With all the buzz and attention that single-player story-driven games seem to get, cooperative-focused games often take a back seat. As fun and compelling as these mainstream triple-A blockbusters are, they often pale in comparison to the fun you can have when gaming with a buddy by your side.
Co-op games demand a different sort of attention, forcing you to collaborate with others in ways that few other forms of entertainment can replicate. If you want your co-op fix, it’s usually a safer bet to head into the indie space. There’s an indie game available for all types of players, whether you’re a pair of budding explorers, wild acrobats, or gun-wielding maniacs.
Updated on August 29, 2023 by Jouanna Bondakji: There are few things better to do with friends than gaming. Games made by mainstream studios are usually easier to discover, thanks to their marketing budgets and popularity in the industry. It's much easier for indie games to get lost as a result, but there are so many out there that are worth playing, especially with friends. There are countless hidden gems out there, and we've added even more of them for you to discover and play with others.
13 Phasmophobia
Phasmophobia brings some horror into your co-op experience, but it also provides some unintentional humor. It has enough jank that you and your friends could spend a good chunk of the game goofing around with your character models and shooting hoops for some good laughs.
But if you want to play what the game actually has to offer, you and up to three other friends can investigate the paranormal in different haunted locations using all sorts of ghost-identifying equipment. The game encourages voice chat, because the ghosts can hear and understand you. But beware: if you don't cooperate with each other, you'll be picked off by the ghosts one by one.
12 Spiritfarer
Spiritfarer also deals with the dead, but its take is much more wholesome and cozy. In it, you play as Stella, a Spiritfarer who guides recent spirits of the deceased to the afterlife. A friend can join as Daffodil, Stella's trusty companion. The game has many simulation elements, so you can fish, cook, craft, and more together.
When you're not doing that, you get to meet and befriend a variety of different spirits as you traverse the world between life and the afterlife. It's an endlessly charming game, but there's a deeper message behind it. Spiritfarer explores the bittersweetness of meeting, bonding, and eventually parting with others, which is always relevant as long as we remain mortal.
11 Risk Of Rain 2
Take note of the "risk" part in Risk of Rain 2. You and up to three other players battle increasingly tough monsters on an alien planet. The concept is simple enough, but the game's mechanics are what make it especially fun. The items you get combine with each other, potentially giving you some unexpected effects with every new one you get.
Items are also how you unlock more of the game's lore, and them being randomized (along with the monsters you get) makes for a unique experience every time. The survivors aren't clones of each other, either; you can choose from over ten different characters, and each one of them plays differently. There's a lot to get out of this game, even after the initial playthrough.
10 A Hat In Time
Gear for Breakfast’s A Hat In Time was released when there were very few 3D platformers on the market. The game sees Hat Kid on a quest to find her missing timepieces in a variety of colourful worlds, and uses her impressive movement and magical hat abilities to get the job done.
A great split-screen co-op mode was added post-release, which allows you to play this wonderful tribute to the golden era of Nintendo 64 platformers with a friend. Unfortunately, console versions get the short end of the stick and can only be played in co-op online — if you're looking for some joyous old-school split-screen co-op action, PC is the way to go here.
9 Overcooked! 2
Get your chef’s hat on and turn up the heat as you head into the chaotic cooking action of Overcooked! 2. As a sequel to one of the most chaotic party games in recent memory, this time around you’ll be whipping up plates to serve in a whole host of wacky locations, including a hot air balloon floating in the sky.
The game’s fun multiplayer modes will have you working together with friends to make increasingly difficult dishes in order to satisfy the restaurant’s notoriously hard-to-please patrons. It sounds simple enough, but it soon turns into absolute anarchy that will see you lobbing all sorts of food across the room and trying to make sure your kitchen doesn’t burn to the ground in the process.
8 No Man’s Sky
After a disappointing and extremely rocky launch, No Man’s Sky will probably forever go down in history as one of gaming’s best-ever comeback stories. After a slew of significant patches, updates and huge content drops from Hello Games, it has more than succeeded in its original vision.
One of the game’s later additions was the option to play and explore No Man’s Sky’s vast universe cooperatively. You can explore the surface of planets, mine materials, embark on certain missions, and build a shared base with a friend. The co-op experience is continually being improved and brings an added layer of depth to No Man’s Sky’s wondrous unending universe.
7 Deep Rock Galactic
Explore large procedurally generated alien caverns in Deep Rock Galactic, where you must mine through 100 percent destructible environments to find precious resources. It is a delightfully unique voxel-based looter FPS, where you and three other players are tasked with gathering as many valuables as you can while surviving an onslaught of deadly aliens.
As there are four unique character classes, you can each work to your strengths to head into the vast randomly generated cave network and get the job done. There are plenty of cool gadgets and advanced weaponry that will see you slicing your way through rock and alien flesh like tissue paper.
6 Don’t Starve Together
Don’t Starve Together is a fantastic multiplayer expansion to the punishingly difficult survival sim, Don’t Starve. At the start of each procedurally generated run, you and a buddy are thrown straight into the thick of it and must work together to survive.
Build a camp, forage for food, plot a farm, and craft weapons and gear to take on an array of nasty creatures that you’ll stumble upon when you least expect it. After a while, you will build a steady survival rhythm that will see you last a bit longer on each attempt. It’s immensely satisfying and has a lovely off-the-wall Tim Burton-esque art style, which adds to all the doom and gloom when inevitably starving to death early on. You’ll get ‘em next time.
5 Terraria
Early in its development, Terraria was heavily inspired by the sprawling voxel-based survival sandbox that Minecraft offered, but the game is distinct enough to make it a classic all on its own. In addition to the huge variety of randomly generated biomes to explore, enemies to fight, bases to build, and resources to gather, the game gives you so many options in regard to the gadgets and tools you can have in your arsenal.
The entire game can be played cooperatively in either split-screen or online play. You can each choose to go your own way and build your characters how you see fit to help each other mine, build, and take on the game’s series of intimidating summonable bosses.
4 Gunfire Reborn
Gunfire Reborn takes the tried-and-true roguelike formula and merges it with a chaotic first-person shooting looter game. You have the choice to control a bunch of adorably fluffy anthropomorphic animals, who each have their own levelling trees and abilities. You can play with three other players, who can all join you in your quest for furry mayhem.
There’s a lot of content to get stuck into, including hundreds of different items and weapons to play with, a deep levelling system, and interesting procedurally generated stages to explore. It’s a great solo experience that is made even better with three gun-toting cutesy animals by your side.
3 Stardew Valley
As the king of indie farming sims, Stardew Valley is the ultimate chillout game. It’s all about maintaining a flourishing farm and building meaningful relationships with the quaint townsfolk.
Years after its initial release, ConcernedApe finally added a much sought-after cooperative mode to give those that had already sunk an outrageous amount of hours into the game more reason to spend time with the delightful NPCs from Pelican Town. It has always felt great to build your farm and accomplish your in-game goals, and now it feels so much better when working together as a team.
2 Cuphead
Cuphead is probably one of the most remarkably gorgeous indie titles to have been released in recent years. It features a 1930s-inspired art style from some of the most beloved cartoons and animations of the era. Every frame has been painstakingly hand-drawn, and the game looks jaw-droppingly gorgeous in motion. As delightful and vibrant as it is, it is also probably one of the most punishingly difficult 2D platformers around. Luckily, you can bring a friend for the ride.
The entire game can be played with another person, which makes all of those inevitable game over screens a lot more palatable. It also helps that you can revive each other with the handy parry system, making the hard-as-nails stages and boss rushes a tad less challenging.
1 Valheim
Despite still being in Early Access, Valheim is one of the most successful and content-rich survival sims around. You play a nameless Viking who must fight to survive a sprawling semi-voxel-based procedurally generated sandbox.
The entire game can be played with up to ten players cooperatively, which can lead to some dynamic and emergent gameplay experiences. It’s a blast to move out of the Stone Age and to start building gargantuan Viking halls that rival the heroes and heroines from Norse mythology. You can even take to the open seas together and delve into unexplored lands — the sense of discovery is tantalising and satisfying, especially when it looks this good.