Playing games on your own can, after long enough, get a little lonely. Playing competitive games can get your blood pumping, but it can also make your blood boil.
That’s where cooperative games come in.
Decent co-op games can be hard to find, but a good one can cement itself as a permanent activity with your group, or even be a way to make new friends if you start diving into the community.
They demand communication and focus, but also skip over the frustration of getting stomped by the same team for 45 minutes.
We have on offer for you a collection of killer co-op games released in 2024. They range from overhead hack’n’slash to tree-punchers to ship management, and they’re all a blast.
Editor’s note: All of the games on this list are traditional “Web2” games without crypto or blockchain integrations. But you might enjoy ’em anyway!
Void Crew
Platform: PC
Void Crew places you and up to three other players on a space cruiser, tasked with going on a journey, taking missions, and eventually fighting a boss.
Aboard your ship, you’ll have to decide on weapon and utility placement, manage your engines and power consumption, defend the ship, and put on a jetpack to go out into the inky blackness of space to repair your boat and complete missions.
When you have a crew of four, this game turns into something special. The FTL-style mission nodes allow you to keep things moving while having a little downtime between missions. Of course, there’s always the danger of getting knocked out of your void tunnel and ambushed by AI enemies.
Things can start pretty straightforward, but by the end, your whole team will be working overtime to keep the mission going. There’s much fun to be had here, especially if you have that crew.
Enshrouded
Platform: PC (PS5 + Xbox coming soon)
Survival-crafting games may be a dime a dozen, but they’re often a great source of co-op play. Enshrouded is in early access but already offers quite a bit to do.
The primary mechanics are pretty standard: gather resources, build, upgrade, and fight enemies. However, the game emphasizes entertaining combat and offers challenging-but-rewarding boss fights. Traversal is fun, too, as you’ll eventually get gliders and a grappling hook.
One other standout feature is the way Enshrouded handles building. The game is smart about how it combines textures, meaning that not only can you position anything where you please, but the game will help you make it look good.
Path of Exile 2
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
So you’re tired of Diablo. That’s where Path of Exile comes in. The first PoE is still alive and well with a thriving community, but the new Path of Exile 2 is here in early access with souped-up visuals, a new campaign, and crossplay and cross-progression.
If you know Diablo, then it’ll look very familiar at first blush. There are new classes, and the class progression system is as intimidatingly massive as ever, with 1,500 nodes to put skill points into. You can wing it, or you can use a build guide to help you get the right character.
While a single-player mode exists, of course, playing co-op with a friend or group of friends is where the game shines.
Helldivers 2
Platforms: PS5, PC
It would be folly to talk about 2024 cooperative games without bringing up Helldivers.
Taking home two Game Awards recently, including Best Multiplayer, Helldivers 2 was a massive hit in the first half of 2024, thanks to a crucial combination of truly incredible explosions, a level of hilarious satire that encouraged everyone to get into the bit together, and of course killer cooperative play.
If you haven’t played this one and you have a PC or PlayStation 5—what are you doing here? It’s time to defend Managed Democracy and keep Super Earth thriving.
The Finals
Platforms: PC, PS5/PS4, Xbox Series X/S
While most of this list avoids PVP play, we wanted to get at least one here—and The Finals, a free-to-play competitive shooter, is a great place to start.
In teams of three or five players, depending on the mode, you’ll do things like point control and competing for points. Instead of pretending to be the real world, though, The Finals puts you into a canonically virtual environment; when you die, you turn into a bunch of cubes that fall to the ground.
The biggest feature here, though, is massive destructibility. You can tear apart levels with grenades, mines, and exploding tanks, taking down entire buildings and completely changing the landscape of some levels by the time a match is done. As a PVP game, things can get pretty sweaty—but with two friends, it can offer a ton of fun.
Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
The biggest draw for Return to Moria is, of course, the fact that it’s set in Middle-earth.
In this survival-crafting game, you and up to seven other players will take on the role of dwarves summoned to Moria to reclaim the Dwarven ancestral home.
You’ll explore, gather, and build while also facing the dangers of a giant cave system that’s been abandoned for years. It’s a great addition to any co-op player list.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
