Sitting on the couch with your buddies playing games is a feeling that’s tough to replicate. While online gaming has been a revelation in social interactions with friends that these days are capable of almost anything. One of those isn’t the same feeling you get by taking your copy of Halo to your buddy’s house, who doesn’t have the game, but has the console, a spare controller and a sofa with a big TV to play on and busting out an extended session of gaming bliss in co-op on legendary difficulty.
It’s a type of euphoria that is becoming rarer as games progress into the world of online-only, microtransaction-filled, generic gaming experiences. Looking forward to you and your friends nearby each playing an Avenger on your console? Well tough luck, you each need a console and a copy of the game (plus Xbox Live and PS+ on consoles) just to get started unless you’re playing Ultimate Marvel Alliance 3, though the games aren’t quite the same.
Best Local Co-op Games
However, there are developers out there that still see the benefits of bringing your friends round and taking down games as a team. So for all of those who have friends that still like to come around to play games, or a partner who loves getting involved as much as you do, here are the best local co-op, or couch co-op games that you can play, right now.
Overcooked! & Overcooked! 2
One of the best games in recent times when it comes to playing with buddies on the sofa with you, Overcooked! and its sequel sees you team up to help prepare, cook, and serve food orders while also ensuring that the dishes are clean. It requires skill, coordination with your other chefs, and timing on some stages as you have to navigate the stage as much as you do the chopping board (see the above screenshot). The original game does not have online co-op, though the sequel does. However, they are best played on the couch as you argue over who should have kept their eye on the tomatoes burning and who should be washing the dishes. Plenty of content and new dynamics that are introduced with additional players, Overcooked! is a game well worth your time.
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
Have you ever wanted to feel like you’re part of the bomb squad? The thrill of the diffuse is strong, as you and a friend must work together to defuse a bomb. However, only one of you has access to the bomb, while the other has to take a look at the manual and find out what each component means, its function and how it correlates to the diffuse of the bomb. And we don’t just mean a cheat sheet page. We mean there are TWENTY THREE pages. Now, this might sound like a tedious test of patience and ability to read a how-to on bomb diffusal, but when you have an active bomb with you, enhanced tenfold if you have a VR headset for the diffuser to wear as they tackle the bomb directly, it gets incredibly tense, and very frantic. The ability to read and speak the instructions, on top of listening to exactly what you’re being told, are tested strenuously. Not only is it a fantastic way to improve your ability to work under pressure, but it’s unbelievably fun too.
LEGO Games (all of them)
This is almost certainly your best bet of games to play if you’re going to be playing co-op with children. The majority of the IPs that the LEGO games use either aimed at kids, or has a feel that it’s designed with younger gamers in mind, but that’s not to say that developer Travellers Tales haven’t snuck in plenty of referential humor for the adults too. You’ve probably played, or at least heard of the LEGO games by now. Typically platforming games with basic combat and a truckload of characters with a LEGO piece addiction, you take on the role of Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Luke Skywalker, Iron Man, Batman and Frodo amongst many others as you take them on their respective journeys. Drop-in drop-out gameplay makes playing co-op super easy and the humor is there with visual gags to keep the younger ones happy, while the spoken or more subtle nods allow the adults to appreciate it, but that doesn’t mean it’s just for kids. Almost all of the LEGO games are worth playing on merit, so if one interests you, it’s worth taking a look.
Divinity: Original Sin 2
It should come as no surprise to any veteran of Classic RPGs that Divinity, a series that has a wealth of history in classic RPG style games, makes this list. A genre that hugely benefits from having multiple players on co-op together to take on roles within the party (something which a lot of classic RPGs didn’t do locally on the same machine at least), it’s essentially taking on a Dungeons & Dragons campaign in video gaming form. Shape the team how you all wish and embark on a 100+ hour adventure with your friends. Not only will you naturally be enjoying it with your buddies, but you’ll also be experiencing probably the best western RPG in decades, maybe even ever, to the point where you could possibly play a campaign separately to your co-op one and have a unique fantastic journey over both playthroughs. Divinity: Original Sin 2 is that good. Its predecessor is pretty darn good too (though no local co-op there).
Diablo 3
Like the last entry, action-adventure games and dungeon crawlers are also an excellent choice for those seeking local coop thrills because the action is almost always going to be on the same screen that you’re both traversings. Pick your flavor of character to take on, be it a big bad sword welder or a spellcasting mage, and travel together as you progress through the latest in one of the best action-adventure/RPGs series in the history of gaming. Sadly, Diablo and Diablo II offer a co-op option, but not local, couch co-op as you need a LAN network to get it going. However, for Diablo III (on consoles at least), grab a seat on your couch and get ready to take down Diablo (the devil, not the games, we recommend not destroying your game).
Trine 1 & 2
An indie classic here, Trine is a fantastic option for those looking to sit back on a couch, armed with a friend (or two) and a controller and working out puzzles as a team with a chilled atmosphere. It’s a side-scrolling adventure game where you need to rely on the skills and abilities of each member of the trio of heroes, the knight, the thief, and the wizard. The game offers enemies and mechanisms that require genuine thought and skill to work through. It’s also great for just messing each other up (conjuring boxes onto the heads of your friends never gets old). You aren’t locked to one character either, as the game lets you switch it up frequently, so it never stays dull if you don’t want it to. Trine 3 experimented with 3D that didn’t work, but 1 and 2 are both excellent games.
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
Twin-stick games are great. Not only are they easy to control yet require skill and patience, but they can also tell a great story when given the right material. Enter Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. A twin-stick shooting adventure where tomb raiding is very much on the menu, you and a friend taking control of Lara and Mayan warrior Totec must use your combined skills and tools to traverse this vast tomb that threatens to seal them in forever. It’s an old game now, but it’s still an excellent telling of Lara’s struggle when she needs a helping hand. It’s playable in solo, but you’ll lose much of the game’s appeal if you do, so grab a friend and get to tomb raiding!
