My Top 10 Favorite Cooperative Games

Jamey discusses his top 10 favorite cooperative games, including mentions of TIME Stories, Unlock, Mansions of Madness, The Reckoners, Shadows Over Camelot, Mechs vs Minions, Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle, Fog of Love, Orleans Invasion, Pandemic Legacy, The 7th Continent, Legendary Encounters: Alien, Sentinels of the Multiverse, The Mind, Burgle Bros, Forbidden Desert, Summit, Mysterium, Flipships

[jacquesfouche]

Thanks for sharing, really nice and interesting list. I like that you listed games with a whole range of mechanics. This is only the second time I see someone mention Burgle Bros., will need to have a closer look!

[PopCultureDetective]

Finding other ways to deal with hostile creatures besides combat. Can we make friends with them? Can we make some sort of deal or trade? Can we forge an uneasy diplomatic alliance? Hell, can we have a tea party with the monsters? I'm just super tired of being thrown into situations in games were killing stuff is the only path forward. That's what I would want to rebel against :)

[GirlyGamer-BoardGameGran]

I LOVE that you think cooperatively. It's my favorite way to play a game. I'm not big on pvp play (even in video games). Pandemic Legacy Season 1 was such a mind-blowing experience and that was in part down to the cooperative nature of the game. Love these videos.

[GourmetBurrito]

I know this video is 3 years old, but I love it when games let me veer off course like halfway through. So I'll follow the path and maybe even do the challenging (and often fun part of the quest) but maybe I won't return the item to the guy or whatever. Or maybe I'll let the guy I'm supposed to kill go or vice versa. And if the game reacts to that, I always find that really cool

[BobBallVO]

Great topic, and it’s always good to see you on a Sunday morning with your favorite games.

[kirkbeiser]

My favorite cooperative games are Pandemic Iberia (and the rest of the Pandemics), Maximum Apocalypse, Forbidden Desert and 5 Minute Dungeon.

I really like how they used the shifting sands mechanic in Forbidden Desert.

[rossparker]

I can't wait to hear more about your new open-world style game, Jamey. It's cool that you talked about West World too, because as soon as you mentioned deviating from the main story/traditional path, I immediately thought of the Man in Black. His character was one of the best parts of that show for me, and his journey with the maze symbol, and trying to figure out Ford's game within the game is amazing! So getting back to your game, if my character was able to explore a different path that lead me to discover some secret mission that the "creator" had put in place, that would be a lot of fun!

[CeePhour]

I play mostly solo, which means I really like "coop w/full information" because I just play multi-hand. Spirit Island, Robinson Crusoe, and The 7th Continent.

[steveody]

Jamey, my wife and I just finally beat the last scenario in the harry potter expansion on Friday night and man was it rewarding! Really good content once you get through the original campaign.

[proverandom]

Some of my favorite co-op games are Space Alert, Magic Maze, The Grizzled and Spirit Island.
The Grizzled is similar to Mind in regards to information sharing. You can only imply content of your hand. And it's hard to win.
Magic Maze and Space Alert are real time tense co-ops, my favorite kind of games, quick, fun, no alpha player possible.
Spirit Island is more classic co-op but huge and there is a lot of things going on. Difficulty adjusting is my favorite mechanism.

[vincentvanbeelen]

1) Spirit Island, 2) Kingdom Death Monster 3) Mage Knight, 4) Lord of the RIngs LCG 5) Robinson Crusoe 6) Masions of Madness 7) Arkham Horror LCG 8) Freedom the Underground Railway 9) Mistfall 10) Legends of Andor. Odd one out is 7th Continent because I prefer to play this solo. (Haven't played Gloomhaven yet)

[curtisscox]

Great list! I am really surprised you didn't mention Gloomhaven. Besides The 7th Continet, it is probably my favorite game of the last 3-4 years, and is a great coop experience.

Very excited to hear your new game is inspired by Time Stories and The 7th Continent! Those are both terrific games.

One thing I would say makes those interesting is the external pressure that prevents a player from exploring all avenues at once. Because of dwindling resources (time/action deck) the players have to make choices about what they get to do each time they play, but still see hints or clues or threads of other stories, actions, narrative, etc. this entices the player to come back and explore those other opportunities later. It is fun to me to have many options and to know that I won't be able to get to everything at once.

[arcubal]

So, your new cooperative game is really going to be a fast-to-setup first-person illustrated and narrated heist where you can manipulate guards using silent signals, flip switches (and sometimes spectacularly fail), use unique power decks to avoid shifting and clogged up tiles and deal with hidden cards before they deal with you, and use limited communication to explore and find hidden numbers while leapfrogging to the top floor and escape.


As to your question: What would I want to do, if I DIDN'T follow the given path in an open-world /sandbox game? I would want to build my own little camp where my character could use the resources around it to grow stronger in order to pick up the 'quest' again with better stats/equipment/chances to win. The reason why I'd like this is because co-op/solo sandbox games can sometimes be challenging, which is good, but can also become a little tedious if you have to start all over (7th Continent, TIME Stories are good examples of this). By giving players the chance to set up camp just off the provided path, and enough resources, you essentially pause the main quest and give the players a side-quest if you will - one where they come out stronger than before. And hardcore players? They can simply ignore that option, stay on the path (eyes on the prize) and push their way through a more challenging game.


Finally, my favorite coop games? In no order: TIME Stories, 7th Continent, Arkham Horror LCG, Stuffed Fables, Forbidden Island, Descent, Mansions of Madness, Robinson Crusoe, 5-minute Dungeon, Magic Maze, Forest of Fate and Chronicles of Crime.

[aaronfennell]

Another great video Jamey.

My fave co-op is Robinson Crusoe - for the sheer challenge, and for the ‘trade-off’ mechanic - i.e. Do this and get a reward or do that and avoid a negative consequence, but you don’t have time to do both.

What would I do if I could go off piste in a game? This makes me think of an article I read on McClelland’s Motivational Drivers - which says that people are driven by one (or a combination) of 3 factors - Achievement, Affiliation, or Power.

The Achievers might just want to complete your side quest - perhaps there’s a scoring mechanism for completing the most quests...

The Affiliators (if that’s not a word... it is now) would want to group together - eg. for peaceful trading or establishing a settlement - or for group questing/combat. VPs for most alliances?

The Power-hungry might just want to go and build their own castle, gather an army, gain the highest level of knowledge/mastery of a skill, amass gold/treasure. Whether they do that all on their own, or band together to achieve their ends before turning on everyone else is up to them.

Other ideas that I think would be cool - you want me to rescue a horse - instead, can I go build myself a corral first? Or build/invent an item to help me capture said horse? (Lasso, dart gun, tazer, helicopter with a claw-arm). Or just build a mechanical horse instead and forget the real horse?

Or can I just go climb a mountain or swim in the lake - or meditate - and earn myself some Relaxation VPs!!?

I love your question and can’t wait to see where you take us with your new game if this is the concept it’s based around. Cheers.

[howlsthunder]

I haven't played enough co-op games to have a top 10 but the mechanic I think most co-ops need (and that many suffer from lacking) is a mechanic that prevents one player from telling everyone else what to do. Usually this happens because all the information is public (Pandemic, Forbidden Island/Desert). In games where players have information that only they know (Gloomhaven, Lord of the Rings, Spirit Island), each player HAS to be acknowledged and no single player can totally hijack the game, or at least not easily.

[Atlas-FM]

Spirit Island is my only top coop that you didn't mention.

I think a Red Riding Hood approach is the best way to go with open world games. You have a clear destination but just off the beaten trail you see glimmers of things tempting you to stray from your path, luring you away from your objective. Without those teases of something else out there I probably wouldn't investigate on my own.

To your question:

What I do in an open world largely depends on the tenor of the world as that sets the expectations of what is acceptable.

Like in GTA game, I'm likely going to get in a car and cause as much havok as possible and then try to evade the police for as long as I can.

In Zelda I'm not going to do that. At worst I'll go pester some chickens.

In Red Dead the world isolated yet immersive so I'll often get distracted and start playing their minigames (poker, horseshoes, etc) or I'lll go hunting for pelts or picking plants for medicine.

In Witcher 3, I'd search for any side quest I could find because I loved the storytelling.

[holosmoss]

mine is Archipelago, semi coop i guess, but I played it enough that I can usually spark a bit more cooperation then the box offers. That game is a sandbox of tools for building cooperative stories so playing with house rules and tweaks is a big part of where the real cooperation shines, creating a scenario tailored for the people playing and their mood.

[vlad]

In open world game, in defiance to what set in a front game I would develop my resources, build staff ahead of time, master skills before they were explained in hope of getting a special ending or acknowledgment from the game.

[thek-man]

The game you're working on sounds very intriguing! To answer your question I'm thinking of how I played the videogame Fallout 4. There were so much to explore outside the main story that gave life to the world at your feet. Encounters with people that shared their story, cool objects and items to be found that could be useful but not necessary etc. Being able to do that would be really cool if you find the right balance. However, I think it's really important to have a story that's engaging and rewarding to make that work.

[Deabru]

I think the best part of the 7th Continent and any open world game is to explore the land and find all the borders of the map, climb the tallest mountains... I think the the most satisfying thing in open world games is to reach the limits and find all the secrets.