Split Fiction is a master class in game design. The split screen is so integrated into the experience that even online multiplayer is in split screen. The screens are a part of the story.
The gameplay is constantly changing to the point that discovering new mechanics becomes the gameplay loop.
The level designs are so clever that you’ll have several moments that feel scripted but were actually just inevitable because of how we play games.
To give a snapshot of the experience: there was one scene where my character was driving a motorcycle along the sides of skyscrapers, doing the craziest stunts imaginable, and my wife’s character was sitting on the back frantically trying to solve a series of CAPTCHAs on her phone. She was so focused on keeping a steady hand that she barely noticed the death-defying stunts happening literally out of the corner of her eye.
By the end of it I was like, “Did you see that??” and it turns out she did not. It was absurd and hilarious, and it’s the kind of storytelling that only works in a video game.
My current obsession is UFO 50, which is a collection of 50 “retro” games. In real life they’re all new, but the story of the game is that they’re from a company from the 80s called UFOsoft, and then there’s a dark meta narrative hidden in the background.
Which is all just a framing device for 50 games, most of which are good, some of which are amazing, and half of which are couch co-op multiplayer. It’s like exploring the Switch’s retro NES collection for hidden gems, except there’s a lot more gems.
There are beat 'em ups, obscure sports games, some platformers, tactics games, a little bit of everything.
I’ve enlisted my wife to help me, because a lot of these games are just begging to be grinded out in co-op.
I got the game when I saw someone describe it as “a master class in game design”, and I thought, “that’s the phrase I’ve just been using to describe Split Fiction.”
And finally, I recommend Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, because that’s the multiplayer game I’ve been recommending for almost ten years.
You each play as adorable creatures in an adorable space ship that you customize as you go. The ship has several stations that need to be manned, including the captain’s seat, navigation, a directional shield, and multiple weapons.
But you each can only man one station at a time. So if you need to stay on the shield but a new enemy is approaching from the other side, then that means the captain is going to have to jump on a weapon and leave the ship adrift.
You may have arguments over which type of weapons to add to your ship or over who’s better at piloting which kind of engine. Or maybe you’ll work together in perfect harmony, relying on each other’s strengths and covering each other’s weaknesses as you adapt to every new challenge. Both ways are fun.
Big second for Lovers In a Dangerous Spacetime. Purely co-op, very simple controls so even people who aren’t super into games can play, and a super cute aesthetic make it a great ‘We wanna play a game, but don’t want to sweat’ kinda game.
It’s insanely good. At some point I want to make a post just about UFO 50, just to spread the word, but I don’t even know where to start.
Fifty is just an insane number of games, and so many of them are so god damn good.
Even now I want to be like, Porgy would be worth the cost on its own! But then I’m like, should I say Porgy or Avianos? Or Mini and Max? Or Grimstone? No, Rail Heist! Fuck it, I’m just going to go back to playing the damn thing.
This is an older pull, but the Army of Two series was a ton of fun. Coop third person shooters with no more plot than your average action movie. It’s great, lol
Rainbow Six 1 (GOG) and 3 (Steam) are both playable via LAN and some of my favorite co-op games ever. The first game may require hacking some easy-to-read level config files to make them finishable, but 3 doesn’t have that problem. Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear isn’t available for purchase anymore. I hear SWAT 4 (GOG) is great for scratching this itch too, but I haven’t played it myself.
While not so story focused, you could also co-op Star Wars: Battlefront II; the good one, from 2005 (GOG).
My wife, two friends, and I all played Diablo IV online together. We beat the main campaign together and had a lot of fun with it. We’re trying to beat the expansion campaign too, but my wife and one friend dropped out, so it’s just been me and a buddy powering through it.
That’s a game where you can just have fun dicking around in the world, even if there isn’t an objective. And it has plenty of endgame content to keep you entertained after you beat the campaign.
Don’t worry. Linux has Wine and can often emulate windows games. Few occasions its even better framerate than actual windows. But not as common to see :P Great recommendation!
I always bring up Crawl in these threads because it’s so good, and I rarely ever see anyone talking about it! The way that players are always ‘switching teams’ is so fun!
As someone in my 20s who grew up on Windows XP era games, then lots of PS3 games, I’m very attuned to latency. My computer was lower mid-teir at best, and the performance standards for console games were nowhere near what they are today, so the first time I played a game on a high performance machine at 100+FPS/Hz refresh rate, it was like seeing color for the first time.
In contrast to the party games everyone else is listing, I’m gonna say Divinity: Original Sin 1 and 2. They’re more long haul affairs, but still make for great lan gaming.
Borderlands. The first one. The game is amazing by yourself and slightly better with friends. It’s not meant to be worse either way. It’s just a lot of fun.
The later BL games were made the same way, but I haven’t found any of the sequels (/“Pre-Sequel”) to be as engaging as the original. They are bigger and more ambitious, though, with BL2 being a fan favorite. I just really like the Soldier (Roland) from the first game. The other games don’t have a character I like playing as much as him, so I’d rather join the original rather than settle for a lesser character.
Actually, the best co-op game is Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. It’s played with your left hand and your right hand. I’m being a bit of a smartass, but technically it does qualify as co-op because two characters on the screen are being independently controlled and they must work together. But it is specifically designed to be played by one person. Your dominant hand should control the older brother, with the analog stick moving him and either trigger doing the action, whatever that may be (it’s basically a one-button game, plus the stick). Your other hand controls the younger brother, same thing. So naturally the older brother runs straight and does what you expect but the little brother tends to stumble and waver. All intentional. Also, don’t bother with the remake. It breaks a few things and honestly doesn’t look much better. Different art style, not better. Just play the original. You can get it on GOG on sale all the time for like $2-3. Also, it’ll take ~4 hours to complete and you’ll probably never want to play it again (but recommend it to everyone). I actually bought the remake (mistake) and had my wife play it. For the hell of it, I speed ran both of them (this was on Xbox) for the achievements. Then I did the same on the original. Interestingly, you do not have to complete the game to get all the achievements! You don’t even have to complete the final fight, or do the climactic scene before the final fight. Before you’re even aware the climactic scene is coming, you sit on a bench and blip, there’s the last achievement, if you’re doing an Achievement% run, that’s when you call time. (I’m not a competitive speed runner. I just did the runs to pop the achievements before uninstalling them.)
Something I would quite like are coop games that don’t require anyone else to buy the game. Keep talking and nobody explodes works well for that, can have more people too as most of it is communication rather than control inputs but only 1 person is holding the mouse/controller.
I have a steam controller and can stream my PC to the TV with steam link. Apparently some games can be played with multiple controllers but I don’t have any others and they don’t make steam controllers any more. Not even sure how well that even works on Linux as it is something I have never tried.
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