The 14 Best PS5 Co-Op Games
Sony's newest video game console, the PlayStation 5, offers gamers the latest in living room console technology — if you can get a hold of one. Even now, years after the console's launch, it can be difficult to find a PS5 for sale at a big box store for the ordinary retail price. Many consumers have been forced to buy overpriced consoles on the reseller market or else show up early on delivery days in hopes of getting one before they vanish.
The relative scarcity of the PS5 means that if you want to play the latest games with your friends, you might have to rely on multiplayer and co-op, using a single console or a small number of shared consoles. Luckily, there are plenty of PS5 games that offer a co-op experience, either live and in person via couch co-op, or over the internet.
While we enjoy a good solitary gaming experience as much as the next person, getting into a game with a close friend is an experience that can't be beat. If you're looking to take your multiplayer gaming to the next level with the PlayStation 5, here are our favorite multiplayer games perfect for the next gaming night with your pals.
Heavenly Bodies
Ask any astronaut and they'll tell you that operating in the microgravity environment of low Earth orbit is difficult enough. Astronauts have to learn to navigate an environment wholly different from the one to which they are adapted. Combine that with the bizarre body mechanics of "Heavenly Bodies," and you're in for hours of frustration and fun as you stumble and bumble your way through an orbiting space station.
"Heavenly Bodies" isn't only a silly physics game, though it certainly is that. It also provides you with puzzles inspired by real-life space exploration scenarios. You play as a wobbly-limbed astronaut aboard a space station and you've been tasked with keeping the station up and running. You'll have to build instruments, make repairs, maintain solar panels, grow plants, and perform experiments in space, just like a real space station astronaut (via PlayStation). The only trouble is you won't have total control of your body. You can't win 'em all.
Luckily, when you get really stuck, you can bring in a friend to help out. The "Heavenly Bodies" co-op mode allows you and a friend to each control your own jelly-skelly astronaut and work together to survive in the dangerously indifferent environment of space.
Chicory: A Colorful Tale
In the world of "Chicory: A Colorful Tale," you're a slightly anthropomorphized animal living in a colorful animated environment. That world derives all of its color and flare from a magical artifact called The Brush, and Chicory, the artist who wields it.
As the story begins, the Wielder has vanished and all of the color in the world has disappeared along with them. Now, it's up to you, Chicory's biggest fan, to pick up The Brush and learn to wield it. Otherwise, the world will remain black and white, devoid of color, forever (via PlayStation).
What follows is a fanciful adventure through a color-stricken landscape. You'll use the game's unique play mechanic to fill in characters and objects with color. You'll use artwork to solve puzzles, navigate the landscape, and save the world and all of its inhabitants from a bland black-and-white fate. "Chicory" also offers a co-op mode that lets you and a friend each wield your own Brush artifact and work together to save the world through art.
A Way Out
Not only does "A Way Out" offer a compelling multiplayer experience, but it's also a game that can only be played with a friend. There is no single-player mode and no way to play the game on your own unless you're willing to helm two controllers at the same time.
You and a friend will play as either Leo or Vincent, two prisoners in a marriage of convenience, trying to escape their imprisonment. Luckily, your co-conspirator need not be in the same room as you. "A Way Out" can be played locally via couch co-op or online. Interestingly, both player characters' narratives play out concurrently. You will need to cooperate during certain stages while in others one of you might be in the midst of solving a puzzle while the other is watching a cut scene.
Because "A Way Out" requires a second player, the developers designed the game so that players can play together online with only one copy of the game. The game owner chooses the friend they want to invite and sends them a game pass which allows them to download a version of the game for free and play along with you (via PlayStation). And if you get bored of the ordinary gameplay, you can kill some time playing the handful of mini-games like Connect Four, darts, horseshoes, and an in-universe arcade game called "Grenade Brothers" (via EA). What else are you looking for?
Sackboy: A Big Adventure
Sackboy is one of PlayStation's most recognizable characters and they return in "A Big Adventure" on the PlayStation 5. This 3D multiplayer platformer takes place in Craftworld where the sack people are attempting to maintain their way of life under the influence of the nefarious Vex. With his malicious machine, the Topsy Turver, Vex is trying to transform Craftworld into something dangerous and dead.
Fortunately, there is a legend. A legend of a hero from the order of the Knitted Knights, and that hero is you. You'll tackle frozen mountains, lush jungles, the depths of the oceans, and the distant horizons of space, all in an effort to take down Vex once and for all. You and up to three friends can each take control of a different sack person and fight Vex together, either through local or online co-op.
At launch, "A Big Adventure" only offered couch co-op, but a month after release, the game added an online option (via GameRant). Adding a second player locally is as easy as activating a second controller. For remote co-op, you'll have to pause your game and select online play. From there, you can join an existing game, host an open game, or invite friends to a private session.
Fortnite
"Fortnite" took the gaming world by storm over the last few years and it remains a popular multiplayer title today. Available on every major console as well as PC, you can join up to 99 other players — made up of some combination of strangers and friends — in an ever-shrinking world filled with weapons and vehicles in a stylized battle to the death.
Your goal is to be the last person standing and crown yourself champion of the storm. You and a friend can play together on the same system with split-screen co-op, as long as you're using a supported platform (via Epic Games). You can even join forces and play as a team against other teams of two, in a fight for ultimate victory. Or you can join a game remotely and play together or against one another.
Best of all, the game is free to download and play, with optional in-game purchases. That's a move that helped float "Fortnite" to the top of the games pile, thanks to its nearly infinite accessibility.
Back 4 Blood
"Back 4 Blood" comes from the same creative minds who brought us the cooperative zombie-killing fun of "Left 4 Dead." Like "L4D," "Back 4 Blood" offers a similar kind of gameplay experience in a relatively familiar setting. You're up against the parasitized and mutated, previously human creatures, the Ridden. They've been twisted and turned into terrifying monsters with a single goal: consuming or converting what's left of human civilization.
This cooperative first-person shooter offers a single-player mode of play, in which you control your primary character as well as a small cast of computer-controlled supporting characters. Multiplayer co-op isn't available locally but you can sync up with friends online and work together to save the world.
The world is crumbling, the end is near, and you and your friends are the last line of defense against an apocalypse-level threat. If you don't save us, no one will. Suit up, stay sharp, and good luck!
Tiny Tina's Wonderlands
In this "Borderlands" spinoff, you'll enter into the imagined world of a tabletop action RPG being led by Tiny Tina. In the overworld, you're playing a game akin to "Dungeons & Dragons," which, for probably obvious copyright reasons is instead called "Bunkers & Badasses."
The game utilizes a combination of tabletop action RPG and first-person shooter game mechanics, depending on the moment and the point of view. It's possible to play on your own, along with computer-controlled companions, or you can enlist up to three of your friends to take up characters and quest with you (via PlayStation). While much of the game takes place inside the nested tabletop RPG game, there are certain quests and objectives which must be completed in the overworld.
Once you've gathered your friends, there are two types of co-op play to enjoy. The first is Cooperation, in which everyone gets their own loot drops and enemy difficulty is scaled for each player. There's also Coopetition, in which everyone fights for the same loot drops and all enemies are scaled to the host player, regardless of anyone else's level.
The Quarry
From the makers of "Until Dawn" comes another survival game with a classic horror aesthetic. You'll play as one or more of the camp counselors working at Hackett's Quarry summer camp. The game begins on the last day of summer. You and your fellow counselors are having a party to celebrate another successful year when you're attacked by various murderous entities.
You'll be hunted by murderous locals and, in case that isn't horrifying enough, there's a second more sinister threat bent on your destruction. "The Quarry" is best played with as many friends as you can muster. You can have up to eight players, connected either locally or via online co-op, all playing together to tell the story (via PlayStation).
Each player can take control of one of the nine available camp counselors and make choices that impact everyone. Are you the type of character who sacrifices their own well-being for the good of the collective, or are you focused on your own survival no matter the cost? You can find out what you're really made of in the meat grinder that is "The Quarry." Alternatively, if you want a more cooperative experience, your group of players can all play together, voting on each decision to tell a more collaborative survival story.
KeyWe
This is admittedly one of the weirder games we have encountered but it's worth a try just for its unique combination of wacky and cute. You and a friend control one of two kiwi birds, named Jeff and Debra. Together, you'll run a post office, which is complicated enough when you have hands but is even more difficult when you're relying on wings and beaks to get the mail where it needs to be. Luckily, you've got the help of delivery cassowaries and a mail-sorting octopus, both of which you'll encounter during the game's handful of mini-games.
As reported by Push Square, there's no apparent way to play online co-op with a stranger, but you can link up with a friend either through local couch co-op or through a direct invitation online. Together, you'll use hops and pecks to key in codes, ad postage and labels to packages, and sort everything to the correct locations.
For every success, the game gives you stamps which can be used like currency to buy cosmetic upgrades for your birds. They don't change the gameplay but they do add another fun element by allowing you to dress your kiwi however you prefer.
Overcooked! All You Can Eat
In 2016, the world was introduced to "Overcooked," a cooperative cooking simulation game that asks you, either alone or with friends, to balance preparing and delivering various dishes in increasingly complicated timed challenges. Three years later, we got a sequel in "Overcooked 2" which picked up where the first game left off. "Overcooked 2" delivered a new set of cooperative cooking simulation puzzles with new twists. You'll cook in changing environments like hot air balloons or moving vehicles all while working around various obstacles like moving floors and portals.
The "Overcooked! All You Can Eat" bundle gives you access to all of "Overcooked" and "Overcooked 2," as well as all additional content that has been released for both games. Traditionally, "Overcooked" games could only be played co-op if you had local collaborators who could sit down next to you on the couch and cook. Now, in addition to hundreds of levels, this bundle offers online co-op for the first time. You and up to three friends can work together to cook meals and clear levels together, either online or in person. But don't be fooled, "Overcooked" is as difficult as it is adorable.
Haven
"Haven" tells the story of two lovers, Yu and Kay, on the run from nefarious forces when they crash land on a deserted planet. They work together to explore the landscape, looking for parts and materials to fix their ship, not so they can escape, but so they can make it a home to live in together (via PlayStation). Along the way, they also act out ordinary moments like making meals or building things together. They also combat the forces bent on keeping them apart and literally fight for their lives and relationship.
The game was intended to play solo, with one player acting out both characters at the same time, but the game makers also designed it to be played with a friend (via The Game Bakers). All you have to do is pick up a second controller and press a button. The user interface will automatically switch to multiplayer mode and hand over control of the second character to the new player.
Where the game initially focuses on a single player synchronizing actions for two characters, now you and your collaborator will need to work together to survive and thrive in a strange new world.
Jackbox
Jackbox games are designed to be the best in party games. They allow you to play mini games with a group of invited friends over the internet. The "Jackbox Party Starter" takes three of the most popular Jackbox games and puts them together in one affordable package.
"Quiplash" asks you to quickly respond to outlandish prompts and the funniest or weirdest one wins. "Tee K.O." asks you to invent catchphrases and then draw images. Then the game mashes your slogans and images together with hilarious results, resulting in gut-busting t-shirts you can actually purchase and wear. "Trivia Murder Party" puts a deadly spin on your typical trivia game. Fail to answer questions correctly and your avatar will die, then you'll continue the game in a second afterlife phase.
Jackbox releases additional games either individually or in party packs, so you can always add to your collection over time. Their most recent party pack comes with five additional games, each of which is designed for up to eight or 10 players.
It Takes Two
Divorce can feel like the end of the world for the kids who are caught in the middle of it, but in "It Takes Two," it nearly is the end of the world for the parents. When married couple and parents Cody and May initiate their divorce, they find themselves transformed into a pair of dolls by a mysterious magic spell. In order to save themselves, they'll also have to save their relationship.
From the same creative minds who brought us "A Way Out" comes a cooperative platformer in which the two people who least want to work together are forced to stretch their horizons to survive. Learn how to work together in new ways to fight gangster squirrels, pilot some underpants, and pilot a bobsled (via PlayStation).
Just like "A Way Out," this game is strictly multiplayer and requires the cooperation of two players working together (via Distractify). You can play the game through online co-op or couch co-op and you'll only have to purchase one copy. You can invite a friend with a game pass and play through the entire game together with just a single copy.
Returnal
Players of "Returnal" find themselves in the shoes of interplanetary explorer Selene, dropped on the surface of an ever-changing planet. Each time you die, you're forced to start your journey over again, your character trapped in an endless time loop on a shape-changing planet (via PlayStation). What's more, each cycle offers you different tools, obstacles, and challenges, forcing you to adapt to new iterations with each turn of the wheel.
The procedurally generated nature of "Returnal's" gameplay cycles can be both frustrating and alluringly replayable in equal measure, with a continual promise that the next time through the chute will be different.
Interestingly, the co-op mechanic in "Returnal" fits nicely inside its internal narrative. Multiplayer only presents itself as an option after you've died for the first time. Then, leaning on the time loop narrative, a second player can join as a second iteration of Selene, something which makes perfect sense inside the game's alternative reality story structure (via Game Rant). Of course, once you engage two player mode, the game becomes harder, scaling the difficulty to account for two Selenes. Proceed with caution.