I’ve talked about my love of co-op games on Steemit a number of times. I have praised the immense potential they have for enjoyment and the fact that by requiring co-operation, they test friendships and relationships like no other games can.

So I figure that this is a good time to run through some of my picks for my favorite co-op games I’ve ever played. The basis of my criteria is fun. Enjoyment is what I’m all about in games, and that’s the main thing I’m going to consider.

Some things to note beforehand though. Firstly, if I haven’t played a game, I can’t say if it’s one of my favorite, so there may be games out there I would absolutely love that I just haven’t played. Secondly, this list is highly subjective, so don’t be surprised if a co-op game you love doesn’t make it onto the list. Each persons’ list is bound to be different.

But without further ado, let’s jump into it:

10.) CRAWL

Kicking off this list is the dungeon crawler where “Your friends control the monsters”. Crawl is an inventive, original game that is an interesting blend of dungeon crawler, and hot potato. One player is the hero, who tries to kill monsters and get experience and loot to defeat the boss and win the game. The rest of the players are monsters, who are trying to kill the hero and become the hero themselves to have a shot at winning. The result is an incredibly fun game where one minute you are all ganging up on the hero, and the next minute you are fighting for your life against all of your friends. Every game is different, and the replay value is amazing.

9.) KILLING FLOOR 2

Killing Floor 2 is a class-based, zombie killing gore fest that improves on the original in nearly every way, making for an extremely enjoyable experience as you and your friends fight off waves of Zed. Every class feels balanced and unique in their own way, with my personal favorites being the Medic and Berserker classes. One of the main attractions however is the gore system. Named the MEAT system, every enemy has 22 distinct locations on their body that you can hit and potentially gib. The system works wonderfully, with the gore feeling realistic, impactful and satisfying as it should be.

8.) DUNGEON OF THE ENDLESS

While I only got Dungeon of the Endless about a month ago, I have fallen in love with it. The hybrid tower-defense/roguelike strikes all the right notes. It is challenging and intense, while also being enjoyable and exciting. When playing with friends however, that is all amplified. Working together and managing your limited resources to fight off increasingly difficult waves of enemies is vital, and things can go from happy and good to “Holy crap we just got wasted” with a single bad turn. Fun to play alone, but way better with friends, this is how a co-op game should be.

7.) GEARS OF WAR 2

One of my favorite games from my days of being an Xbox gamer, and one of my all time favorite games to play with friends. Gears of War 2 was for me the high point in the series, the campaign was awesome, killing Locust was as fun as ever, and like Killing floor 2 earlier in this list, the gore was on point. The stand out feature for me was the Horde mode. It was the first time I had played a survival-esque mode in a game and boy was it a blast. Rounds started easy and quickly became a matter of running for dear life and finding choke points to hold off the seemingly invincible monsters with a friend. Intense, gory, and insanely enjoyable in one game mode.

6.) BORDERLANDS 2

Hands down one of the best loot-fest games I’ve ever played. Borderlands 2 would technically be a first-person, role-playing shooter game, and it nails every aspect of it. In a word, it’s just fun. Everything about Borderlands 2 makes it a joy to play, the comedy is some of the best I’ve seen in a game, it is fast paced and the loot is rewarding and of course, there is a huge variety, making each gun feel different from the last. On top of all of this, it was built for co-op play. Playing with friends is hectic, chaotic and fun, making it one of my favorite co-op games ever.

5.) CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2

Modern Warfare 2 was for me, the peak of the franchise. Aside from the fun, fast paced action and all the times it got me through study breaks when I needed some stress relief, the thing that puts this game this far up the list is it’s near perfect spec-ops mode. The spec-ops mode is a series of 2 player missions, and each and every one of them is so much fun. Some of my fondest memories gaming was trying to get 3 stars in every mission with my brother, and especially the final missions which are just full of juggernauts, made for some incredibly fun moments.

4.) TERRARIA

A pixel art, 2-D, open world role playing game with exploration, crafting, and more items, and monsters than you can fathom, sign me up. The exploration and combat is incredibly exciting and enjoyable, and with such a huge range of items to find, which change the game and make you feel unique and awesome, there is always something to do, and I can easily spend hours upon hours in this game without even realising. With a friend to go through all of this with you, the game becomes even more fun and exciting. Exploring and fighting together is almost addictive sometimes.

3.) GTA V (GTA ONLINE)

The sky’s the limit in open world games, with so many options and such freedom to do what you want to do, the world is literally a playground, one where your imagination is the fuel for what you do. This freedom is what I enjoy most about open world games, and GTA V represents the pinnacle of this genre. Of course, the best way to skyrocket the fun is to add a friend and see what kind of crazy ideas you can up with and try out together. Certainly discovering all of this games’ features and experimenting with many silly ideas has been a source of a lot of antics, and more fun times than I can remember.

2.) TOWERFALL ASCENSION

The king of local co-op games, Towerfall Ascension is an endlessly fun and addictive game, and is the most fun you will ever have shooting your friends in the face with an arrow. Simple and easy to learn, but difficult to master, Towerfall was designed with multiplayer in mind, and that is certainly where it shines. All the way through the campaign it is challenging, hectic and endlessly funny. Absolutely recommended if you like having fun.

1.) PORTAL 2

It makes sense that this legendary game made it to the top of this list. The portal-based puzzle game is as endlessly clever and funny as it is enjoyable and fun. Taking everything awesome about the first, and adding more of it created a perfect single player, and a co-op campaign that strains the mind as well as the relationship between you and whoever you are sharing the experience with. By forcing you to work together to achieve victory, Portal 2 provides an infinite number of opportunities for fun, as well as screwing each other over, until you reach the end of end level, which never fails to fill you with an overwhelming sense of satisfaction. Like the single player, the comedy is on point and hilarious, as your AI narrator constantly puts you down, and tries to pit you and your partner against each other. It creates an experience that is almost difficult to put into words, as it is so special that you really need to play through it yourself to know what I mean.

Well those are just some of my favorite co-op games, and now I would love to hear from you. What are some of your favorite co-op games? What are some of your fondest memories playing games with someone else? Let me know in the comments, and if you enjoyed this post, be sure to give it a like, and follow me for more like this! Until next time, stay beautiful 🙂

Edit: This content was originally created by Matt & I (From Psilink) for the Psilink and MediGamer blogs, it has been edited and streamlined for steemit. My Username can be cross-referenced against this, but I just wanted to clarify.