Recommend me a co-op game!

[PeZook]

For Great Justice!

I require aid from the good people of the board in order to cultivate the happiness of my married life!

Besides, I figure the thread might be useful beyond my selfish desires, so there's that, too.

Anyway, I tried to scour the Internets for PC games with co-op of some sort that I could play with my wife. The list turned out to be pretty extensive, but I have no idea which are good or which are bad. Hence the thread.

Can anybody recommend a good, fun PC (don't own a console, sorry) game with well-implemented co-op?

[Dominus Atheos]

Just to make sure, you are aware that PC co-op requires 2 PCs right?

If so, what are the specs for both pcs? We can make recommendations but that won't do much good if you computer's can't run them.

Any genre in particular? Does your wife mind playing blood-and-gore FPSs?

[Edi]

What kind of games?

some of the old turn based strategy games can be played co-op hotseat. For those, I have several recommendations: Age of wonders series (I like the first one best), the HoMM3 and 4 (H5 has a scarcity of good maps). The upside to these are that they cost next to nothing if you don't have them already.

Otherwise you start needing two computers, but then your options go up a whole lot and otehr people can recommend better things than me.

[PeZook]

Just to make sure, you are aware that PC co-op requires 2 PCs right?

No. Seriously?

Yeah, I know. We have two PCs at home.

If so, what are the specs for both pcs? We can make recommendations but that won't do much good if you computer's can't run them.

Just go wild. I'll research the specs and see if my PCs can handle them, and if you don't restrain yourself, other people can glean useful information from the thread, too.

Any genre in particular? Does your wife mind playing blood-and-gore FPSs?

She enjoys RPGs, both hack&slash and classical "character-based" ones. Blood and gore FPSs aren't really her cup of tea, but I can play those with my brother, so they're cool, too

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

You mentioned hack and slash, in which case there's the classic Diablo II (expansion recommended) and the more recent Titan Quest (expansion optional), both of which can be great fun playing through with a friend.

Dawn of War 2 has some neat co-op modes and borrows a lot from the hack'n'slash subgenre, but it's a bit of a system hog compared to the above two.

[Feil]

Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2 support co-op play in the campaigns. I believe the three expansions to NWN2 also support co-op in campaign.

You can find a fairly comprehensive sortable list of titles for co-op play here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... ideo_games

[Stark]

Any q diabl will be fun, but most aren't really designed for coop the way an mmo is. Any rts is also coop.

PC really isn't the platform for coops. you can get Dynasty Warriors and Gears on PC though. . Borderlands is a good coop q diabl, but it's a but wierd on PC.

Basically buy a 360 lol.

[Blayne]

The Gears of War game(s) and maybe Halo 2(? does it work on PC coop?) if you have 2 computers.

There a few other FPSs with coop, and one Scifi FPS RPG thats like diablo.

Oh and Diablo 2 fun fun.

[The Yosemite Bear]

my all time favorite was MoO2 or System Shock 2, we even got mike's wife involved...

though she didn't like ss2, something about all of us jumping simultaniously because of those damn spiders....

[Stark]

If Blayne means space hack he's retarded.

System ashock 2 coop is disappointing because it's so easy and the giant hitboxes make coop with another player around suck. If it was made today it'd be great (or suck like deadspace but 'y'know).

[The Yosemite Bear]

Well MoO2 on multi, and impossible difficulty, the only way to fly in Co-Op, otherwise our inevitable victory is never in question.

[Sarevok]

MoO2 would be extraordinarily boring for the casual gamer.

[Blayne]

If Blayne means space hack he's retarded.

System ashock 2 coop is disappointing because it's so easy and the giant hitboxes make coop with another player around suck. If it was made today it'd be great (or suck like deadspace but 'y'know).

No it wasn't space hack it doesn't ring a bell so fuck off.

[Stark]

Well it was the only helpful suggestion you made ...

It's been suggested there are heaps of casual coop games; I have a couple of silly rts/q diabl hybrids that are fun, but not very polished. What do people think the mst coop succesgul q diabl us? Sacred and Diablo have little actual class interaction, borderlands is better with support, but I can't think of any with skill systems that aren't designed primarily for solo play.

[Vendetta]

I can't think of any that have serious cross class synergy. To really make a co-op q diabl that's actually improved by co-op you'd need at the very least an aggro system, more cross class stuff than "this one class has some party buffs", etc.

Really, you'd need to look at making WoW-Lite rather than Diablo.

[Stark]

Yeah, generally the 'support' class is totally viable solo and just has one or two team buffs or whatever. It's a shame because it wouldn't be hard to set up right. Borderlands actually has more team bonuses than most q diablz I've played.

[Sarevok]

Hey stark how does Borderlands perform on lower end machines that barely meet the advertised requirements ? I want to try the coop feature of Borderlands but my only other real computer is old.

[Stark]

It's UE3-based so it should scale pretty well; it works fine on my girlfriend's 3 year old laptop, and Unreal 3 runs fine on a 6600GT. I'll have a look at the PC Borderlands options to see how far down it scales.

OK, the options aren't great (it's a console port) but you can kill the advanced effects, turn off shadows and drop texture quality. Assuming your CPU can keep up and your GPU isn't that old it should be fine.

[Singular Intellect]

I'd strongly recommend Battlefield 1942 or Battlefield 2; either one provides a great game for two people to hook up ingame and slaughter enemy units.

[Alyeska]

Borderlands. Fun action shooter RPG.

Sword of the Stars. Its a nice 4x game with real time combat situations.

HAWX. Action flight sim set in the near future. Play the entire campaign coop.

Operation Flashpoint 2. Modern action shooter set with a war between the US and China. Squad based.

Left 4 Dead and L4D2. 4 player coop against the zombie apocalypse.

[Stark]

SOTS is only fun until the UI crunch hits and every turn takes a million years. HAWX is good shit though; are Ace Combat games coop too?

I'm glad to see everyone suggest games already suggested lol.

[Oskuro]

Now, if you want to go for the wacky, hyper-retro hack'n'slash option, and can be bothered to set up the required source port, I'd say...

Hexen!

[Cykeisme]

Diablo 2 is a classic, can't go wrong with that.

I'd also second LordOskuro on Hexen, loved that game as a kid.
Nowadays you can get it dirt cheap, and run it with the zDoom engine.

For current stuff, I definitely recommend Borderlands, it's great fun with anywhere between two and four people. It'll push your loot hunting buttons the way Diablo 2 did, now with FPS action!
If you do get this, make sure one of you plays the Soldier-class character for coop.

[Stark]

Why? The soldier class is arguably the most boring, and the only hugely useful subclass is 'infinite ammo'. It doesn't give any loot bonuses, quality bonuses, etc. I'd rather have a Hunter and Siren in coop to max out the drops/drop quality, since ammo is hardly a big deal.

Oh Zak I found a heavy gunner class with +90 recoil and +75 mag size. Want?

[Scottish Ninja]

You could also try Killing Floor; it's similar to L4D but it's class-based and a bit more defensive. It's also only $20, so I figure it's worth it for the price. They do half-price now and then on Steam so if you watch for that I'd definitely recommend picking it up then.

Killing Floor on Steam

EDIT: added the link