It’s a top ten list, so I took it seriously and spent some time deliberating over it. I almost exclusively play single player or co-op games these days (with the exception of CS:GO), so this list is based on the games I’ve spent the most time on and had the most fun with.
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Portal 2
I’ve played almost 200 hours of Portal 2 on Steam, and that’s because of the community test chambers. The game itself is already like no other, and whilst the six co-op missions are pretty fun it’s the levels made by community members that give the game an unrivaled longevity.
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Splinter Cell Chaos Theory
I played this to death when it first game out, and a couple of times since. At the time it was unique, and even better for the fact that over Xbox Live the enemy could hear when you used your mic to communicate with your team mate. This lead to having to be silent when in close proximity, and many tense moments of no communication…
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Saints Row 2
Mayhem. That’s the only word to describe SR2’s co-op. You can get up to enough carnage on your own, but the game allows you to add a second player which brings with it a surprising layer of team work and strategy. It’s also brilliantly fun to pilot helicopters together.
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Gears of War 2
The co-op in Gears was always a special, narrative-focused experience, but Gears 2 expands upon that with the ability to face off against the AI in horde mode. I spent many a night with friends building a fort in a corner of a map, trying to hold off the waves of enemies…
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Halo 3
I surprised myself by putting a Halo title so far down the list, but finally being able to play Halo online was a gratifying experience. It’s easily still one of the funnest games to just sit down and play, simple to pick up and understand and even better played on Legendary together.
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Far Cry 4
There’s nothing uniquely special about Far Cry 4, other than it does pretty much everything right. It has what I think is the best sandbox gunplay in gaming, and is set in such a beautiful landscape with plenty of things to do. The only downside here is that campaign isn’t co-op.
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Gears of War
What made the first Gears special is just how dark and suffocating most of the game was. Even in single player you’re still playing with an AI companion, but when in co-op you experience the journey with another person and that makes it all the more visceral and meaningful.
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Halo: Combat Evolved
This game represents a throwback for me, back to when you’d have friends come over to play the campaign with you. It was the first proper campaign co-op game that I played, and so many of my earliest memories of co-op were forged with Halo. Every session would end in betrayal after betrayal…
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Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers
A game I played relatively recently, and not one without it’s faults, but one that is different to most of the games on this list in that it actually requires you to use team work to progress. You have to cover each other, flank around the enemy to surprise them etc. It’s also super hard.
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Sonic 2
I feel that Sonic games barely count as co-op, but this was my very first co-op game. My sister and I would play it, arguing over who got to be Sonic, because we always ended up sacrificing Tails here and there almost ritualistically (all in the name of progress, you understand).
Honourable mentions:
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Ghost Recon 2
Halo 2
Splinter Cell Blacklist
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Anyone played Halo Reach or Halo ODST? How do they compare to the main series, gameplay-wise? Are they just as fun?
They are solid Halo games. ODST introduces Firefight mode, a survival mode which can be played co-op. Quite fun. Reach allows you to play the campaign with 4 players online, plus it introduces some new abilities such as the jet pack which add variety, but removes other abilities like dual wielding.
Do both games have split-screen, campaign co-op? Can you go through both Reach and ODST’s campaign with a friend?
You can. ODST feels a lot like Halo 3, Reach feels closer to Halo: Combat Evolved in a lot of ways.
Great, it’s nice to be able to play with a friend in the same room. You don’t get much of that any more. I plan on playing them soon!
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For the longest time now I’ve wanted to play co-op through all the Halo and Gears games again. They’re very special experiences.
@UrbanReflex do you recommend the co-op modes in Halo 4 and 5? I never tried those (just the single player campaign in 4). I imagine there will be a Halo 6 on the way soon as well.
I don’t remember any other game aside from streets of rage and golden axé.
If you like Halo co-op then there’s no reason not to try them, they’re still fun. They’re no better or worse in co-op than in single player though, which perhaps can’t be said for the originals (which seemed to have something special added in co-op).
Hey remember when we did a little twota Halo 2 tournament back in the day? We need to do something like that again someday. Not necesserilly with Halo 2 (maybe Master Chief Collection? i don’t own it tho) but just some fun excuse to shoot each other and hang out. I have fun memories of owning everyone’sasses under the Paet monicker.
How many people here own an Xbox One? Less than the number who owned an original Xbox I’m guessing. Maybe we could get the old version of Halo 2 for PC working if most people have a Windows machine that can run it.
Yeah PC would be best for me. I don’t own an Xbox One even.
And here is the ancient topic for that tournament: The Will of the Ancients' Halo 2 Championship
If enough people have Xbox 360s and Halo 3 that could be a good alternative…
Not anymore for me, I sold all three Xboxes, although perhaps others have still held onto theirs. Times have changed; while it’s understandable that the original Xbox was popular around here, not everyone will have stuck with the Xbox brand after Orta’s release.
I just recently finished playing Halo:ODST and Halo: Reach. The co-op in both games, was just as fun as the first 3 Halo games! I liked ODST a little more because it had more of a fun, lighthearted story. Reach’s story was a bit too dark, concerning the characters, but the gameplay was on point as always.
I still have my original Xbox and Xbox 360 along with Halo 3. Never bought an Xbox One…I also need to buy back the first Halo, and Halo 2 eventually…
- Doom II
- Halo CE
- Streets of Rage 2
- Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara
- Halo 2
- Halo 3
- Gears of War
- Unreal
- Diablo 2
- New Super Mario Bros Wii
Haven’t played a lot of co-op but those were always a blast whenever playing with friends.
If anyone’s interested in Halo 2 on PC, Project Cartographer brings online support back. If we’re talking Halo 1, the original PC release and Custom Edition still work fine online, even now. Custom Edition is actually a favorite with a few friends of mine, a lot of amazing custom maps and mods on that one. I’m not sure anyone’s figured out any way to do co-op unfortunately in either game.
It’d be great if a couple of us played a game or two though. 
So does everyone have a PC capable of running Halo 1 or 2? I imagine even laptops integrated GPUs would be able to handle it. And if you have a Mac you can install Windows 10 via Bootcamp. Installing the game itself might be the hardest part, given that many (most?) laptops don’t come with an optical drive anymore and it don’t recall Halo 2 being re-released digitally. It might be better to choose another game from around that era that is still supported instead.
If we’re talking about Halo 1, Custom Edition is a standalone multiplayer download that comes with all the stock maps but with the extended capability to play user made ones. All you need is your retail CD key during the install. It actually has many faithful recreations of Halo 2 and 3 maps and they work fairly well within the limitations of the Halo 1 engine. Ancient potatoes could probably run either game at this point and if you can get them installed, you should be good to go.
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Well the one game I play these days is unreal tournament 1999 , it still has a lot o people on it’s servers and kick-ass gameplay and you can get on steam.
