Gaming
Games
Our favourite games to play with your mates in couch co-op on the PS4
Play with your friends, not against them, with this selection of great multiplayer games for Sony's mega-selling console.
In the era of online matchmaking, MMOs and always-on connectivity, it can seem a little old-fashioned to get your mates around one console, playing shoulder to shoulder as you work collaboratively to solve a particularly perplexing puzzle or take down a formidable enemy.
And even though it feels like it's harder than ever to arrange IRL get-togethers for gaming sessions, it's oh-so worth it. There's no better feeling than sitting side-by-side to share in special gaming moments. If you play it right, you can even convince your friends to bring snacks for your marathon gaming sessions — and you can't do that with online multiplayer now, can you?
Given how tricky it is to get people together, it's up to you to make sure that the games you serve up are worthy of your time and efforts. Here's a list of the best cooperative games you can couch co-op on PS4.
1. Overcooked 2
Too many cooks may spoil broth, but additional players elevate Overcooked 2
© Team 17
Everyone has heard of Overcooked, the high-stress cook 'em up that forces you and up to three other players to try and serve an increasingly complicated series of meals while overcoming restaurant challenges like conveyor belts, rats and… serving food while your kitchen is on two different boats, bombing it down some rapids.
Overcooked 2 is a refinement of everything that made the first game so great, and also adds in the ability to toss ingredients around the kitchen, making your superstar cooks equal parts chef and quarterback. Add this to the game's tight controls, and a great sense of humour, and it's a must-play. Be warned, this is one of the only games on the list that could ensure you and the people you play it with refuse to talk to each other ever again.
2. A Way Out
These two tall, dark and broody fellas are your characters for A Way Out
© EA
A Way Out isn't good for a quick bash, but rather offers an entire campaign that's predicated on two players coming together for an action-adventure spectacle that sees the pair of you breaking out of prison and getting revenge on a criminal that has wronged you both.
Unlike the other games on the list, you can't play this game at all by yourself, so you'll need someone to play it with, and you really want the buzz of another person next to you as you go through the game's tight narrative. It's an enjoyable romp, even if the game is largely made up of a bunch of the sort of co-op interactions that grated on players so hard in last-gen co-op shooters. Still, you won't mind as it's such an engaging experience, at least for the first playthrough.
3. Broforce
Broforce doesn't just ask you to save the world, but to do it for America
© Devolver Digital
When evil threatens the world, it's time for the Broforce to spring into action. A side-scrolling shoot 'em up, Broforce mixes the chaotic carnage of Metal Slug with high-octane action movies and comes up with something unique. Want to plow through enemies while playing as Rambro or Brobocop? This is the game for you.
With a wide range of weaponry, special weapons and levels and characters based on your favourite action heroes (Neo, Ripley, several Arnie characters, Robocop, Blade, Timecop and others all feature) it's a feast of content and it's perfect for an after-pub shootout. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll mostly laugh, and it's the best game for killing your friends characters in semi-accidental ways.
4. The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan
Man of Medan is more a movie than a video game
© Bandai Namco
Not for the faint-hearted, The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan is a terrifying – and stressful – psychological horror that seeks to undermine the relationship you have with your co-op buddy. Success depends very much on excellent verbal communication between you both, as well as an innate understanding that not everything is quite as it seems...
Clocking in at just a half-dozen hours or so it's a neat, concise campaign that can be completed over just a couple of sessions, and each player will get insights and cut-scenes the other will not. Featuring outstanding sound design and hyper-realistic graphics, Man of Medan is more a movie than a game, making it excellent for co-op buddies seeking dark, intriguing stories about things that go bump in the night. Its simple button prompts and dialogue choices make it the perfect choice for inexperienced gamers and if you're in a big group, there's a mode to enable you to share the experience across several players, not just two.
5. Lego DC Super-Villains
Super villains are the focus of Lego's latest platformer
© Warner Bros.
Every Lego game has some similarities in so far as you're playing as a sentient bundle of bricks, collecting some other special bricks, and jumping and bashing your way around a map full of bad piles of bricks that are trying to do you harm.
In short, the Lego games are games for people who love Lego, and they offer a compelling local multiplayer experience for you to play with just about anyone that wanders by. Mechanically, the games are quite simple, meaning that most can enjoy them, but they're still engrossing, and remain that way for a while.
6. Unravel Two
Unravel Two is the perfect chilled couch co-op adventure
© Electronic Arts
If you didn't think anything could top the sweet, gentle puzzle-platformer Unravel, Unravel Two is here to prove otherwise. While the original game was a single-player affair only, Unravel Two puts an emphasis on that "Two", introducing a raft of co-op puzzles that emphasise teamwork and collaboration.
But more than that, Unravel Two is a wholesome, relaxed experience that's as breathtaking to watch as it is to play, which also makes it a great choice if there's more than two of you in the room. Given it's one of the most beautiful games to grace the PS4, you owe it to both yourself and your buddy to give this a try. You won't regret it.
7. Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime
This purple ship is all that stands between you and the void
© Asteroid Base
Ever wanted to grab a couple of friends and pilot a huge pink spaceship around the galaxy? Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime is the game for you. However, you likely won't get time to appreciate it, because you'll be too busy charging between different areas of the ship trying to use the thrusters, guns, shields and even the… piloting apparatus, trying to make the ship obey your whims as you dash around its innards.
Sometimes this can feel like an impossible task, but most of the time, like plucky space-operas like Farscape and Firefly, things just come together, and the sense of elation when everything does is overwhelming. Co-op gaming at its finest, and if anyone ever mentions the way you scraped the spaceship against the wall of a planet until it exploded, you can just ignore them.
8. Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
© Steel Crate Games
Knees weak, palms are sweaty, but there's a bomb you need to defuse in front of you, and the only way you're going to get it done is with the help of the people gathered around you, yelling semi-helpful advice.
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is a VR game that uses the PSVR headset to put you in the room with a live bomb. The players outside of the game have a manual on bomb defusal which you can't see, and with as many players as you want on the "helping" team, this can get frantic, but it's really a test of good communication while a bomb in the VR players hand ticks down incessantly.
9. Fortnite
Fortnite
© Fortnite
You'll be forgiven for thinking couch co-op in Fortnite wasn't possible – Epic only responded to demands for the feature a few months back – but it's true; split-screen mode is now available in the fan-favourite battle royale.
There's probably no point explaining what Fortnite is at this point – it's still one of the biggest games on the planet right now, and the battle royale's popularity shows no signs of waning. But if you were an early adopter who stopped playing because split-screen wasn't available, now's the time to hop onto the battle bus again, only this time with a buddy alongside you. You can still use all the features available to online co-op partners, but you'll have all the benefits of sitting alongside your pal as you fight to be the last team standing. Good luck!
