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Looking for indie co-op games recommendations
There's some moral issues about big publishers' business practices. Somehow, almost all racing games for example are EA. Like it's actually crazy lol - so despite wanting to play them, we do not wish to do that. Similarly, a lot of other co-op games are Ubisoft.
So looking for recommendations! Almost any genre and type are appreciated - only exception is games with pixel graphics (just really unpleasant to look at for me).
I've been having loads of fun with friends in Void Crew. Imagine if Sea of Thieves and FTL: Faster Than Light had a baby, and you get Void Crew.
Deep Rock Galactic is a classic for a reason.
A few years back I also had loads of fun with EARTH DEFENSE FORCE 4.1 The Shadow of New Despair. Giant alien insects invade Earth, and it only gets worse from there. You fight store brand Godzilla at one point. I really can't recommend this game enough.
I concur with both Void Crew and Deep Rock Galactic.
Is Void Crew couch co-op? I'd like to play with my kids but we only have one PC at home.
Sadly no.
I got a game named Unrailed recommended to me, which has couch co-op. I can't personally vouch for it, but might be worth a look. It seems to be sort of in the same vein as Overcooked, which is fun, but very hectic!
Pico Park is fun too, and less hectic, but gets very difficult.
Thanks for the info and the recommendations! We have Overcooked but I'm not familiar with
OvercookedUnrailed. Pico Park looks cute though, might try that one with my daughter!Edit: duh I meant to say Unrailed. Good thing the weekend is around the corner...
Lovers In A Dangerous Space Time.
It's cozy and cute and not too too difficult. I like the co-ops where you're doing different things so it's less apparent when one player sucks a lot more than the other.
Can vouch for this - a friend and I beat the game in one (very long) sitting because we were enjoying it so much. It scratches a similar itch as Overcooked in that you’re always doing different jobs and it can get hectic, but it’s not as hectic as Overcooked imo. Highly recommended!
Valheim is my favorite co-op game. Don't let the low-res textures in screenshots turn you off, it's a really beautiful and atmospheric game once you get into it.
We've also had a lot of fun in 7 Days to Die exploring the carefully designed buildings/dungeons and building huge bases to defend.
Volcanoids is another one that's really fun though it is relatively quick to complete.
How many players are you planning on playing with?
Untitled goose game looks like quite some fun for two people. It has local coop but it can be played via "remote together" through Steam - only one player has to own the game.
I also second We were here series of games.
Maybe have a look at Satisfactory although I don't know the publisher from top of my head.
Ahh yes House House's untitled goose game. It's wonderful because you each get a goose but the same set of objectives, for extra mayhem. Good times.
Enshrouded is a ton of fun in coop. So is Satisfactory. Another vote for Valheim, too.
Agreed with some other folks -- may I ask if you have a preferred genre, and know how many people you're playing with? I'll have more recommendations having heard that :3
Zeepkist is a pretty fun soapbox racing game, if that's appealing to you.
Not explicitly designed for co-op but open ended enigma games such as Return of of the Obra Dinn and the Golden Idol duology (Case of the Golden Idol, Rise of the Golden Idol) are especially well fitted to co-op gaming. Plus it helps to have several opinion to fill any blindspot in the reasoning.
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes on the other hand cannot be played in any other form than co-op. Bonus point if you have a VR headset (but absolutely not necessary).
If you though disarming a bomb was stressful, try managing a kitchen in increasingly chaotic places with Overcooked and Overcooked 2. It's best played with 4 or even 5 peoples though (I find an extra "front of the house" person just yelling the current order beneficial).
My friends and I got really into Lethal Company for a while and it just had a new update. Of a similar vein is REPO, but I haven't played that myself. They both became big with streamers so that might be off-putting, but honestly it's very enjoyable if you've got a group that agrees on how to play, in terms of how serious or silly you want it to be.
This doesn't really count as "indie", but the people who make it happen certainly aren't the original studio anyway... I've been enjoying the heck out of Morrowind multiplayer lately (the TES3MP project), particularly with Tamriel Rebuilt which adds much of mainland Morrowind and helps scratch that itch for Morrowind without it being the same game all over again.
Project Zomboid is fantastic. I've not been able to play more than an hour or two of co-op with my friends since multiplayer was re-released, but the single player experience gave me ~150 hours since I bought it after it was Steam Greenlit. If I had the time to play I could easily get a few hundred more hours in single player and I could 2-3x that in multiplayer.
Note: it may still be in early access after many years, but the current release is incredibly playable, and I find myself having an itch to play again whenever a major release comes out, or I remember to read one of their dev blogs.
Thanks for the replies everyone! Will look into it
We Were Here series is good fun for two players if you haven't seen it.
The first episode is free, if a little rough, but the series gets increasingly polished as it goes on. Each player has different information and tools and you have to work together to solve puzzles and progress through the world, uncovering little bits of story as you go.
They just announced a Lego 2P game: https://tildes.net/~games/1ogj/lego_voyagers_reveal_trailer
I focus on couch coöp when getting games to play with my kids.
Spelunky is a big favorite.
River City Girls is another, with an absolutely amazing soundtrack.
If you like Pokémon, you love Cassette Beasts.
Nobody seems to have mentioned Stardew Valley yet, which is a huge oversight.
@KapteinB mentioned Deep Rock Galactic. Looking at it, the visual style reminds me a lot of ASTRONEER which is a sort of a sandbox adventure game.