Every game is better with friends, but some games are at their very best when you’ve got a group along for the ride. We’ve selected 25 games that we think are the best co-op games you can play on PC in 2020, whether you want to survive against zombie hordes, fell giant monsters, or fling your physicsy forms across chasms.

Our criteria is straightforward: if you can play with a pal without competing, then it’s a co-operative game. It’s not enough if it’s a team-based competitive game, and so Counter-Strike and Dota are excluded. We’ve also made the decision to exclude those games which flit between PvE and PvP moment to moment, such as DayZ and Sea Of Thieves. They’re all great games, but they belong on a different list.



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If you’re looking for something different, hit up our list of the best PC games to play right now.

The best co-op games for 2020

25. Human Fall Flat

Where can I buy it: Steam, Humble What else should I be playing if I like this: The aforementioned Transformice was in this slot in previous iterations of this list. Or give Grow Home a go, if you want some clumsy single player platforming.

Human Fall Flat began life as a pleasant if unremarkable puzzle-platformer starring a featureless, physicsy dough boy called Bob. Then its developers added co-op, and it came alive.

Played with 2 players in local co-op or up to 8 online, your goal is still to steer your dough boys towards the exit on a series of floating islands. You must do this by clumsily lifting yourself up ledges, clumsily swinging from ropes, and clumsily working out how to use the environment to continue your journey. This clumsiness is extra delightful when you’re not just doing it yourself, but watching friends do it as well. They hoist you up behind them, hold your hand as you dangle from those ropes, and you talk to come up with plans to clumsily enact.

Brilliantly, not much else has changed about the game. You’ll still mainly play on the levels originally designed for a single player. That boat you used to clamber on? If all 8 of you leap on, your combined weight will cause it to sink. This turns out to be fine – it just becomes another obstacle to work out how to overcome, and another moment of physics fun. If you miss older, 2D obstacle runners like Transformice, give Human Fall Flat a go.

24. Gears 5

Where can I buy it: Steam What else should I be playing if I like this: Gears Of War 4 is a similarly fun slice-and-shooter in co-op. Or try Borderlands 3, elsewhere on this list, for something as action-packed you can play forever.

Gears 5’s meaty campaign is a fine old romp when played alone, but it really comes alive when you’re cleaving through it with a pal or two. Every mission is built around a core of three characters. For the most part, you’ll probably be rushing to play as either Kait or Del, the two beefcake heroes of Gears 5’s story campaign and the main ones doing all the shooting and the sawing and the yanking of robot plugs from the backs of unsuspecting enemies.

The third player takes control of Jack, Kait and Del’s friendly flying robo-drone whose main purpose in life is providing support for his human masters, laying down traps, dropping boosts, fetching weapons or providing a quick bit of first aid if you get downed. He’s not quite as much fun to play for experienced roadie runners, but if you approach him with the right mindset, there’s no denying that he adds a vital bit of spice to Gears 5’s action vocabulary. Whether it’s mind-controlling swarm troops, turning you invisible or netting you a rare sniper rifle from a far-off perch, Jack is often the one who can turn the tide of a difficult battle.

Special mention must also go to Gears 5’s local splitscreen support. Some may prefer to offer their co-operative chainsaw from afar online, but there’s something about being in the same room that makes Gears 5 all the more enjoyable, from simply pointing at a target instead of endlessly trying and failing to describe it over a headset to watching every last one of your mate’s finishing moves in all their gruesome, gory detail. It’s something we wish big blockbuster games did more often, and Gears 5 is a great example of how to do it well.

23. Warhammer: Vermintide 2

Where can I buy it: Steam What else should I be playing if I like this: Left 4 Dead 1 or 2, obviously. Deep Rock Galactic, elsewhere on this list, might be another good choice.

Vermintide 2 is clearly indebted to Valve’s zombie shooter Left 4 Dead. Each level can be tackled by up to 4 players, and sees you slaughtering hordes of enemies to reach the end intact. Special enemies threaten to pick off anyone that strays from the group, and the appearance of an occasional boss can tear through an unprepared team.

Those similarities might make it tempting to dismiss as a Left 4 Dead knock off, but you shouldn’t because Vermintide 2 has the best rats in video games. They’re man sized opponents with weapons and minds of their own, making them individual combatants that are more satisfying to fight than ravenous zombies. The five classes, each with separate skills and access to different weapons, help to give each player their own role. Those vermin are more varied, too, with a random selection of mini-bosses and horde types to make each run feel a little different.

Fatshark nailed the melee combat at its core and sprinkled in some breathtaking level design, and the end result might be the best horde survival game, even if you don’t like Warhammer.

22. Viscera Cleanup Detail

Where can I buy it: Steam or the game’s site What else should I be playing if I like this: There are plenty of games on PC that make visual comedy the whole experience. Surgeon Simulator offers laughs, but lacks the hook of making something shiny.

It’s not exactly the most original setting: a dilapidated space station filled with aliens and crimson, world-building wall graffiti. Viscera Cleanup Detail turns this tried and tested scenario on its head, tasking you not with repelling the aliens, but cleaning up the bloody aftermath with a mop that looks like Zoidberg’s mouth.

With up to 32 players, you mop up blood, collect spent shells, deposit bits of human in contaminant containers, refill med stations and incinerate body parts. You might think that more players means faster cleaning, but with you all tracking bloodied footprints across the floor and knocking over buckets filled with gory slop, it won’t be long before things devolve into a food fight. But with human limbs instead of food.

There’s something about removing decals from textures that’s oddly satisfying, and once you’re bored of that you can always try smudge a crude, bloody dick on every surface your friend cleans up.

21. Overcooked 2

Where can I buy it: It’s Steam What else should I be playing if I like this: Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime has 2-4 players operating a single ball-like spaceship, and Regular Human Basketball pits two teams against each other inside giant robots.

“I NEED MORE MUSHROOMS!” This is the cry of every angry chef in the co-op of Overcooked. It’s a silly game of simmering and sizzling, the physical manifestation of the phrase “too many cooks spoil the broth”. You’re in a kitchen with up to three other players, and you have to make food to order by preparing and combining certain ingredients. A stacked burger requires chopped tomatoes, a beef patty, lettuce and a bun. To get this done in time will require everyone to carry out their appointed tasks pronto. If we all work together, and stick to our jobs (you: washing up, me: chopping onions) then we’ll be fine.

Nope.

The kitchens of Overcooked are constantly changing. Narrow spaces mean players get in each other’s way. Sometimes the whole level shifts, like a piece of frustrating clockwork. The benches on a ship will slide down the deck with each large wave, altering the layout entirely. Cooking in two trucks, driving side by side, means that one part of the kitchen will accelerate, suddenly becoming off-limits. How will you get the chow off the hob before it boils into an inedible paste? By shouting at your fellow chefs, of course.

Overcooked 1 and 2 are much the same, but it’s 2 we’d recommend. For one, it’s now got online multiplayer as well as local, letting you play with those geographically distant friends. For two, you can now throw ingredients back and forth between chefs. Your co-chef needs more mushrooms? Maybe he’ll catch the one you just threw to him; maybe it’ll bonk him right in the face.

20. Stardew Valley

Where can I buy it: Steam, GOG, Humble What else should I be playing if I like this: Graveyard Keeper, which is straight up “Stardew Valley but in a graveyard.”

There is a lot of shooting and adventuring on this list, but very few opportunities to hang out in a turnip field. Stardew Valley lets you live out an alternate life as a farmer, away from the hustle and bustle of cities and videogames with guns. It’s about escape. Ever since the multiplayer update, you can escape with friends.

It provides a place to be rather than a challenge to overcome. Each of you gets to dodder around town, either working together and divvying up tasks or ploughing away at individual farms. I wouldn’t say the Valley feels sterile without other humans, but there are only so many blackberries you can hand over to your NPC neighbours before your relationships start feeling one dimensional.

With real people in the mix, you get an actual community. Maybe your pal has a spare melon you can give to Penny for her birthday. Maybe they’ll bake you a cake. Or steal your chickens.

People breathe warmth and life into a fantasy that’s already about those things. You’ve got the freedom to pursue whatever charming humdrum activity takes your fancy. Go fishing. Comb the beach.

Or, if you want, mercilessly compete to see who can optimise profits. It’s your farm.

19. Deep Rock Galactic

Where can I buy it: Steam, Humble What else should I be playing if I like this: Minecraft has the mining, Left 4 Dead 2 has the hordes, and both are elsewhere on this list.

It’s a simple pitch: a group of dwarven friends with class-based skills walk into an asteroid, mine for materials, and fight back the critters who fancy them for dinner. What complicates matters is the need to leave again: once their pockets are full, the dwarves have got five minutes to down pickaxes and reach an escape pod before it leaves without them.

This is even more complicated than it seems, because the asteroid’s tunnels and caverns are a twisting warren interspersed with enormous drops. Re-trace your path inwards in reverse, in a rush, and it’s easy to get lost – and those drops are now, of course, climbs. If you thought to make your ad hoc constructions two-way when you threw them up on the way in, then no problem. If you were hasty, or if your platforms were destroyed by explosive enemies, then you’re going to need to construct a new route. The adrenaline rush of your extraction is a thrill with friends over voice comms all panicking together.

18. Payday 2

Where can I buy it: Steam What else should I be playing if I like this: If you’re looking for more authentic heists, GTA Online is a much more varied co-op heisting experience.

If you’ve never played Payday 2 or its predecessor, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was about perfect planning, stealth and crowd control. The reality is a bit different, and it usually goes like this: the four of you excitedly chat about how you’re going to approach a heist, you split up, someone fudges it almost instantly and every police officer in the world turns up to shoot you all in the head.

It’s more wave defense than precision stealth, with each player setting up traps, sharing ammo and trying to keep the police at bay as a timer ticks down. That’s not to say it’s not good. It’s chaotic and messy, but the shooting is weighty enough and the skill trees are satisfying to advance through.

You can get through each of the heists without raising an alarm, it’s just bloody hard and you stand very little chance until you’ve unlocked some of the more advanced skills. Still, the possibility hangs there like a 24 carat carrot, nudging you all to have another go until you’ve perfected every scenario.

17. Streets Of Rogue

Where can I buy it: Steam, GOG, Humble What else should I be playing if I like this: Spelunky, elsewhere on this list, is a very different game but produces similar emergent chaos.

Streets of Rogue is a chaotic playground at the best of times. Adding more players makes it more so, but not just by mindlessly multiplying the destruction. While players are on the same ‘side’, the NPC treat you all as separate entities. The citizens see you as another person like them, not a faction they can magically recognise.

Combined with its systems-driven design already present in single player, it means that instead of blocking each other out, your options overlap to create more opportunities.

Sometimes this makes for a comedy of errors, like the gangster I recruited who shot at Brendy on sight because he was wearing another gang’s colours. Sometimes it’s funnier to just step aside, like when Matt was hunted by a squad of police bots, and I just watched them go.

The usual friction between players who want to do things in conflicting ways is reduced, as you can opt out of getting involved, or even exploit the other players’ behaviour to give yourself more options. You died, but someone playing as a shapeshifter possessed a hacker, then reprogrammed a slot machine to improve its odds while a third player tried to win enough money to pay for the resurrection. And even if you’re all going full chaos, the rippling reactions to your rampage produce as many laughs out of sitting back and watching the aftermath. None of us know how we ended up with a loyal gorilla minion who joined a gang.

16. Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes

Where can I buy it: Straight from the developers or from Steam What else should I be playing if I like this: Bomb Squad Academy is a single player game of explosion-avoidance.

The best example of asymmetry in co-op. It involves at least two players – one of you is defusing a bomb with judicious mouse clicks and cautious wire snips, the other is giving instructions from a bomb-defusing manual. Neither player can look at what the other is doing. It’s one of the most perfect set-ups for the destruction of a healthy relationship and a fantastic example of leaving the screen itself behind.

You don’t have to print out the manual to read from it (you could just read the PDF file from a laptop) but, like the instruction booklet of SHENZHEN I/O, it’s the best way to play. You flip hurriedly through pages, trying to decipher the theory of these explosive devices. Then comes the challenge of communicating the quirks and symbols of the page in a way that won’t be misunderstood. As a pair, you end up inventing your own verbal shorthand, trying to save valuable seconds by talking with both clarity and speed, carefully enunciating the difference between the phrase “Uh uh” and “Uh huh”.

As the bomb handler, you’re consistently double-checking and second-guessing your team mate as they stammer out their directions. “Cut the red wire,” they’ll say. “No wait, the green wire. No, sorry, sorry. The red one. Yes, I’m sure.” In the end, you’ve got to trust them. Cut the red wire.

15. Arma 3

Where can I buy it: Steam What else should I be playing if I like this: Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis is the game that eventually became the original Arma and is worth a look to see how far the series has come.

Arma 3 takes place on a pair beautiful fictional Greek islands. It does have a single-player campaign, but it’s that island, the vehicles, guns and mechanics, and the painstaking attention to detail, that makes Arma 3 great. It’s a platform for the community to create their own games upon, and there’s enough community made content that if you get into it, you could be playing Arma 3’s cooperative mode to the exclusion of any other game.

There’s something about Arma’s design philosophy that makes it especially well suited to playing with other people. Partly there’s the realism, which obviously lends itself well to the kinds of genuine squad tactics you can enact when playing with some dedicated friends or a committed community like ShackTac. Partly it’s the way in which the islands are designed in spite of you, not in service to you, making your steady journeys across the landscape with another person feel more satisfying than overcoming a set of contrived obstacles. Hopefully one of you is a good pilot.

14. Don’t Starve Together

Where can I buy it: Steam What else should I be playing if I like this: Outside of Minecraft and Terraria, survival sims like DayZ come closest, although these often have a PvP focus.

Now available for free to anyone who already owns Don’t Starve and boasting compatibility with the Reign of Giants expansion, Don’t Starve Together lets you try and survive the Burton-esque nightmare wilderness of Don’t Starve with friends. While you might think it would be easier to survive with someone to huddle up to by the night’s fire, cooperation here won’t just see you chopping up firewood twice as fast – the more players you have, the more competition there is for food.

The trick is to work together instead of fighting over scraps: one of you can cook while another places traps; someone else can be chopping wood ready to stoke the night’s fire. With six players, there’s plenty of scope for creating a sustainable base, so long as everyone sticks to their roles and shares resources. Don’t Starve was already a brilliant story generator and the stories only get better when you’ve got people to share them with by a campfire.

13. Killing Floor 2

Where can I buy it: Steam What else should I be playing if I like this: Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 has a wave-based zombie mode where kills give you points to spend on weapons between rounds. Failing that, there’s Left 4 Dead. One of these suggestions made it onto this list and the other didn’t – make of that what you will.

Killing Floor 2 provides a familiar flavour of zombie wave defence (or ‘Zeds’, as the game calls them), tasking you and five other players with welding doors shut, swinging katanas and removing heads with panicked shotgun blasts.

What weapons you start with depends on the class, so while assault rifle equipped characters might be able to pick off Zeds at range, the Support class needs to stop undead that get close by removing half of their head with some buckshot. What makes Killing Floor 2 so great is the feedback: weapons punish trigger-happy players with recoil, body parts fly from enemies with each impact, and claret glistens on the ground, a bloody reminder of each skirmish. Zed’s dead, baby. Zed’s dead.

12. Divinity: Original Sin 2

Where can I buy it: Steam or GOG What else should I be playing if I like this: Torment: Tides of Numenera is an even wordier take on a complex fantasy world.

Divinity: Original Sin let you create a character and then suggested it might be fun if you took a friend along. They would make their own character and you’d have adventures together. It was fun, because you got to do all sorts of silly things. Divinity: Original Sin 2 wants you to consider the possibility of playing with multiple friends. It supports up to four players but rather than simply increasing the size of the party, it does something far smarter and more insidious.

This time around, Divinity wants you to consider what might happen if your friends were no longer your friends. They’re colleagues, perhaps, and sometimes they’re rivals. And thus the competitive-cooperative RPG is born. You can take on quests with contradictory objectives, kill that one NPC your best mate really needs to talk to if she’s ever going to get closure on her character’s personal backstory, or poison all of the health potions and then share them with the party after the next battle. It’s a brilliant game however many people you play with, but it’s at its best when you’re playing with a group of your very best frenemies.

11. Borderlands 3

Where can I buy it: Epic Games store, Humble What else should I be playing if I like this: Borderlands 2 was present on previous versions of this list, and is still fun and playable even in the wake of its sequel.

Borderlands 3 is classic ‘bigger is better’ sequel design: everything you liked in Borderlands 2 (still a great co-op romp in itself) but with more. More gun variables, more character abilities (now three skills for each hero, and vastly more tweaks to make to each), more locations, more vehicles, more rifles that grow legs and run around as a lead-spewing sidekick. The only thing it has less of is Claptrap, which is a blessing. And so it makes sense that co-op is the way to go. It’s more of more, after all: four times as many opportunities to see something extraordinary fly out of a gun barrel and wipe out the screen in a din of damage numbers.

At any one time one friend could be ordering a giant battle ant into the fray while another hops into a Titanfall-ish mech suit, a third activates a drone and a holographic double and the fourth performs psychic powerbombs in the middle of it all. The way these character skills can be further differentiated (the mech alone has six weapon combinations, all deeply modifiable with further perks) means you never really know which version of each character you’ll be rubbing shoulders with, turning co-operative sessions into a showcase for builds. Of course, the main takeaway is always: I want my own battle ant.

Importantly, it’s a friendlier co-op game than Borderlands 2, too. With instanced loot drops players don’t have to fight over the same spoils of war, and the difficulty scales to each combatant, so a casual dabbler can comfortably leap into an old pro’s game. It’s a less selfish co-op experience for it, no longer rewarding cads who make a beeline for the weapon chest over the downed companion. And if you were one of those selfish, selfish bastards, you can still opt to play with the old rules. But why settle for less in a game that’s such a potent advert for more?

10. Monster Hunter World

Where can I buy it: Steam, Humble What else should I be playing if I like this: Dauntless is a similar game about hunting monsters with friends.

During Monster Hunter’s meteoric rise to fame on the PSP handheld, the game was so commonplace it was said you could find a local wireless hunting party on any train in Tokyo. Legions of anonymous school kids and salarymen banding together in for-person squads to deck a virtual dragon. That it worked then, and continues to work now, speaks to the simplicity of the fantasy: human must band together to slay a human-eating thing. It taps into the neanderthal in all of us.

Of course, Monster Hunter is a little slicker than it was then. World was a concerted effort to smooth out relatively obtuse mechanics and controls and move from partitioned monster arenas to open playpens that encourage exciting chases and allow surprise clashes as angry bits of the ecosystem butt heads. It manages to be the most spectacular entry yet, but without sacrificing the weapon mastery or crating trees that keep you playing for months.

When hunting alongside friends, you’re rewarded for teamwork. Some weapon classes offer extra support, like blowing a stat-buffing boogie on the hunting horn or blasting friends with a bowgun’s healing shots (just don’t mix up the ammo, yeah?), but really it’s about everyone knowing their tool and beating down the monster at every opportunity. Certain weapons fare better during different attack phases and the occasional mad man gets to ride a snarling beast like a rodeo bull.

But what elevates it above most co-op games is the way it taps into the camaraderie of real-world team activities. Not just the main event – four lads shoeing a giant frog, or whatever – but the rituals that build up around them. Meeting in a pub, having a slap-up meal, comparing the latest hobbyist gear… y’know: Big Dad Energy stuff. In MHW it’s a tavern, not a pub, and the food is prepared by a giant cat, but the vibe – of spending time together and getting into the group mindset – feels true to life. Also: the incredibly fussy lobby system, with its invites and quest noticeboard, feels a lot like dads trying to work out the intricacies of Facebook. It’s well worth muddling through the archaic kinks.

9. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2

Where can I buy it: Steam and Uplay What else should I be playing if I like this: SWAT 4 takes you back to urban spec ops and the more tactical leanings of classic Rainbow Six games, while Splinter Cell Chaos Theory offers synchronised headshots with a buddy in the Clancyverse.

You can play through the whole of Vegas 2’s brilliant but flawed campaign with a friend, rappelling down walls, breaching windows and taking out terrorists in unison. While that will keep you busy a while, it’s Terrorist Hunt – a mode where you team up with three buddies to hunt down a set amount of enemies across large sandbox maps – that will keep you coming back.

Guns are powerful and fast; death comes faster. This makes methodically creeping through the maps as a unit, covering corners and assaulting defended positions, an incredibly tense affair. This only ramps up when your squad inevitably gets picked apart on the harder difficulties, right up until three of you are sat watching the lone survivor, the whole success of the mission pinned on them scraping through. It could even be down to you and you’ll feel the tension ramp up as you suddenly become aware of being judged.

8. Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition

Where can I buy it: Steam What else should I be playing if I like this: Dark Souls 2 offers more of the same, although it’s missing some of the magic of Miyakazi’s focus, with a much larger and less connected world.

While many are purists when it comes to From Software’s masterful action RPG, refusing to summon help or forcing themselves to equip just underwear whilst wielding only an overgrown twig, Dark Souls is fantastic in co-op. You can jump in with a friend, with a bit of planning, taking turns to help each other through each section. Even without friends, though, Dark Souls will have you forming bonds with silent strangers.

There’s an unwritten etiquette to the Souls games that sees people treating each other with respect, bowing to each other once summoned and waving each other off or cheering after a defeated boss. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of relief when a summoned co-op partner helps you finally beat Ornstein and Smough – the only thing that comes close is paying it back later, becoming the saviour in someone else’s story. Adam said it best in our review: “It’s superb, populating an already haunted world with phantoms and memories, and providing an eventual gateway by which to become an all-but anonymous hero or villain.”

7. Spelunky

Where can I buy it: Steam, GOG What else should I be playing if I like this: Rogue Legacy delivers a similar flavour of procedural 2D sidescrolling, albeit more forgiving and missing a co-op mode.

Spelunky is a moreish 2D platformer with roguelike elements that kicks your arse until it straightens your spine. Although the geometry might be constantly shifting with each frequent death, the rules that govern the enemy types remain constant. After a while, reflexes handle the enemies of The Mines – it’s like peeking into another dimension, but instead of losing your mind you become Neo. Can you dodge bullets? Yes.

Co-op changes the rules, making it perfect for seasoned players to team up. You might think things would be easier with more health and attack power, but stunning, whipping and blowing each other up will be a regular occurrence in the claustrophobic confines of the levels. More players only add more complication and four player co-op is chaos, creating more hilarious ways to fail. Timing, as ever, is key. Now see if you can make it to Hell with friends.

6. Far Cry 4

Where can I buy it: Uplay and Steam What else should I be playing if I like this: Arma 3 provides a huge open-world and is also playable in co-op, but it’s more about carefully advancing than riding in on the back of an elephant. There’s Far Cry 5 as well, but 4 is better.

When asked what their favourite thing about Far Cry 3 is, most people will point at the outposts. Far Cry 4 takes it further by offering the ability to respawn enemies inside outposts you’ve already destroyed, adding in four fortresses – like outposts, but more fortressy – and allowing you to take them all on with a friend. There are so many different ways you can tackle these bases and each features different topography and guard placements, giving them a distinct challenge.

Do you want to creep in, deactivate the alarms and then go loud, or would you rather hang from the side of a gyrocopter as your friend strafes the camp from the pilot’s seat? With the unpredictability of spreading fire and wild animals added in, the co-op can easily become the actual game, making the prescriptive single-player missions seem dull by comparison. Now who wants to see if we can wingsuit off this gyrocopter and land in that river?

5. Diablo 3

Where can I buy it: Battle.net What else should I be playing if I like this: Path of Exile is a F2P action RPG that offers seven playable classes and an interesting bartering system in-game.

Diablo 3 is a beast of a game and it’s playable from start to finish with three friends. Not only is it absolutely huge, but there’s replayability in the different classes and combinations, not to mention the difficulty levels. On lower difficulties it’s kind of meditative – you just explore colourful environments bashing things as the world reacts to your destructive force and you pick up sweeter gear.

Like this, it’s one of the best social games around, requiring little in the way of planning while you chat to your friends and get on with bashing skeletons. Crank it up, though, and your party is in for a world of hurt if you’re not planning, talking about the fight and working together – providing buffs, healing and prioritising targets is essential to victory. It’s easy to pick up, difficult to master and even harder to put down.

4. Grand Theft Auto 5

Where can I buy it: Steam What else should I be playing if I like this: PayDay 2 offers first-person heisting, but it’s much more focused on just shooting police officers in the face, believe it or not.

Los Santos is a gorgeous playground, each bend in the road bringing you level with a postcard view – every angle feels scrutinised. Trace a route from the peak of Mt Chiliad, driving down through the dusty plains of the Grand Senora Desert, snaking by the hilltop mansions of Vinewood Hills, cruising on through the twinkling city itself and finally coming to stop at Vespucci Beach – all this, including the skies above and the sea beyond, is your online playground.

Grand Theft Auto Online is stuffed full of co-op scenarios, but the best experiences are found in the Heists. These multi-part missions ask you and three other players to take part in everything from the setup – casing the joint and grabbing getaway vehicles – all the way to the caper itself. While not all of them are literal heists, each one does an incredible job of making sure all four players are busy. Everyone has their own job to do, sometimes all together, sometimes in pairs and sometimes alone. This, along with the randomness of the open-world’s systems, gives each one massive replay value. The only real downside is that you really need to play with three friends to get the most out of it. With each heist taking a couple of hours from setup to execution, it can be as difficult to organise as an actual heist.

3. Minecraft

Where can I buy it: Minecraft.net What else should I be playing if I like this: Terraria is Minecraft if it were a 2D sidescroller.

Nobody knew how huge Minecraft would be when the alpha released in 2010, but there were hints of it even from the first few hours, when the game’s initial players started building rudimentary shapes and sharing screenshots of what they’d created.

Today, Minecraft is played by people of all ages. Part of its appeal, aside from its openness, is the social aspect. Whether helping your child stave off monsters as you build a fantasy land together or collaborating with a group of adults to make a working hard drive, there’s something for everyone.

You can even play it as an RPG, killing mobs with your co-op partner, levelling up and building equipment to grow stronger, with the eventual goal of taking on the final boss, the Ender Dragon. Minecraft is whatever you want it to be and you can play it all with friends.



2. Left 4 Dead 2

Where can I buy it: Steam What else should I be playing if I like this: Warhammer-based Vermintide delivers a lot of the same appeal, but with character classes and rats in place of zombies. Or Left 4 Dead 1 is still excellent, of course.

Panicking with friends can be sublime. That shared fear and desperation, the yells and shrieks of people facing the same horde, each convinced they’re moments from being overwhelmed. In a sense, they already are.

Horror games reach into your lizard brain and convince your amygdala that you’re in trouble. Left 4 Dead 2 is one of the best, because it’s built around saving your friends from that state. When the necrotic tongue of a Smoker comes grasping for your mate, you get to save the day with a well placed shot. When a Hunter pounces on your pal who’s straggling at the back, there you are with a punch and shotgun blast. When a Tank jumps right into the middle of your group… well, you can’t survive every time.

That’s part of what makes triumph taste so sweet. You’re pulling together against an AI director that keeps you on your toes, sending in hordes when it thinks you can take them, but rarely throwing so much at you that it feels unfair. Every level is an appropriately intense ordeal, where cries of frustration can quickly turn into tears of laughter.

Ten years on, Valve are still the kings of co-op horror. Especially if you play Versus mode, and know the Hunter tearing into you is your mate Dave.

1. Portal 2

Where can I buy it: Steam What else should I be playing if I like this: Although you can’t have a similar experience in co-op, Quantum Conundrum and Antichamber offer spatial awareness puzzling in first-person. If you love Portal 2’s personality more than its puzzles, there’s always The Stanley Parable.

What happens when you take a single-player game about traversing intricate puzzle rooms with portals, and then double everything? It becomes twice as complicated and twice as satisfying. Portal 2 already expands on everything introduced in the bite-sized Portal, adding things like Excursion Funnels, Thermal Discouragement Beams, Propulsion Gel and other fancy sounding words, but the addition of another player changes things the most.

Four portals make each room more confusing to explore, especially when you consider both players need to reach the exit. In essence, many rooms require two solutions. Some puzzles require both thought and dexterity, and firing your friend across a chasm by moving a portal while they freefall through another eventually becomes as normal as walking.

There’s a lot of personality in the design of the two robotic protagonists, too – the Laurel and Hardy of shiny metal. When you’re working together, you’ll be high fiving each other’s metal hands and barking possible solutions through your headset.

If you’re not using chat, Valve were kind enough to provide lots of ways to communicate in-game, with players able to place markers and emote. Every puzzle solution is punctuated by a dance. Portal 2’s co-op is an experience you can’t quite replicate, its systems a perfect balance of cooperation and friendly rivalry. Grab a friend and become the most stupid pair of geniuses around.