The first-person shooter has been one of the most popular genres of video games, ever since it took off in the 1990s. While the majority of FPS titles automatically come built-in with co-op compatibility these days, some sacrifice it in favor of creating a meaningful single-player story experience.
The immersive combat gameplay pulls you into the shoes of the protagonist from a first-person point of view. However, some feel that the various forms of exciting loot you acquire can be even more fulfilling when there's a friend by your side. Here we examine instances of FPS games where co-op is absent, but would be largely warranted.
10 Rage 2
Much hype was generated for the long-awaited sequel to 2011's Rage, which incorporates the colorful apocalyptic desert wasteland environment of Mad Max with the gory fast-paced FPS action of games like Doom and Wolfenstein. Although made through a dynamic duo partnership of id Software and Avalanche Studios, it still left much to be desired.
The combat and vast open-world traversal are stand-out features, but the single-player story and gameplay design are nowhere near as compelling. The addition of co-op may help reinvigorate some of the engagement and fun missing from the game. Cruising around the wasteland and clearing out mutants does sound better as a team.
9 The Outer Worlds
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Obsidian's 2019 RPG, The Outer Worlds, is a spacefaring adventure looter shooter that feels like a cross between Fallout and Borderlands. Lost in space, you wake up on a distant planetary colony called Halcyon that's home to deadly creatures, robots, and Mauraders, and a greater conspiracy is at play.
The gameplay of The Outer Worlds is strictly tailored to a single-player experience, with a heavy emphasis on branching dialogue and character development. However, the world and story are richly engrossing and invite cooperative play. Since there's already a companion system implemented for the combat, it would be great if another player can tag along.
8 Metro Exodus
The frozen nuclear Russian landscape of the Metro games can often be daunting to navigate alone. The third Metro game, Exodus, opens the door for a co-op survival experience since it's the longest in the series and contains an expansive open world with more freedom for exploration, quite a departure from the linear mission system of the previous two entries.
Playing as Artyom, you continue fighting human and radioactively mutated threats that come your way under dangerous conditions. And Artyom may much appreciate the assistance of a friend to help him out in the sections that require stealth, supplying any spare ammo and filters, and potential healing in combat.
7 BioShock Infinite
Other than a multiplayer expansion in the second game, it's unfathomable to believe that not a single BioShock game has a co-op feature included, especially with the massive world built for the last installment. BioShock Infinite moves away from the underwater setting of Rapture and takes to the skyline of a literal city in the sky called Columbia.
Aside from the innovative FPS mechanics and abilities system from the classic game, Infinite has ziplining sequences on a rollercoaster-like railway that's perfect for co-op action. Plus, you have a companion named Elizabeth who's by your side the entire way through, which presents an easy opportunity for her to be playable by a friend.
6 Stalker: Shadow Of Chernobyl
Another survival horror FPS game in desperate need of co-op is 2007's Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl. Set in an alternate timeline of Ukraine, Stalker has you encounter a hostile land called the Zone, a highly radioactive area established by the Chernobyl nuclear plant, which suffered a second meltdown and mutated the wildlife.
As in the Metro games, the threats you face while making trips to the Zone are both human and grotesque mutants of animals and humans, but you shouldn't have to do it alone. The way the map is designed and how the progression is structured gives it a perfect opportunity to have multiple stalkers there at one time.
5 Ghostwire: Tokyo
Ghostwire: Tokyo, a perhaps unconventional supernatural first-person shooter, would pair well with a co-op feature. The game has you take control of a civilian named Akito, who's newly possessed by a ghost and develops the ability to shoot magical spells from his hands to defeat the evil spirits responsible for Tokyo's devastation.
There's a main storyline to Ghostwire, but the essential core loop is running around the stunning, almost lifelike Japanese city of Tokyo and eliminating demonic entities that stand in your path. Even though the game centers on one character, it would be exhilarating to take on the haunted streets of Tokyo and unleash your magical abilities cooperatively.
4 Cyberpunk 2077
Unfortunately, the tumultuous launch of Cyberpunk 2077 prevented it from ever receiving multiplayer, which was the original plan for the game by CD Projekt Red. Though it may never see the light of day, Cyberpunk 2077 would greatly benefit from a co-op mode for its gameplay. The sheer story and the sprawling techno-cyberpunk world of Night City are just too vast for a single person's enjoyment.
Connecting with other players or having friends there to complete quests, or just driving around exploring Night City seems a fun and terrific idea when putting some hours in. It may be an RPG, but the layout and environment indeed have the potential to be a GTA-style game.
3 Doom Eternal
The follow-up to id Software's 2016 Doom revival goes for an even bolder and more immense scope on the maps and level design. The number and variety of harrowing demonic creatures appearing on-screen for you to mow down and glory kill for armor, ammo, and health are also heavily increased and add even more intensity.
You're once again more than encouraged to use the environment to your advantage, and the battle arenas feel more catered to that mechanic with the new parkour elements of swinging around poles and scaling walls. With Eternal's more spread-out map and less linear aspects, not to mention the awful difficulty of some of the stages, it's about time another Doom Slayer enters the chat.
2 Metal: Hellsinger
Metal: Hellsinger plays like Doom Eternal if it was designed as a rhythm game. You find yourself in hell and must slay various demons to the beats of a wide array of original heavy metal tracks to advance your escape, so every hit has to be in sync with the music.
Acquiring accurate hits and keeping up with the pace of the music will eventually become hard so having someone there along for the musical journey through hell to pick up some of the points and assist with the track sounds like entertaining cooperative fun. It can turn into a Guitar Hero session with the weapons being your primary instruments.
1 Far Cry Primal
The possibility of completing the entire campaign of a Far Cry game on co-op came about in Far Cry 5 and became a mainstay component for the ones that followed. But full co-op could've made for an excellent addition even sooner in the 2016 spin-off game Far Cry Primal, a very different FPS experience from the rest, taking place during the 10,000 B.C. era.
Instead of modern-day Hope County fighting Joseph Seed's cultists with some unique weapons, you're part of a hunter-gatherer tribe in the ancient Oros Valley in Europe, crafting spears, clubs, and arrows. Why wouldn't you want to share in the experience of hunting Wooly Mammoths along with other extinct creatures and surviving in primitive life?