean they look so real.

[Grif]

Perhaps one thing I did not see mentioned here is Portal 2. FPS, to be sure, but a fairly slow paced one. The co-op mode here drives you to solve increasingly fiendish puzzles with the power of friendship and portal guns.

[Wraith]

Borderlands, BL2 and BL:The Pre-Sequel are all co-op games with a quirky - if sometimes dark - sense of humour.

Modded Minecraft? There's an astounding variety of graphics upgrades and shaders available, and they're generally very easy to install. Some of them even include circles! [EDIT]: Iruka beat me to that one.... So how about specifically, something like Pixelmon, the Minecraft/Pokemon crossover? Very quirky but tonnes of fun.

You mentioned Starbound; are you familiar with Terraria which is probably the biggest game of that type (side-scrolling survival/builder)?

How do you feel about MMO's, like World of Warcraft? If you don't want to pay the subscription charges, there's several free-to-play ones like Neverwinter, Star Trek Online, and so on. There's dozens of them all with different themes.

Warframe. Free to download, free to play, beautiful graphics, and 99% PvE co-op play. Definitely one to consider, if you want a personal recommendation.

[Triaxx]

Dungeons and Dragons online. There's some payable content, but you can also largely play for free.

[Wookieetank]

Risk of Rain 2: 3rd person shooter, roguelike, with some bullethell moments on higher difficulties. Multiplayer up to 4 people. Starting off can be a bit rough at times, especially after losing a longer run, but when you're triple/quad jumping your way across the map while zooming around on goat legs and fueled by energy drinks its ridiculously fun. Still in early access if that's a deal breaker for you, but I'm very happy with it so far.

[Man_Over_Game]

I will second Terraria. I'm surprised it hasn't come up yet. It's a lot longer than Starbound's campaign and is a bit more, shall we say, "down to earth".

[ShadowImmor]

Hey guys, thanks for all the responses, please keep them coming!

Minecraft is not one she will consider, I have mentioned texture packs but nothing strikes her as good enough.

Terraria I've got, but wasn't sure if you could do it Multiplayer. Though from what I've played it's a lot harder than Starbound (which may be a problem for her)

We've completed all the Borderlands games (except the Pre-sequel. No Siren is a deal breaker for her apparently :P)

MMO's aren't our thing, neither of us like just grinding, though TBF she does, and I'd be willing to do it alongside her so that might be an idea. However Warframe will be too fast paced.

Trine might be a good idea, though I think she's completed both...

[Man_Over_Game]

Terraria's difficulty scales with how far you go. It will never throw more at you than you can deal with. That being said, it has a REALLY high difficulty ceiling at high levels.

At low levels, you punch slimes that stop revving up their jump if you hit them, meaning they are harmless if you just keep touching them.

At high levels, you're fighting flying skulls while using jetpacks as you dodge the lasers coming out of his eyes and snakes coming from his mouth.

And there's like 50 hours of content and difficulty scaling between those two scenarios.

[Honest Tiefling]

What about Torchlight II? It's heavily stylized but in my opinion, looks quite good if you don't mind that. And you did play Let's Not Starve Together. And you can get a ferret companion in the game, if that helps.

I would recommend other Diablo Clones, but many are a bit darker in tone. Avoid Grim Dawn and Path of Exile...Good games, NOT lighthearted. Path of Exile is also quite unforgiving. Don't do those.

[Anteros]

Given your other preferences maybe try Outward? I haven't personally played it so I can't really vouch for it, but I did watch a friend play for a few hours. Seems kinda like open world co-op in a fantasy setting.

[Mobius Twist]

My wife and I found Conan Exiles to be a passable co-op "explore, craft, survive" game. You can do a co-op run without needing to tether yourself to an online server (although at that point you tether yourself to the hosting player and can't be doing two different things at once), or you can pick an online server for yourself. There are PVP, PVE-C (scheduled PVP conflict only at specific times), and PVE server configurations, as well as a plethora of settings the admins can rejigger to make it fun for you.

I've found that not dropping all your loot on death compensates for the occasional bit of lag that causes unjust deaths to NPCs, and you can increase/decrease experience gains on a very granular basis for each action you perform (gathering, building, murdering, etc) depending on whether you enjoy the "naked and afraid" early survival bit, or "master of my domain" max-level badassery.

I believe it's on PS4 and PC, though not X-Box.

If you have an extra PC, you can even set up your own dedicated server, though I imagine most people who consider it choose to rent one instead.

[Anteros]

I just remembered that there's a co-op mod for subnautica out now too. If neither of you are familiar with the game, exploring through it together for the first time would be an amazing experience.

[Wraith]

What about Torchlight II?

The Torchlight games are very good - I was going to recommend Diablo 3, but TL is more cute and less intense, so it might be pretty good.

Some more ideas; Guns of Icarus - free to play, you co-op as a team to keep a steampunk airship aloft while duelling other teams. Can be a bit intense at times, but it's one of those games where frantic confusion among a group of friends is what makes it so good.

Magicka - You play a cutesy wizard and you and your pals join together to combine elements and make new spells - Fire + Earth makes lava, and such. A bit of a puzzle mixed in with a Diablo-esque exploration.

Pit People - Co-op Turn-based strategy by the Behemoth team, who have one of the weirdest sense of humour in the industry. Quirky and silly, but one of the more unique RTS games I've ever played.

Secret of Mana - The remake of the SNES classic is a top-down RPG that still has local co-op, two players each picking one of the 3 party members while the CPU controls the third. A beautiful little game.

[EDIT] For something like Minecraft that looks a lot better, there's ARK: Survival Evolved? It's like Minecraft but with dinosaurs. There's been controversy over its "sequel", ATLAS, which is basically the same thing but with a pirate theme, but the original was very popular for a time last year.

[Olinser]

Starcraft 2 Co-Op is reasonably fun for a while and currently Free To Play (all maps are free and all commanders are free up to level 5, although most of the new commanders cost to play after that), it may be worth a try if you are into any RTS games.

[Winthur]

Starcraft 2 Co-Op is reasonably fun for a while and currently Free To Play (all maps are free and all commanders are free up to level 5

Heads up - the three "basic" commanders, that is Raynor, Kerrigan, Artanis, each representing classic playstyles mixed with some unique heroic stuff - are all completely free, are decidedly of easy-to-learn hard-to-master variety (particularly Raynor - I never see a good Raynor in pubs, but we still clear Brutal levels all the time because the game isn't that hard) and fairly well-rounded. The mode isn't really "pay to win" in that sense because Raynor has godly sustained DPS and mobility with his standard army (and plenty of oddball compositions for more specific situations, like Mech on Dead of Night), Kerrigan has a robust early game and mobility, and Artanis is an insane support.

[Iruka]

Starcraft 2 Co-Op is reasonably fun for a while and currently Free To Play (all maps are free and all commanders are free up to level 5, although most of the new commanders cost to play after that), it may be worth a try if you are into any RTS games.

Right, how could I forget about SC2!

Beyond the official co-op mode, there is also tons of user created content in the arcade mode. Variants of tower defense, bejeweled, PvE scenarios, turn-based stuff, even a co-op recreation of the first (and in my opinion best) campaign.

[Varen_Tai]

Dungeons and Dragons online. There's some payable content, but you can also largely play for free.

Yup, totally this one. :) DDO is a blast and is designed for party play. Make sure one of you is a rogue. ;) You can get hirelings for almost any other niche for cheap except for a rogue.

[danzibr]

Degrees of Separation?

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Starcraft 2 Co-Op is reasonably fun for a while and currently Free To Play (all maps are free and all commanders are free up to level 5, although most of the new commanders cost to play after that), it may be worth a try if you are into any RTS games.

Expanding on his, SC2 Co-op has two big things going for it that I never knew about until a friend told me, at which point I was sold.

1: simplified build orders. Each commander is limited to a subset of their species' units, so you don't have to worry about picking a strategy or getting overwhelmed by unit options.
2: mega powerful abilities, which is the really fun part. Each character has unique broken abilities that operate independently of the economy game. You accrue energy over time and use it to unleash abilities. For example, Karax gets a bunch of gigantic lasers that you can use to blow up enemies from above.

[Psyren]

Teaching the OP to fish: https://www.co-optimus.com/

You can search there by genre, platform, type of coop you want (e.g. hotseat, couch, LAN, online etc.), release date etc. There are also reviews there specific to the co-op content of various games - for example, you could read a Mass Effect 3 review that focuses on the multiplayer mode.

And yes, Starcraft 2 coop is amazing and I highly recommend it even if you're not that into RTS:

Heads up - the three "basic" commanders, that is Raynor, Kerrigan, Artanis, each representing classic playstyles mixed with some unique heroic stuff - are all completely free, are decidedly of easy-to-learn hard-to-master variety (particularly Raynor - I never see a good Raynor in pubs, but we still clear Brutal levels all the time because the game isn't that hard) and fairly well-rounded. The mode isn't really "pay to win" in that sense because Raynor has godly sustained DPS and mobility with his standard army (and plenty of oddball compositions for more specific situations, like Mech on Dead of Night), Kerrigan has a robust early game and mobility, and Artanis is an insane support.

Two universally solid Raynor comps are bioball (Marine/Marauder/Medic/Firebat with medivacs for fast repositioning) and mass Battlecruiser (slower build-up but great payoff as you get an army with extremely high burst that can teleport anywhere you have vision - which means they can go anywhere on the map using your comsat.)

Expanding on his, SC2 Co-op has two big things going for it that I never knew about until a friend told me, at which point I was sold.

1: simplified build orders. Each commander is limited to a subset of their species' units, so you don't have to worry about picking a strategy or getting overwhelmed by unit options.
2: mega powerful abilities, which is the really fun part. Each character has unique broken abilities that operate independently of the economy game. You accrue energy over time and use it to unleash abilities. For example, Karax gets a bunch of gigantic lasers that you can use to blow up enemies from above.

You either get a "top bar" with energy/cooldowns like that, or a hero unit that joins your troops soon after the game starts and has powerful abilities. Some commanders also give you both, e.g. Dehaka.

[Blindfolded Ape]

For an older games that I can recommend, there's Titan Quest, which is Diablo II, but Greek monsters instead of Abrahamic. Got an upgrade with the Anniversary edition a little ways back, and the existing community is pretty good. My brother and I also had fun with the Saint's Row series, as 2-4 are co-op friendly. Might have helped that we were both a little zoned out and not fully aware of things, but there were memories made. I'll also mention Killing Floor (1 and 2) as good zombie shooting fun, though it does get repetitive if you do too much in one sitting.

[Winthur]

Two universally solid Raynor comps are bioball (Marine/Marauder/Medic/Firebat with medivacs for fast repositioning) and mass Battlecruiser (slower build-up but great payoff as you get an army with extremely high burst that can teleport anywhere you have vision - which means they can go anywhere on the map using your comsat.)

I would scratch the "too poor to own Swann but loving Mech Terran since BW" itch (now I got Swann, though) as well by making a Vulture/Viking/Tank composition, particularly on DoN; mass Vultures with Mines is actually a great comp for some brutations I attempt with Raynor (I used it extensively on the one on Chain of Ascension called Together Forever) too, so yeah, he's pretty versatile.

Also, the neat thing with Raynor is that you can place your unit production rally point at any point on the map, even if you didn't uncover it before - if the unit is legible to go there, the drop pod will emerge in that place and will give you enough vision to Tactical Jump and/or warp Hyperion / Dusk Wings. I used this method with an Artanis ally to clear a particularly difficult Scythe of Amon mutation a while ago, Hyperion and Solar Bombardment could take out the shards in the north-west by itself and we ended up clearing the shard immediately to the north of our position last.

Raynor rocks. My comment about people not knowing how to play him mostly stems from them not making any Orbital Commands, which happens oddly often on Brutal even on people with over 100 levels. Solid Raynor play often involves building like 5-10 of them depending on projected length of game, but I hardly ever see macro Orbitals built like that.

[0wca88]

If you like HoMM, try Disciples (2nd one most recommended from me).

If you like RPGs, try Divinity: Original Sin 1 and 2, can't go wrong with that.

[TheRatAlliance]

I'd second Conan Exiles. Me and my partner have been playing it and it's such a good co-op game. Plus, seeing as graphics are important, it's a beautiful world. Honestly one of the best survival games I've played, plus you can just play together as opposed to a multiplayer server. If you'd like to do dungeons then you might struggle, but there are mods that can change that.

Otherwise, if you're down for quick roguelike/platformer type games then you could try Spelunky HD or Crypt of the Necrodancer. Both really good games and quick to play. In a similar vein, Monaco is a really good game and has more of a plot as well. And of course, as many people have said, Terraria is great (if a little overwhelming at first haha).

[Morgaln]

A bit late, but have you tried any of the Lego games yet? They are casual but lots of fun in co-op.

I also support Starcraft 2 co-op, it's great.

[ShadowImmor]

Thanks for all your help guys, I've got a lot to chew on. We picked up Outward and have enjoyed it so far, I will certainly be getting more of these over the coming months!