My SO and I have been having a lot of fun playing co-op games on the Steam Deck connected to the TV. We recently finished Split Fiction and I’m looking for the next cool experience to try out. We enjoy casual co-op games, nothing too hard or violent. EDIT: pixel art is apparently a big turnoff for her so that’s out as well.
Games We Enjoyed:
- Split Fiction
- It takes two
- Untitled Goose Game
Games that flopped:
- Stardew Valley - She is open to “farming” games but doesn’t enjoy the energy management aspect of the game. It also gave her motion sickness, somehow
- Overcooked / Moving out - We enjoy these games but as they start to get more chaotic and hard, the enjoyment goes way down
- Ibb & Obb - A bit dull and samey
- Portal - Gives me serious motion sickness, completely unplayable
- Lego Lord of the Rings - I’m a lord of the rings fan but I hated the gameplay for this game, I found it to be so boring. We quit after an hour or so.
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Would be great if you updated this post with new games you enjoyed 😊
Blur…from archive.org
A way out. Two criminals escaping prison, made by the Same studio as it takes two and split fiction. Full of mini games along the way like the other two and my god the story made me laugh with it’s ridiculousness. it’s definitely not as good as it takes two or split fiction but well worth a go imo
The steam deck status is unfortunately unsupported. Otherwise it would be a great fit.
In case you’re comfortable trying a couple things out it does work for some on steam deck. ProtonDB link
Tinkering is fine, I’ll definitely check it out. Thanks!
A Way Out is marked as “Playable” by Valve, mainly because of Origin (or EA App nowadays?) and some quirks with the controls. Should play just fine though and once in-game controllers should be well supported.
My wife and I were having fun doing co-op on the Trine games. Coordinating your character switches to cross obstacles can be pretty fun. The Lego Star Wars games were also fun for us both to just mess around and cause chaos.
Trine sounds like a great idea, I already have the first two. Gonna give it a go.
We tried the lego lord of the rings game but it fell flat for us.
Lego Star Wars are quite bad for motion sickness, I find.
Y’all both seem pretty prone to motion sickness. I would recommend making sure your game space is cool or if not an option put a fan up to blow in your direction to keep air circulating near you.
The various LEGO Star Wars games and such are probably a good idea as someone else mentioned.
If energy is the only complaint for SDV, there are mods for that.
I’ve had motion sickness ever since I remember. I just can’t play shooters, it’s physically impossible for me.
Somethings help like a TV instead of a monitor, zooming out as much as possible, moving as further from tv as possible, low camera speed. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. It’s a struggle.
Very sorry to hear that. Have you had any success with higher frame rates?
I have not. I have a 144hz monitor and even at 144fps games games with heavy camera movement are unplayable.
Damn man that sucks.
Often it’s reported that a larger and/or brighter crosshair helps. Maybe try an overlay with a large neon pink crosshair or a piece of clear tape with a big dot of marker on it sometime? I get it’s probably not a problem that you are interested in putting time into solving any more though.
Some games don’t even have crosshairs… Another big offender was Spyro, for instance. Just the camera moving was enough to make me sick in the stomach.
Ship of Fools is -60% on steam right now and I can’t recommend this game enough. It’s a rogue lite where you both need to protect a ship from monsters maning the cannons and it’s an absolute blast! It has good progression and it’s intense but not in annoying sort of way.
It looks sick, definitely something I’d enjoy playing. Unfortunately I feel like it would fall under the same umbrella as Overcooked or Moving Out. Too chaotic, I think.
Its much more approachable and not nearly as frustrating or difficult as those. We finished the game while being stoned if that tells you anything lol
Death Squared. Puzzle solving, each player controls two blocks on the map used to solve the puzzle.
I’m not even a huge platformer guy, but Rayman Legends is absolute peak and a fantastic, chill co-op game. The music levels in particular - where the already great soundtrack is synced in time to your jumps and hits - are incredibly satisfying and so well made.
I’d also be remiss if I didn’t suggest Blue Prince. It’s not co-op per se as it’d only be one person at a time “driving”, but the game is about puzzle solving so who holds the controller doesn’t really matter. It’s a fantastic game if you enjoy puzzles and escape rooms. My sister isn’t even a gamer at all but I recommended it to her fiancé and they’ve been playing together and even she’s been enjoying it a lot. From my own experience playing it on my own I also think it would be much more fun if playing alongside someone else. I’ve often missed having someone to bounce ideas off when stuck.
On the notion of “one person at a time driving,” I played Outer Wilds with my partner. 10/10. Just make sure that when there is text, both people can read it before you move on.
We just started the spiritfarer. Absolutely worth it
I already played and loved SpiritFarer, it was an amazing journey. I don’t want to say too much but I just can’t repeat it any time soon.
A few options me and my partner have enjoyed:
Bunhouse - a non-management-heavy farming simulator but you are bunnies growing plants. Cute as hell. There is a sequel where you run a bakery too but we haven’t got round to that just yet.
Unrailed - might fall into the overcooked catagory, but when it gets hard and goes wrong it tends to be a looming inevitablity, not a frantic panic
Nidhogg - a 1v1 fighter, but is quick fire frantic sword fights you can button bash through which is wildly entertaining in 5 min bursts.
Keep talking and nobody explodes could be a fun one, only needs 1 device and the other player needs the manual which can be on a phone or printed out. You could even play it over a phone call.
As I recall, the ‘campaign’ gets impossible to do with two players because of the inability to look up enough stuff in parallel. There are mods and custom bombs though.
Death road to Canada is pretty solid.
Spelunkey 2 is fantastic, albeit incredibly challenging.
Spelunky 1 & 2
Monster Prom, Monster Camp, Monster Roadtrip
Also seconding Kingdom: Two Crowns
OP asks for “nothing too hard” and you recommend spelunky, you absolute monster.
Fortunately I already made that mistake once, a friend recommended me Spelunky 2 as a casual mining game…
We enjoyed A Way Out. Gonna try Sea of stars soon.
Broaden your horizons, start using emulators.
Star Wars: Jedi Power Battles
Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Super Mario Wonder
Any of the Warriors games (just don’t buy it, don’t reward them for releasing the same damn game 20+ times)
Legend of Mana (highly recommended, please don’t sleep on this)
Destroy All Humans 2
Ratchet: Deadlocked
Divinity: Original Sin
Resident Evil 6
Halo: Master Chief Collection
Lego Star Wars
The Tales games are long and go up to 4 players. I’d recommend them if you have more people to join.
Be prepared for a few roadbumps while you acclimate yourself to using emulators. It won’t be smooth at first, but it gets easier the more familiar you become with it.
