Who doesn’t love a good Co-op mode in a video game? Many gamers of a certain age started off playing on consoles where the only multiplayer option available was plugging in a second controller, and, in between fighting whoever was sat next to you, there was also the option to take on challenges in the game together.
However, as gamers get older, they often look for harder challenges, and now almost every player has the option to team up with someone not physically next to them through the power of the internet - and it’s still a ton of fun. With all that in mind, here are some of the hardest modern co-op games for you and your friends to try.
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12 Rainbow Six: Siege Is A Reliably Tough PvP Team Experience
Rainbow Six: Siege is a cooperative PvP game that came out back in 2015 for PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox One and X/S. Players take the role of either attacker or defender, as the attackers attempt to either defuse a bomb or free the hostages while the defenders try to prevent this from happening.
Teamwork is absolutely key in this game, as coordinating movement, when and how to engage your opponents, and time management are all things that must be mastered as a team to attain victory. While difficulty will be determined by how tough the opposing side is, the seven years since this game’s release have spawned a reliable and competitive player base to take on.
11 Escape From Tarkov Asks You And Your Friends To Make It Out Of A Wartorn Russian City With Your Loot
Escape from Tarkov is a game that’s still in early access, but it already has a dedicated and engaged player base that keeps Escape from Tarkov active even as the developers continue to build the game. The player must enter a specific map, gather what resources and supplies they can, and then extract without being killed by scavengers (or “Scavs”) or other PMCs (or private military contractors) in the area.
Players will take the role of a PMC and can work with friends to ensure that everyone gets out of Tarkov alive. This game comes from Battlestate Games and has been in early access since 2017. It’s currently only available on PC.
10 Hunt: Showdown Is A PvPvE Maelstrom Of Bullets, Blades, And Blood
Hunt: Showdown is a cooperative PvPvE game that has a team of players identify and locate the type of monster that they are to bring down in a late 19th Century horror-inspired environment. There are other NPC characters as well as opposing teams of players to navigate and/or fight depending on your team’s strategy.
Hunt: Showdown comes from developers Crytek and has been available to play since 2019 for PC and Xbox One players and 2020 for PlayStation 4 players. This game is a great choice for anyone looking for a unique and difficult cooperative horror experience that doesn’t always involve bog-standard zombies.
9 Temtem Is A Co-op Competitor To Pokemon With A Strong Difficulty Curve
Temtem is an RPG heavily inspired by Pokemon. Players are Temtem “Tamers” who befriend and battle with other Tamers. Like Pokemon, it has types that are weak and strong against one another, and you have to train up your Temtems to be better battlers.
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One twist on Temtem is that it’s an MMO experience, and players can team up with one another to challenge the world of Temtem. Furthermore, Temtem makes up for the difficulty that Pokemon has been lacking in more recent iterations, though higher-level players can help lower-level players clear areas that don’t scale up.
8 Cadence of Hyrule Is A Tough Cooperative Rhythm Game
Cadence of Hyrule is a fresh take on the rhythm game genre. It’s a sort-of sequel to Crypt of the Necrodancer that takes Cadence to the land of Hyrule in a Legend of Zelda crossover.
You can take on an ally with Cadence of Hyrule, allowing one player to play as Cadence and the other as Link. The two heroes have to take on monsters, bosses, and other challenges while keeping up with the beat of the song playing in the given area.
This can sound easy on the surface, but, as the chaos ramps up, it gets exponentially more difficult. The player has to start planning out their moves several beats in advance, and things become quite complex.
7 Overcooked 2 Is A Hectic Cooking Catastrophe And Incredibly Fun
Overcooked 2 reaches back a couple of years further back to 2018, but it’s still a fresh and surprisingly difficult experience. It’s a cooking simulator that encourages players to take on its world together. Players have to fulfill increasingly complex orders at an increasingly fast pace.
Things can get very intense very quickly, and it’s easy for chefs to get in one another’s way. Dividing the labor is ideal, but even that can go wrong quickly if not done right.
6 We Were Here Together Is A Puzzle Horror Co-op Experience
We Were Here Together is the latest entry into the We Were Here series, which has enabled players to take on its challenges together. It’s a puzzling game with a story and some horror elements.
The puzzles can get quite complex and difficult, and communication is everything. Each player has a walkie-talkie, and neither player will have all the information needed to solve the puzzle. Cooperation is not only a perk of the game; it’s required.
5 Demon’s Souls Remastered Is As Cooperative As You Want It To Be
Demon’s Souls Remastered is just the latest release in the line of FromSoftware series of dark fantasy action RPGs. The formula has been more or less the same through the original Demon’s Souls, the Dark Souls Trilogy, and the jaunty and bloody trip through Bloodborne.
Even if you’re used to the formula, it can still be difficult, and that’s why the game allows players to summon the help of others to help them tackle the world. However, the original player has to survive for progress to be made. Also, summoning help for boss fights increases the boss’ total HP.
4 Remnant: From The Ashes Is Another Tough Soulslike Title
Remnant: From the Ashes is a game that is very reminiscent of Dark Souls, though it does offer its own unique quirks. Among them are more expressive characters, actual guns, and co-operative gameplay that can be set up from the get-go.
Remnant wants its players to engage in cooperative play more than Dark Souls does, and it even goes so far as giving the group teamwork bonuses for playing together. However, the world is still challenging, and a team won’t necessarily make Remnant an easy experience.
3 Don’t Starve Together Offers Bleak Survival Mechanics With Your Friends
Don’t Starve Together is a slightly older entry for this list given that it came out in 2016. However, it’s still a challenging game that puts its own spin on the resource-managing survival game experience. Don’t Starve already had a beautifully grim visual design, and that continues on with Don’t Starve Together.
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Don’t Starve Together is a unique and difficult survival game, and it doesn’t necessarily get easier with a friend. The group has to work together to maintain the resources needed to survive the cruel and unforgiving world.
2 GTFO Offers A Fiendishly Difficult Mission For You And Your Friends To Take On
GTFO is a cooperative survival horror from Swedish developers 10 Chambers Collective. It focuses on a team of prisoners forced to investigate the caverns beneath the Chicxulub Crater to complete tasks set out by a mysterious Warden.
This game is exceedingly difficult and will force players to replay the same areas over and over again until they get everything down. On top of that, the monsters that the player will face are going to be intense, brutal, and unnerving. This game is still in early access with no announced full launch date. However, it’s already worth checking out even in its early access form.
1 Cuphead Is A Cute And Cartoonish Co-op Meatgrinder
This is another slightly older entry, but one that remains captivating, challenging, and downright beautiful to this day. Cuphead is a challenging animated adventure that shows why you shouldn’t make deals with the devil.
In cooperative mode on Cuphead, the two cups must work together battle and survive an onslaught of angry enemies and a series of brutal bosses as they try to break out of their ill-conceived deal with the devil.
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