The mechanics are simple enough that you can determine the pace of every game and almost tell a story during your fight. You’ll have some fast-paced kills as you run back and forth, maybe make some progress, until you both suddenly slow down and have a stand-off. You find yourself going through phases, as the game progressed. The excitement levels never drop as one person breaks through, only to be stopped inches from victory and be slowly pushed back to the centre of the map. The tug-of-war style of gameplay makes for insane levels of intensity, especially when games get dragged out for a long time. As only a 2 player game, it might not seem the best thing to bust out at a party, but honestly, it’s just as gripping to watch as it is to play. Nidhogg is great at getting those kinds of reactions out of people. Playing games online is great when it’s the only option (see: 2020) but to me, nothing beats the joy that comes from a room bursting into enthusiastic shouting and laugher all around you as you play something. 8 – NidhoggĪs you’ll see throughout this list, the kind of multiplayer games I tend to connect the most with are the ones that I can play with someone in the same room as me. It gives you the tools and lets you mess about with each other to your heart’s content, but once you want to get serious, there’s plenty of puzzly goodness, that makes the most of the co-op portal mechanics. You know you’re going to do it, they know you’re going to do it, but it’s still hilarious when you send them plummeting. Your friend is walking along the bridge over a pit of death, while you and you alone hold the power to remove the bridge. The light-bridges are the perfect example of this. That lack of consequence means that dying isn’t frustrating, which means that when your friend pulls a dick move on you, it’s funny, not annoying. There’s no consequence for death in Portal 2, other than having to run through the level again, which usually takes just a few seconds. Most importantly, it lets you be absolute arseholes to each other…in a fun way. If you want to introduce someone to the game, they don’t have to go through the singleplayer to understand what’s going on, and because the game explains everything, it removes that barrier where you have to awkwardly try and explain it to the other person. Additionally, it doesn’t assume you know anything about how to play Portal. Humans are better at solving a problem together, and the ability to bounce ideas off each other as you work your way through the puzzles. Here’s where Portal 2 comes in.įirstly, it’s a puzzle game, which is great in terms of the ‘sense of accomplishment’ factor. It’s very rare in a co-op video game that I really get the feeling of proper teamwork and collective achievement as we move towards our goals. This is a fine way of doing it, but it doesn’t get the most out of what a co-operative gaming experience can be. So often they’re just the regular singleplayer mode with an extra person. 9 – Portal 2Ĭo-op modes are hard to get right. Rocket League – An absolute blast that I am utterly terrible at. Trivial Pursuit – A personal favourite, but at the end of the day, it is just a trivia game, and it was a board game first. Overcooked – It’s lots of fun, I just never played enough of it to fall in love with it. They’re not bad games, of course, they’re just not what I enjoy playing. There are exceptions to this on the list, but I’m not big on competitive multiplayer, so don’t expect to see games like MOBAs or Halo on this list. For the most part, I prefer the easy-going games that you can just bust out at a social gathering and play a few quick rounds of. Over the years, designers have learnt how to hone their multiplayer mechanics to make the most enjoyable experience for people playing games together, so I’d like to take the time to discuss some of the best.īefore I start, I should clarify the kind of multiplayer games I play. There have been countless games that I’ve found tedious on my own, but a great joy when played with another person. On a less depressing note, playing a game with friends can make just about anything fun. While the world has made many forms of social gaming impractical for the foreseeable future, video games still allow for us to have fun with our friends without the looming threat of infection & death. They exist, and some of them are fun to play games with.
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