I'm looking for some good games that I might be able to play cooperatively with one or two good friends. Between work and families (lots of small kids between us), our playing schedule is infrequent and often hard to plan, so playing by e-mail (or submitting turns once a day through some other channel) would be ideal.
We've had a lot of fun playing AI Wars but simply take too long to win any games. Blight of the Immortals was a lot of fun--almost a beer & pretzels tabletop gaming experience, really--but grew old due to lack of a variety of maps.
There are some ARPGs out there (Torchlight 2, Diablo III, etc.) that might be fun to play together and one or two quasi tower-defense games (Dungeon Defenders, Orcs Must Die 2, etc.), but I'd love anything with more of an intentional strategy bent.
Anybody have any good co-op games they could recommend to a small group of gamers who are facing all kinds of scheduling challenges these days?
Thanks in advance!
I always found Suprème Commander: Forged Alliance super cool in co-op.
Path of Exile is great at the moment. And free.
Battlefield 4 is a hoot with a group of friends.
Left 4 Dead 1 and 2
Sword of the Stars 2
Borderlands 2
Any boardgame you like via Vassal
And I did not check yet, but IIRC Rome 2 can be played coop too? Should be darn fun!
The RTS, Age of Empires III is fast and fits in your time frame. Any of the Civ games are episodic in that there is no set time and you can decide in advance to team up and beat the AI. Warlock is that way, too, if you so choose it.
Wargame: Airland Battle makes for some quick fun games. You could also co-op against the mindless unwashed internet masses.
On an aside, your handle makes me think your an Okie like myself, am I right?
Quote from: republic on December 17, 2013, 07:19:11 AM
Wargame: Airland Battle makes for some quick fun games. You could also co-op against the mindless unwashed internet masses.
On an aside, your handle makes me think your an Okie like myself, am I right?
Agreed!
W:ALB is definitely a fun game, and doesn't take a lot of learning to finger out. It's real-time, though, so it would be a time commitment, even if a relatively small one each session. I have also had a lot of co-op fun with
Scourge Of War if you're into some Civil War battlefield command (again, a real-time deal).
For PBEM games, that's tough. There are a few ways to go, but many of them are rather complicated matters. I'd recomend
Dominions 4 but I don't know if your buds are into fantasy/mythic grand strategy and it takes some familiarization first. However, once you know how Dom4 works, there is a massive amount of depth in it's content & strategies. Not all that pretty, although I think the 2D art for the units is kinda cool.
Since you mentioned "friends" plurally, I'm automatically ruling out any of the 2-player only games. This tends to point towards grand strategy games, naturally.
Battle Academy hits most of your criteria. PBEM, beer and pretzel, strategy, and has a large variety of maps with the expansions. Plus it's on sale right now during the Matrix sale.
For Co-op. My brother and I really enjoy playing Rome 2. But it does require you be online at the same time.
Thanks, guys! With multiple small kids across our families, RTS is kinda hit-and-miss. Too much twiddling our thumbs when somebody's kid is having troubles getting to bed, and across 3 time zones it was a lot of waiting for not much playing. And that makes playing against other live human beings a non-starter, which sadly rules out titles like Battlefield 4. How does the co-op play work in Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance?
The challenges with starting and stopping RTS is also one reason we eventually shelved our efforts to play AI Wars.
Some of the ARPG recommendations (Path to Exile) and FPS recommendation (L4D look very cool. Stuff playing against other people, I strongly suspect we'd all suck enough to just be cannon fodder, and not have the time to get better at it. I'm also intrigued by Forced, if anybody has any experience with that title?
Please keep the suggestions coming, I'm not trying to be high-maintenance! I'm just finding that my gaming life is a hollow shell of what it was a few years back...
:)
Another idea are the Anno Games. Dawn of Discovery Gold and Anno 2070 are great Co-Op games for building and relaxing. You can both play a single 'nation' and really get complex trading networks. Or 2v2. It works well because at any time you can save it and pick up again another day.
Torchlight 2 is fun co-op as well.
Oh I like republic's suggestions of the Anno series. Indeed very relaxing games in co-op.
Quote from: FarAway Sooner on December 17, 2013, 10:32:24 AM
How does the co-op play work in Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance?
Sadly I don't think you can play the campaign in co-op, but skirmish mode is just the plain old team vs team thing. You place yourself and your buddies in the same team, while giving the AI's another (or multiple, so they are hostile among eachother as well).
Be aware though; Forged Alliance games tend to be quite time consuming. I do think you can save and load multiplayer games, though.
Quote from: FarAway SoonerSome of the ARPG recommendations (Path to Exile) and FPS recommendation (L4D look very cool. Stuff playing against other people, I strongly suspect we'd all suck enough to just be cannon fodder, and not have the time to get better at it.
Being just cannon fodder is not really an issue in these games.
In PoE you can party up with friends and start wacking monsters and trying to take down Bosses, all the while hunting for that next piece of phat lewt! :) There's nothing more relaxing than having a party with friends, freeballing, wielding a 2-hander and cleave the skull of some badass monster about to find out he is just puny!
L4D is max 4 players (more with a hack, but its hard to get working correctly) and you can run the story in co-op. Very cool game with lots of atmosphere and great moments. Especially when playing with a few friends.
Left 4 Dead is a great fun for a few hours to slaughter zombies with a friend or two. No competition outside of the AI.
Another idea for a strategy game in "co-op" would to just play a game of CIV V, Pandora, Endless Space, or something of the like and just decide to work together to kick the AI's butt.
It sounds like you only want PBEM, due to the constant interruptions.
I'm not a big PBEM'er though. Most of the ones I've played via email have been digital wargames, but that takes a specific kind of gamer to get into those. If your friends aren't familiar with such traditional wargames, then the PBEM field gets pretty narrow.
Me and W8 played an entire Civ III game PBEM. Took us six months or so. I haven't tried IV that way, but I suppose it can be done.
Quote from: MetalDog on December 17, 2013, 08:28:53 PM
Me and W8 played an entire Civ III game PBEM. Took us six months or so. I haven't tried IV that way, but I suppose it can be done.
Doesn't the Civ games have some weird pbem hosting thing?
III didn't, but I haven't looked into IV. There is something called PitBoss for IV, not sure what that is though.
Quote from: MetalDog on December 17, 2013, 08:35:05 PM
III didn't, but I haven't looked into IV. There is something called PitBoss for IV, not sure what that is though.
Yeah that was what I was referring to. Is it some 3rd party software or what? I believe V uses something like that too.
Quote from: Bison on December 17, 2013, 03:32:10 PM
Left 4 Dead is a great fun for a few hours to slaughter zombies with a friend or two. No competition outside of the AI.
Another idea for a strategy game in "co-op" would to just play a game of CIV V, Pandora, Endless Space, or something of the like and just decide to work together to kick the AI's butt.
Armada 2526: Gold would be a good one to add to that (already solid) list.
Good stuff. PBEM would certainly work well, as would a simple WeGO game where turns are submitted somewhere central and then the turns only play out once a day (or however often) (this is what one flavor of Blight of the Immortals did and it worked pretty well).