My Top 10 Favorite Cooperative Games with a Player-Driven Puzzle

In this week’s video I discuss my favorite cooperative games that present a puzzle for players to solve together (opposed to cooperative games that pit the game against the players). Honorable mentions include Not Alone, Mysterium, Magic Maze, Chronicles of Crime, Codenames Duet, Letter Jam, The Game, Sprawlopolis, Unlock, Graphic Novel Adventures, Fox in the Forest Duet, Tranquility, and Letter Jam. Later additions may include Groundhog Day. My top 10 list is as follows:

1. Mysterium Park
2. Just One
3. The Shipwreck Arcana
4. The Mind
5. The Crew
6. Hanabi
7. Sherlock Holmes
8. Menara
9. Mental Blocks
10. Fog of Love

[eloureirotubeyou]

1:14 Fog of Love
2:33 Mental Blocks
3:55 Menara
4:58 Sherlock Holmes
6:29 Hanabi
7:38 The Crew
9:27 The Mind
11:54 The Shipwreck Arcana
14:53 Just One
16:49 Mysterium Park

[notthatseanbean]

I love Shipwreck Arcana! It’s a huge hit with my kids, and I feel it’s pull every time I see it in the shelf.

[ReverendDrDeath]

The newest game from Corey Konieczka, The Initiative, fits this list quite well. It's a campaign "game within a game" where the players are working together by playing cards of value 1 through 12 to perform various actions to reveal and pick up glyphs on a game board and then revealing a hidden message one letter at a time. If you don't run out of time by pushing your luck during the gathering phase, you all cooperatively solve the puzzle that the hidden message reveals. Very fun and interesting combination of board gaming and logic/exit room style puzzles.

[eloureirotubeyou]

Thanks for putting images of the game as played. It really helps to better understand your comments, especially when we don't know the game.

[rickadam]

Great video Mr. Stegmaier! Co-ops are not my favorite, but over the years I have found a few that I've enjoyed quite a bit. The game that comes to mind that we find to be a fun puzzle AND wasn't mentioned here would be Incoming Transmission. One player has three mission cards which tell you two tiles that need to be adjacent to each other, that player has movement cards (north, west, east and south) and three action cards (pick up, repair, and drop off) and you need to 1. Make sure the tiles are fixed and 2. have them adjacent to each other. Each round you have to pick five cards to hand over to the group of players who will then try to deduce in which order you want them played. Before handing them over though you flip an event card that can be good or bad by letting you share the location of one card "West is played second" or it will force you to shuffle in a sixth card, and now the players have to not only figure out in which order you want them to play the five cards, but which card isn't going to be played as well. It's a lot of fun and we've been having a good time with it!

[Reggie]

I love that this genre basically eliminates the Alpha Leader/ Quarterbacking problem!

[kristabeddigs]

I just got my hands on a copy of Deception & Murder in Honk played with 6 ( all quarantined and vaccinated friends) soooo much Thanks for the awesome video Jamey!!!

[jeremysnyder]

I really enjoy the cooperative version of Scythe and almost commented that it's in this genre, but then remembered that there's the Desolation as well!

I think that the win condition in Scythe fits this genre, but the lose condition is the other genre of coops (game versus players)

[caroljohnson]

Forgot about it when filing out your list but Slide Quest is a great family weight game in this category.

[BenMagargee]

I prefer a game called Beyond Baker Street over Hanabi. It has the same mechanics in terms of everyone can see your cards but you. The actual puzzle is just a bit more complex, however, and I prefer the theme. Each player can also get a power unique to them which helps mix up the strategy as well.

[jakermaker]

Great video Jamey! Just One is my number.... er, one, so to speak haha. I can teach it in a minute and play it with friends for hours.
Are Stonemaier considering doing a puzzle-based coop experience down the line? Would love to see one from you 😎

[JohnLudlow]

I think Deadline and Tainted Grail are both examples of this, and in fact both involve playing cards into a sequence.

In an encounter in Tainted Grail you play cards to connect symbols with the previous card to activate that symbol's effect, gradually working towards the goal (which depends on whether it's a combat or a diplomacy encounter. You can cover up some of the card's effects by playing another card, which may be a good or a bad thing.

In Deadline (a 1930s detective game), you have a set of symbols you have to get by playing cards. Again, you need to match symbols with the previous card. This game also has limited communication - you can say "I'm ready for a fight" but not "I have 3 cards with gun symbols".

[fitforthisjourney]

I almost bought Mysterious Park this week. However I was worried about the ability for this game and others in the genre to be played by two people. Most of the time, it's just me and my husband playing. This is probably why I haven't tried a game in the genre before. We lean towards the beat the board type of cooperative game.

Any thoughts on which games from your top 10 would be best for 2 players?

Thanks for the video! Also we can't wait to get our Red Rising!!

[matthewmelissamakak]

I have been so interested in Menara but I've heard that it is pretty easy to win and I like difficult co-ops where I'm not winning most of the time. What has been your experience with this game?

[marccote]

Don’t know if it fit the categorie but we reccently played micro macro crime city .
Very good game, hope they come out with new stuff.
On other news i just received my tracking number for Red rising !! pump to try it

[jakubtustanowski]

Do you know Blood on the Clocktower? It really seems to match that genre :)

[Ataraxy]

These are the only type of cooperative games I like. I don't care for the Pandemic style of cooperative games.

[indigosunszenith]

I'd definitely say even if The 7th Continent is in the other category, it has elements of this. It includes visual and logic puzzles on the board and on some of the cards, as well as in parts of the story.