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As many gamers out there know, just about every game can be improved at least somewhat with co-op. Usually the difference isn’t all that great, but sometimes it can take an already great experience and transform into something that’s almost transcendent. With that in mind, here are a few of those special titles reach almost unbelievable heights once co-op is added to the formula.

Destiny

Destiny and Destiny 2 are both technically playable solo, and one can even have some fun working on their own tasks and such. The experience really isn’t complete, however, without somebody to fight at one’s side. Exploration, strikes, story chapters, seasonal activities and so on are all much more enjoyable with friends, and the raids in particular are truly something else when done with either friends or a frequent fire team.

Once everyone learns their roles and gets in sync, something special happens. It’s not just that the encounters become faster and easier, but that the group starts to feel less like a collection of goofballs and more like a perfectly unstoppable machine of death that can tackle anything and everything The Darkness can conjure up. It’s the gaming equivalent of scissors gliding through wrapping paper and it feels way too good.

Minecraft

Solo Minecraft is okay and all, but unless one can be satisfied just building for the sake of it, it often quickly gets old. Add a couple of friends into the mix though and it’s almost like a completely different game. This is probably why Minecraft has been a powerhouse franchise for more than a decade now. There’s practically no limit to the kinds of hijinks one can get up to with their buddies thanks to the insane number of mods, servers and other amazing fan creations out there.

Even plain ol’ vanilla survival becomes something special when played with a buddy. No longer are diamond strip mines or journeys into places like the Nether simple matters of necessity. Instead they become challenges, adventures and even competitions as everyone fights for resources and tries to win the ever-escalating race to make the biggest, craziest or most elaborate structures on the server. Alone, one can only ever work for their own satisfaction. With friends, though, Minecraft gains the one thing that its design can never hope to produce on its own: purpose.

Returnal

Returnal is an excellent third-person roguelike shooter from Housemarque. It also happens to be a rogulike that pulls no punches. Played alone, it’s a difficult game to get into and even more difficult to learn effectively. Played with a buddy, though, suddenly the impossible becomes much more doable.

Co-op plays an interesting role in Returnal in that it’s sort of like the easy mode while still being by no means easy. Besides simply having another person around to help deal with often ridiculous number of enemies running around, co-op in this game allows players the freedom needed to figure the game out and learn their own personal playstyle. Having a buddy there means that getting downed isn’t the end of the line, allowing one to take a lot more risks in combat and nail down what will and will not help a run to succeed.

Beyond that, each room is effectively a combat puzzle: one that's much more easily solved with frequent call-outs and coordination. Once a player moves beyond the learning phase and is able to make use of Selene’s tools and move set, their duo can achieve something similar to that scissor-gliding feeling found in Destiny’s raids. It’s on a much smaller scale of course, but the effect is almost the same. Once both members get into the groove in Returnal, they can make incredible things happen and do so almost effortlessly.

Elden Ring

No matter how one plays Elden Ring, they’re almost certainly going to have a blast. Fromsoft’s latest topped practically every game of the year list last year, and it did so purely because of just how well-executed it is in practically every aspect. It doesn't require co-op to be a fun, engrossing and rewarding experience. Even so, playing through it with a friend still somehow manages to elevate the whole experience.

Unlike other games on this list, where much of the extra fun comes from coordinating with one’s co-op partners, co-op in Elden Ring is more about sharing the adventure. It’s much easier to fight tough enemies and clear bosses while fighting alongside a friend, but that’s more of a bonus here. For the first run especially, there’s just a certain magic to traveling the Lands Between with friends. Finding secrets is more exciting; traversing new locations is more engrossing, and making new combat discoveries is all the more rewarding.

A solo trek to become Elden Lord and put the world right again is an awesome and rewarding experience, but doing it all with friends makes it all the more memorable and definitive somehow. If one is able, they should try a co-op playthrough at least once before the end of this current console generation.

Portal 2

It’s been about twelve years since the release of Portal 2, and yet it’s still somehow a relevant game. Much of that relevance comes from memorable characters such as Wheatley, Cave Johnson and GlaDOS, but it’s also due to the fact that Portal 2 is a brilliant co-op game.

As Atlas and P-Body, players are tasked with solving some of the most brain-bendingly fun puzzles in all of gaming. While the earlier levels allow room for multiplayer shenanigans, nothing short of near-perfect, timing, portal placement and coordination on the part of both players is enough to solve GlaDOS’ advanced challenges.

It’s that next-level coordination that set this section of the game apart too. Solving a room on one’s own is a relatively simple matter since simply understanding how the room works is largely all that is required. On the other hand, the co-op rooms not only limit some information to one player or another, but also require effective communication to see everything done correctly. Often, both players can understand what needs to be done, but still have to iron out their comms before finally clearing the room.

The result: a rush of elation greater than a lot of what’s on offer in most games. It’s a shame that Valve still hasn’t learned to count to three as a Portal 3 with another dose of these co-op rooms would be downright heavenly.


Of course, this is very much an incomplete list; one of the great things about modern gaming is that players have a mountain of multiplayer titles both old and new available to them. Be it Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, It Takes Two, A Way Out or something like Borderlands 3, there are more experiences than ever just waiting to be shared with a buddy. Really, the hardest part of it all is probably just sitting down together and picking one.