The Xbox One has achieved and provided many new fun games this generation. With better online features and party options, playing with friends has never been easier on Xbox Live. Microsoft's agenda has always been to stay connected with friends through Xbox Live. This can be seen in their approach to provide many cooperative experiences through popular game franchises like Gears of War and Halo. Many adopters of the original Xbox will know that playing Halo with a full team was extreme fun; as you would try your best to beat that one friend who would always screen cheat. The idea of having a sci-fi console shooter centered around a multiplayer experience truly propelled the concept of the online home console. While consoles such as like the GameCube and PS2 had the potential for online connectivity, only the original Xbox truly invested in creating an online platform to connect gamers to their favorite games.
The Xbox One has streamlined this process by notifying you what your friends are playing and allowing to invite friends to online matches with relative ease. Let's be honest, Xbox Live is also one of the best online platforms and it pioneered downloadable games, DLC, and achievements. PSN and Nintendo's online service have always been shaky, unstable, or offline. Xbox Live has further expanded its features such as creating online groups, setting up play dates, and posting screen-shots or clips on a shared community hub. Playing with your friends has never been easier and these are the top 15 cooperative games on Xbox One.
15 Minecraft
Minecraft is a game like no other, but its boxy shape world lends to a charm of survival and creativity. Minecraft allows your imagination to run wild and also gives players a lot of freedom. Do you want to build an awesome town? It requires huge amount of discovery for materials and recipes to support your endeavors. All while surviving against cute boxy shaped monsters seeking to destroy. This game lends itself to playing with friends and working together to build and explore. Head into the depths of the earth or traverse lava filled caverns in search of rare materials and craft weapons and tools that increase your power. Play Minecraft on Xbox One with your friends and you will not regret your time!
14 Tomb Raider And The Temple of Osiris
Temple of Osiris is a top down arcade shooter with puzzles suited for co-op. This entry allows up to four players to join in on the action and the game adjusts the puzzles according to the number of players on screen. Everyone will have a role and feel needed as your team fights enemies, solves puzzles, and escapes deadly traps. Temple of Osiris is more fleshed out in terms of combat and puzzle design when compared to it's predecessor, Guardian of Light. I would also recommend picking up Guardian of Light, but know that it is a two player game. This game also offers more dungeons and content through DLC. This is a cheap and beautiful looking game that people who want to have a fun couch co-op should pick up and enjoy.
13 Call Of Duty: Black Ops 3
Call of Duty is still a franchise that manages to shake things up for both new fans and veterans. Black Ops 3 is a great addition to your Xbox One collection as it adds many new features and game modes to play with friends. There's a stellar campaign about a black ops team going rogue; which can be played up to four friends online. Call of Duty zombies are also back, with brand new secrets and incredible power-ups for all to enjoy with their friends. The multiplayer is great and offers loads of gameplay modes that Call of Duty is known for; while adding a fluid combat movement system. Dead Ops Arcade is also back and can be played with friends on the same screen. Pick this game up and hop on with friends and enjoy what Black Ops 3 has to offer, which is plenty!
12 Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Halo: The Master Chief Collection is a great addition to the Xbox One catalog. You have five different campaigns that you can play cooperatively in either splitscreen or online. This game features an HD remake of Halo 2 with Xbox One graphics and is multiplayer maps remade for Xbox One. Every Halo map ever released is available for multiplayer at 60fps. The Master Chief Collection has a whooping 6000 points of gamerscore available if you unlock all 600 achievements in the game, while the campaigns have added playlists to add more variety and new fun ways to play in co-op. There's a playlist that gathers every level in the Halo series that has tanks and another one that features all the best sniping levels. Many fun and creative playlists exist for the campaign and multiplayer modes that will provide great cooperative fun.
11 Elder Scrolls Online
Elder Scrolls Online is a perfect cooperative experience to enjoy the with friends in a fantasy setting. Elder Scrolls Online feels more like a traditional MMO in many ways, but does not require a subscription. You will find all the same comforts of previous Elder Scrolls games such alchemy and blacksmithing. Pick a race and class and start your grand adventure with a friend or make friends with anyone you see through chat. Elder Scrolls Online is a fun cooperative version of the single player scrolls games. The world of Elder Scrolls Online is enormous and only gets bigger as more content keeps getting added to the game. I would highly recommend bringing a friend or two to play this game. This game is built with many social features in order to make new friends and team up with other party members; with the option to make a guild or join an existing one.
10 Destiny
Destiny is the game that melds a fantasy sci-fi shooter with MMO aspects. You are a Guardian destined to fight back the darkness and defend the last city on earth. Destiny is meant to be played together with a fireteam of three (or six for PvP and raids). Many story missions, dungeons, and raids are required to play with others and trust me that you will love every second of it. Destiny has had several content updates and new additions to the game through DLC expansions. The multiplayer also offers a great variety of loot and glory, having its own meta game of what weapons and armor combinations works best in PvP. The Prison of Elders also offers a horde style game mode for a fireteam of three. Destiny is great addition to the Xbox One with plenty to do and memories to make with your fireteam.
9 Star Wars: Battlefront
Star Wars Battlefront is now available with all the DLC; at a much more reasonable price. Battlefront offers several multiplayer game modes to play with with friends, such as the Walker Assault and Supremacy. Battlefront is not the most hardcore shooter, so it is casual enough for anyone to jump in and immediately enjoy with friends. Skirmish mode allows you and another player to test out maps in a simulated battle between AI opponents. There are offline missions which revolve around various objectives as hero characters, like Luke Skywalker, gaining control of an imperial hanger for as long as possible. Survival mode allows two players to battle across several iconic Star Wars locations and hold out as long as possible against waves of enemies AI. Battlefront is great when played with friends because it does not require experience with multiplayer shooters. The best part about playing Star Wars Battlefront is the fact that it feels, looks, and sounds exactly like Star Wars.
8 Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls
Xbox One is a great place to play Diablo 3, as the controller is a perfect tool to slaughter hordes of demons for legendary items. Up to four players can play together on the same screen making this a must have for couch co-op play. The UI is easy to understand and everyone can get their own loot drop or trade with each other. You have the option between several character classes that all play completely differently from each other. After beating the main story, more content is unlocked such as adventure mode and greater rifts. These modes are randomly generated which adds new ways to play and gain loot. Diablo 3's gameplay is a fun and satisfying as you slaughter several demons with fun abilities and powers. Blizzard always provides more content for Reaper of Souls through new updates and events. This top down dungeon RPG is a great game to play with friends, matchmaking is also available to play with strangers and continue the fun.
7 Borderlands: The Handsome Collection
This collection has addictive gameplay, up to four player co-op, and a great amount of content that your group of vault hunters will enjoy for hours on end. The Handsome Collection offers Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, and a huge amount of content from all the DLC released for both games. Borderlands has been a name that is known for making great content that doesn't feel tacked on. We are talking about a series that makes massive games that have great amount of content for cooperative play. The loot is plentiful in this game, you find all sorts of guns that can do ridiculous amount of damage in unique ways. Each vault hunter has unique gameplay mechanics and skills trees that brings something fun to the party. Borderlands: The Handsome Collection also includes four player splitscreen for those long couch gaming sessions!
6 LEGO Dimensions
Most of the LEGO games are great to play cooperatively with family and friends of all ages. LEGO Dimensions is the toy to life version in which you buy LEGO sets that can be used in the game. LEGO Dimensions offers a hefty single player story that can be played cooperatively. This game is unique in the fact that it has weird and fun licensed properties in order to mash them together in a LEGO game. Each level in the main campaign combines two franchises in clever ways. How would The Riddler control Middle-Earth? What if GlaDos and HAL meet? This game provides fun mash ups and more. You and another player can go freely explore, complete quests, and unlock new secrets in the world of Scooby-Doo or the Doctor Who world. LEGO Dimensions is a great addition to your Xbox One Co-op library because of the variety it offers and the amount of content that other toys to life games simply don't offer.
5 Smite
Smite made its debut on Xbox One and offers a third person MOBA that is filled with great content and is always being updated. Smite is a free-to-play game based on God mythology and they explore several types of mythologies from different cultures in order to make their heroes feel unique. Also, Smite on an Xbox One controller feels great! And with daily challenges and other quests, you quickly unlock new characters to add to your arsenal. Smite offers a lot of variety in game modes that other MOBAs lack. Smite has single, two, and three lane battles with many configurations of hero size and rotation; Arena is a 5v5 deathmatch while Joust is a single lane 3v3. This game also offers seasonal events in which players work together to defeat bosses instead of each other. Also, and let's not forget this, Smite is free! Take advantage of trying this game out with your friends and it may become a daily or weekly game you can all enjoy.
4 Overwatch
Overwatch is a hero shooter in which you pick a unique hero and defend or attack against another enemy team. This is a great game to play with friends, but it does not offer any kind of single player content. That being said, Overwatch is a must play with your friends as you become addicted to your favorite heroes and every match can be exhilarating down to the last second. There is a playstyle for everyone! You don't have to be a shooting God in order to succeed and help your team. Overwatch is an approachable type of shooter, because all the heroes are well balanced and offers something for everyone. This game gets free updates for holiday events and they keep adding more heroes in order to keep the game fresh. Overwatch is a perfect stepping point for playing with friends online for quick match or hours on Xbox One.
3 Tom Clancy's The Division
New York city gets devastated by a deadly virus on black friday. The only thing keeping the city together is a special government agency made up of sleeper agents, Welcome to The Division. You are an agent of The Division and your job is to get public services up and running, find a cure, while also maintaining order. Several malicious factions are seeking to gain power as New York is plunged into chaos. The Division is a loot based shooter in which finding powerful weapons and combinations of gear will keep you coming back for more. You can join or create a squad in order to play the story, tackle missions, and explore the open world. The Dark Zone is a unique amalgamation of PvP and PvE, a zone that is filled with dangerous AI enemies and other players seeking to get the best gear in the game. This game offers great opportunities for players to play with friends or make new friends through match making.
2 Gears of War 4
Microsoft purchased the Gears of War franchise in order to make it an Xbox exclusive. Gears of War goes hand in hand with the Xbox brand as a shooter that has an awesome story and fun cooperative game modes. This latest entry is the perfect starting point for any newcomers and veterans of the franchise. Gears of War 4's campaign can be played cooperatively with another player as you fight against new enemies like The Swarm and the COG's DeeBees. Gears 4 also brings back the chainsaw dueling multiplayer that the series has always been known for. Horde mode is back with a class based system in which players can choose to be a heavy duty gunner, a scout, sniper or engineer. Surviving 50 waves is no small feat, but leveling up and unlocking new abilities for your classes will keep you and your fellow gears coming back for more!
1 Halo 5
The Master Chief is back in this second installment of the forerunner saga. Halo has always provided a solid campaign and multiplayer experience for you and your squad of Spartans. Play through a vigorous campaign against rebel covenant factions and the prometheans in order to save Cortana. Online multiplayer in Halo 5 has been split between Arena combat or Warzones. Arena pits you and your friends against other fellow Spartans in various game modes(team deathmatch, king of the hill) that can range from 4v4 to 8v8. Warzone adds a new battlefield where 24 players maintain control of 3 bases in order to win, while also fighting each other and covenant/prometheans forces for additional points. Firefight makes a return in Halo 5 as Warzone Firefight, a five round onslaught in which 12 players need to work together to defeat waves of covenant or prometheans. Halo 5 is a great addition to your Xbox One library and will not disappoint when looking for a good time with friends.