Co-Op Goodness

[schild]

My roommate and I are getting bored with single player and competitive games. Between us we have an xbox, 2 gamecubes (one modded for imports), a ps2, and about 6 computers.

Are there any co-op games people suggest for any system?

A quick search pulled up the obvious computer games (Diablo, etc) and a few for the GC - the new Zelda and Pokemon Colosseum.

Anyone else have any diamonds in the rough I may be completely overlooking? We're aiming more at console than computer, if possible.

[eldaec]

Seem to remember Desert Storm I & II playing pretty well in co-op on your x-box.

I think Starlancer let you play the main campaign in co-op, and imo Starlancer was exactly as good as FS2, so worth a go if you haven't played it yet.

There is always this of course.

Not enough games have decent co-op modes imo.

[Kairos]

You could always try out Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles. No idea if that's any good with only two players, though.

[geldonyetich]

I've got Crystal Chronicles. Squaresoft made, it's audioably and graphically an game of neigh unbeatable production values.   This is the kind of game that creates true experiences of genuine nerdvanna - I've got that theme song running through my head right now, and it's a good thing.   Unfortunatly, it's gameplay is plagued with frequent delays as Squaresoft strokes their ego with one CGI sequence after another.    A fellow higher education bound chum of mine found the game unbearable considering all these delays.    Even a young not-quite-related personage of the age of 12 I was tasked with sitting over the weekend found it to be somewhat boring.   Also, it requires a gameboy and link cable for each and every player of a multiplayer game, which is such mercilous Nintendo price gouging that it turns the stomach, even if they managed to justify the Gameboy requirement with several mini games and by putting all inventory management there.    I do intend to finish the game one day, at least in single player mode.

I also own Pokemon Colosseum.   A good game if you like Pokemon and want to see your Gameboy's little two dimentional barely animated Pokemon in fully animated Gamecube-quality 3D.     I did, so along those lines the game is worth it.    That's about it, as while the gameplay qualifies as turn based strategic, it's not terribly deep.    At times, it feels very treadmill-centric as you strive to get this or that pokemon adequettely leveled up.   Unless you've invested time in the franchise, I suspect for most that Pokemon Colosseum is a boring title.   What's more, it's not at all cooperative gameplay related.    The closest it comes to a multiplayer experience is that you can have an arena battle with a friend that has nothing to do with the story (RPG) mode, which is the game's primary draw.

The new Zelda: Four Swords gamecube release is looking very good along the lines of a good cooperative title for the Gamecube.     I haven't tried it yet (and probably won't be able to unless I become employed or the game drops to a $20 price tag), but I found the Gamespot gameplay videos pretty encouraging.    It also makes heavy use of the gameboy + link cable hardware, but I believe that unlike CC it does not *require* it for multiplayer.

For that matter, the original Zelda: Wind Waker had something resembling a coop mode of sorts as well.   A buddy of yours can hook up their gameboy to a link cable and intervene in the game with various coin-sucking cheats.   Not nearly as enjoyable as being an actual player, of course.

Ultimately the best multiplayer games for the Gamecube are probably Super Smash Brothers Melee or Mario Party (whichever).   However, my money's on that new Zelda game being good if coop adventure's what you're in the market for.   (Or my money would be on it if I didn't splurge 50 dollars beyond my unemployment stipend on a wireless PS2 controller today.)

The X-Box I can't speak for.  PS2 I can.   Good Co-Op titles I've played for the PS2 include Baldur's Gate (the sequal is an improvement but pretty much more of the same) and Champions Of Norrath - which are ultimately the same game.   If you're looking for something other than hack and slash, might want to specify.

[hirebrand]

Halo :)

[eldaec]

Halo :)

Most. Overrated. Game. Ever.

[Jain Zar]

I concur, though its more or less tied with Final Fantasy 7.  Ok... its a little above that.  Just read Official X Box Magazine to understand why.  (Even if FF7 killed everything on Gamefaq's best game ever polls.)




What?  I wanted the free disk.  But I was young(er) then.. I've learned my lesson.  Really.

[schild]

I frickin loved Final Fantasy 7. The death of a character in an rpg will never be as emotional again.

And yes, Halo is horribly overrated. Hell, FPSs on consoles are horribly overrated. All of them.

[Daydreamer]

One thing people always seem to forget about FF7 is that most of its best elements were done before ... by FF6.  (Albeit that none were taken to the extremes of FF7)


Death of a PC?  Realm/Shadow
Difficult/Impossible optional bosses: Coloseum, the last few Dragons
Existential moping about the hopelessness of their quest?  World of Ruin character recovery quests

Also, I concur with Halo.  I played it and beat it and enjoyed it, but it is far more a Blizzard-worthy evolution of a genre rather than the revolution its touted as.

[Rodent]

Hrm... Tenchu ( haven't played it myself... but ninja coop must be a good thing ). I seem to remember Timesplitters 2 featured coop aswell.

[schild]

Realm and Shadow have nothing on Aerith, Neither does the death of Rydia's parents.

The difficulty of the end bosses/dragons didn't have anything to do with how much the game left an impression on me. Neither did the existential moping.

At some point I actually cared about the characters in FF7, I do believe it's the only game I ever cared about any characters, including FF4 and 6. Though I enjoyed playing 4 and 6 more due to the gameplay.

[Mesozoic]

Halo :)

Most. Overrated. Game. Ever.

In the context of co-op games it deserves mention.

[eldaec]

Halo :)

Most. Overrated. Game. Ever.

In the context of co-op games it deserves mention.

Only if we're allowed to mention buying a second hand N64 and a copy of Perfect Dark first.

[Hokers]

For the X-box I would say that Baulders Gate 1-2 for the consoles have good 2 player co-op.  The only dissapiontment is that they did little to improve the second one, just more of the same.

[Paelos]

Don't know a whole lot about it, but I heard good things about Rogue Squadron III letting you play a co-op mode of the all the missions in version II. If you never bought either, I would say that would be a hell of a lot of fun, as my experience with Rogue Leader was great. The difficulty was very high to complete the medals and forced you to become a spot-on pilot.

[Riggswolfe]

Halo coop is incredibly fun. So is Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance 1&2 and Champions of Norrath(I think CoN is actually better than the BG games, 5 characters to choose from, male and female, minor customization, interesting skill sets, random dungeons, modifiable equipment (very Diablo 2ish, you put gems into weapons or armor to give them more powers), lots of loot variety, etc.

I personally greatly enjoy coop myself. There's not alot of it on PC. Starlancer comes to mind as has already been mentioned. PC games tend to focus more on competition than coop. Baldur's Gate 1&2 could be played coop. (Play those 2 and their expansions and you have games to play for hundreds of hours potentially.) Neverwinter Nights is about the closest you can get to pen and paper RPGs on the computer.

I don't know of many GC coop games other than ports of BG and such. Honestly I avoid GC coop because they try to tie it into the GBA and I find such heavy handed marketing offensive.

Also, Koei makes a series of games called Dynasty Warriors (and a new one called Samurai Warriors.). They are pure, relentless action with RPG-lite elements. (weapon and item upgrades. Levels. ). My friends and I enjoy them alot though I've noticed people either enjoy them or totally hate them.

[Alluvian]

For the Xbox:
Return of the King

Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance 1 and 2 for the Xbox.

Some people really liked the Hunter: The reckoning games (they have two out now).  Again, gauntlet type perspective.  I HATED the second or third mission that was a stupid protect the helpless little girl mission and prompty returned the game myself.

I rented D&D Heroes a few weeks back when a friend was in town and it pretty much sucked.  It was a very weak imitation of dark alliance and not nearly as good.  That said, if you have consumed the content in the other games it was worth the rental for us to complete it.  And we had some fun MST3K'ing the awful game as we went through it.

There is also gauntlet:dark legacy but I hear it is very repetitive.  I have not played it.

If you get a second Xbox or don't mind splitscreen you can do coop in many live titles with capture the flag style games or team deathmatches.  Both modes are available in Crimson Skies and MechAssault for example.  Unless you can get MechAssault real cheap I would not bother until the second one though.  The second one adds WAY more than your standard sequel.

I believe you can Coop in Rainbow Six (Rogue Spear) for the PC if you like that kind of game.  I could be wrong on which Rainbow six game, I can't keep up with them.  Just something I read gabe and tycho loving at the time on penny arcade.

Other than that, I am going to follow this thread as close as you hoping I can pick up some good coop games my wife and I might like.

[Alluvian]

Since starlancer has been mentioned twice here, I feel the urge to point out that I cannot get the thing to run for the life of me on DX9.  Game just goes to a black screen on launch.  At the time I remember looking at message boards and the only people who were getting it running at that time had to install DX7 to install the game and run it the first time and then install DX9 and it would play.  This trick did not work for everyone at the time and fucking with dX like that is not a pretty proposition to me unless I was 100% guarunteed of success.

[HaemishM]

There's always sports games on the X-Box. If you like tennis, Top Spin on the X-Box is much love for co-op or competitive play.

A buddy of mine and his group of LAN friends loved going through the original Hidden and Dangerous on the PC. I think you can download the game for free now. I wasn't too impressed with it, but he raved about it, to the point where he refused to by H&D2 because they removed co-op in favor of deathmatch.

[Vehementi]

NWN is great on a lan.  The "Good vs Evil" mod is good for countless hours of gameplay/frustration against the AI :)

[Sable Blaze]

On the Xbox: it's Halo. Again, if you haven't played the Marathon games you miss out on a lot. Great game, and great coop, though it gets one (large) mark against it because of the lousy split screen mode.

I was seriously underwhelmed by the Return of the King game. I was expecting complete crap, and it wasn't that bad, fortunately. Still, I played for maybe two hours. I don't anticipate a return engagement on my Xbox.

Dark Alliance 1 and 2. Definately worth playing. The second one in particular has some pretty intriguing class possibilities.

Phantasy Star Online GCN has a splitscreen mode. It works well enough and is even fun, but I cordially detest splitscreen games. These new consoles should network. No excuse not to (other than the usual Nintendo stupidity).

Champions of Norrath on the PS2 is OK. It has some issues, but there's some fun to be had there. Diablo-esqe and, mercifully, no splitscreen foolishness.

Soul Calibur 2. Enough said.

That's all I personally have on my consoles.

[Glamdring]

Schild, you have a modded Xbox right?  Get the Secret of Mana SNES rom.  I know there are a couple of sequels as well, but I'm not sure if they provide co-op play or not.

[Sable Blaze]

In four weeks or so there'll be Sudeki on the Xbox. I've only recently (like yesterday) caught wind of this one. It looks very interesting, especially if you're an anime fan.

Not sure if it actually has mulitplayer or not. It does have a four person party with AI controlling the other party members. No reason I can see that it wouldn't have multiplayer.

More research is necessary, I suppose.

Sega also announced the open beta of yet another installment of PSO (after they said the card game was the last one--really!). Blue Burst is PC-centric and has another episode tacked onto the familiar PSO we all know and love (heh). I have my doubts this one will come to the US, but you never know.

Edit: Sudeki says single player. Doesn't seem to be Live enabled. Kind of a shame, seeing as it already has the party and all. Will probably find out more as it's release approaches.

[SurfD]

Schild, you have a modded Xbox right?  Get the Secret of Mana SNES rom.  I know there are a couple of sequels as well, but I'm not sure if they provide co-op play or not.

Lol, I was just about to ask that actually.  Are there any Action RPG (ie, zelda, secret of mana) style games out for PS2 that support multiple players.

Secret of Mana for the SNES was probbaly the soul  reason we got a Multi-Tap when we bought the console.

[Sky]

I found this link in my bookmarks:

http://members.aol.com/shadowpanther/co-op.htm

[schild]

Sweet mother of necroposts. Thanks for the link.

[Dark Vengeance]

My roommate and I are getting bored with single player and competitive games. Between us we have an xbox, 2 gamecubes (one modded for imports), a ps2, and about 6 computers.

Are there any co-op games people suggest for any system?

A quick search pulled up the obvious computer games (Diablo, etc) and a few for the GC - the new Zelda and Pokemon Colosseum.

Anyone else have any diamonds in the rough I may be completely overlooking? We're aiming more at console than computer, if possible.

With the advent of online play, local co-op console games are getting fairly rare compared to the past.

As a PS2 owner, I know that there is a TMNT game that made for fun co-op....though it was pretty shallow. Really just a beat-em-up....good for playing as a rental over a few beers, especially if you have any nostalgia regarding ninja turtles.

IIRC, sports isn't your cup of tea, but I cannot reccommend Tiger Woods 2004 strongly enough. Golf is one of those competitive games where you actually find yourself rooting for your opponent a bit (within reason). With Tiger Woods 2005 only a couple months away, you may want to make 2004 a rental. Just keep in mind that it gets more fun as you build your golfer and acquire better equipment. My buddies and I get together to play this quite a bit, and the online play is fun, if you can avoid quitters and cheaters.

I'm also kind of partial to WWE Smackdown:Shut Your Mouth as a multiplayer title. Very deep create-a-character, nice multi-player modes, a good solo story mode, and it's only $20. The versatility of the create-a-character drew me in, and I ended up making about 45 different characters....past wrestlers, friends, family, pop culture icons, as well as myself.

Chessmaster and Monopoly Party are both $20 games, and in the case of Monopoly, it beats getting out the board (I have a few nice chess sets). Chessmaster has a very deep set of tutorials and drills ranging from beginner to advanced chess strategy. Of course, you can do pretty well with either on the PC, probably for free.

Online play in the form of SOCOM, Splinter Cell:Pandora Tomorrow, Resident Evil Outbreak, and such make for a decent co-op experience, but I don't see you guys rigging up 2 PS2s, 2 TVs, and taking it online just to play together.

NWN is certainly a way to go with the PC, lots of good multiplayer modules out there....as well as playing in online campaigns. Just solid all around.

Bring the noise.
Cheers..............

[Sky]

Sweet mother of necroposts. Thanks for the link.

You're welcome. Just don't ask me to "twitch" you, dammit.

Not that I have mental scarring from SOE. I should start a class action suit.

[slog]

Serious Sam 2.  Good fun multi co-op.

[speedwaystar]

Speedwaystar's PC Coop Game List
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Based on a list by Michael <cmgoh@iinet.net.au>

The essence of cooperative multiplayer gaming is that of "working together with friends to solve the single player game." Accordingly, the term "coop games" as used herein means games which support simultaneous cooperative network play over the course of the main single-player campaign, or at least individual scenarios thereof.

It does *not* include the more common FPS team vs team deathmatch or capture-the-flag styles of multiplay, where one team may be composed entirely of bots and the other of cooperative players (e.g. Unreal Tournament, Battlefield 1942, etc).

To be included, strategy games must support full alliance options, where two or more human players with separate empires can pool resources, share cities, engage in trade etc, and cooperate against an AI-run empire or more than one.

* = recommended/popular

Recent additions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2004-02-08 Added Incubation to Strategy/Tactics (submitted by Mike Mendelsohn)
2004-02-14 Added Age of Empires 1-2, Age of Mythology, Empires Dawn of the Modern World, American Conquest, Starwars Galactic Battlegrounds + Clone Wars, Empire Earth, Rise of Nations, Command and Conquer (various editions) and Axis and Allies (submitted by Aaron Johnson).
2004-04-07 Sacred

RPGs
~~~~
* Baldur's Gate 1-2 + expansions
Darkstone
* Diablo 1-2
Heroes of Might & Magic 3
* Icewind Dale
* Neverwinter Nights
Nox (with 20+ meg "Quest" patch)
Throne Of Darkness
Pool Of Radiance 2: Ruins of Myth Dranor
Sacred (3-player coop campaign)
Vampire: The Masquerade

Flight Sims
~~~~~~~~~~~
Apache Havoc
Battle Of Britain
Commanche Gold
Enemy Engaged Commanche Hokum
* European Air War
Eurofighter Typhoon
F22 Lighting 3 (over Novaworld only)
* Falcon 4
* Flanker 2 (Strongly recalls FA-18 Interceptor on the Amiga)
* IL-2 Sturmovik
Janes FA-18
Janes USAF
Longbow 1+2
Mig Alley
Total Air War
WW2 Fighters

First Person Shooters
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alien vs Predator ("coop" limited to fighting off endless waves of respawning monsters in small DM-style maps)
Blood
Daikatana
Delta Force 1-3
Doom 1-2
Duke Nukem 3D
Ghost Recon
* Half Life (single player game playable coop with Sven Coop mod)
Heretic 1-2
Hexen 1-2
Hidden & Dangerous
Klingon Honor Guard
* Operation Flashpoint
Quake 1-2
No One Lives Forever 2 (limited coop on 1 map only)
* Rainbow Six 1, 2 (Rogue Spear) & 3 (Raven Shield)
Redneck Rampage
Serious Sam 1-2
Shadow Warrior
* SWAT 3 Elite Edition
* System Shock 2
Unreal
Vietcong + expansions (limited coop on certain maps)

Strategy/Tactics
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Age of Empires 1-2 + expansions
Age of Empires: Conquerors
Age of Mythology
American Conquest
Axis and Allies
Command & Conquer (various editions)
Commandos
Cybermercs
Deadlock 2
Empire Earth
Empires Dawn of the Modern World
Enemy Infestation
Incubation (with Wilderness expansion)
Kohan
Masters Of Orion II (in alliance mode)
Myth 1-2
Rise of Nations
Seven Kingdoms
Shadow Company
Starcraft: Broodwar (in alliance mode)
Starwars Galactic Battlegrounds & Clone Wars  (basically AoE with Star Wars characters/races)
Syd Meier's Gettysburg (even supports coop vs coop)
Warlords: Battlecry

Fantasy Sims
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Battlezone 2 (with latest patch)
Descent 1-3
* Freespace (downloadable main campaign coop)
* Freespace 2
Shattered Steel
Starlancer (3-player coop campaign)
X-Wing vs Tie Fighter Balance Of Power

Other
~~~~~
M1 Tank Platoon 2
Zork: Grand Inquisitor (apparently!)

[Morfiend]

Bump



*Giggle*

[dusematic]

D&D Heroes was fun when I played it with my friend.

[Strazos]

We had a 4-player game going for awhile, but eventually people become disinterested.

Also ran through both BG: Dark Alliance games with a friend. Pretty fun, though the dwarf thief in DA2 sucks ass as far as damage goes (but he's pretty clutch for getting cheap prices for modding gear). I might have to cheat at this game, just so I can unlock Artemis Entreri.

[WindiaN]

get x-men legends 2, its like gauntlet legends but with xmen characters. Its not really a great game but I had a great co-op experience with it. Lotr return of the king is really good too.

[Yegolev]

Hello gentlemen...

Double Dragon