Three player coop games

Chuk_Chuk said:
The full game is free. The only thing you pay for are resources and a new frame (which you can usually get in the game with enough grinding). It is a fun game and you do feel like a badass smashing through enemies, but the grinding for new gear did get boring for me in the end. The best part IMO is modding your frames and weapons to synergise well together and then going into high level missions and just dominating. It is a shame they changed how the survival missions worked.

Another vote for DRG. Great game to play in Co-op. The different classes work and support each other well, and the game does have its randomised ass clenching moments, but I won't spoil them for you ;)

I'm going to throw in Astroneer. You start off on a lone planet for you to explore. You dig up resources (or manufacture them), unlock the tech tree and eventually you can explore the other planets in that solar system. None of these planets are habitable so there is personal resource management to consider while exploring. There aren't really enemies to fight, the game is mostly about exploration and the challenges surronding that. The game allows you to traverse the entire surface of every planet and below them(spoilers ;)).

Overcooked is a good fun and requires well polished communication and performance between you.

If you want to do some building together there is
parkitect (Basically Roller Coaster Tycoon)
satisfactory (An in depth factory builder.)
stardew valley
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We did play NMS, but found it got much too grindy for our liking. That is the issue with survival/mining/buidling games. Not many get the balance right for my tastes. Valheim is one of the best in my experience, oh and the first Subnautica I guess. Not sure where Astroneer falls on the grindiness scale.

Really liking the sound of DRG the more I read about it!

(I have almost two hundred hours in Stardew Valley, incidentally - not something I admit too often...)
 
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also worth mentioning Halo Infinite - it's free for the multiplayer and there's a load of game modes. i quite often drop on to it for a quick bit of solo action but could be a good shout for co-op too.
 
strumpusplunket said:
We did play NMS, but found it got much too grindy for our liking. That is the issue with survival/mining/buidling games. Not many get the balance right for my tastes. Valheim is one of the best in my experience, oh and the first Subnautica I guess. Not sure where Astroneer falls on the grindiness scale.
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Unfortunately the xbox app is not playing ball right now, but from memory (we played this back in 2021). We played as a team of 3 and 100% completed the game in about 2-3 weeks. I think it was about 40 hours of actual game time. We were addicted and I don't remember it feeling grindy.

Resources are abundant, the challenge is exploring/finding them and bringing all of it back. Items you drop don't despawn. You also got vehicles, which allowed you to mine resources quicker or they help you carry more resources. By the end of our run we had a catalogue of resources to draw from when we needed to build something.
Some resources can be automted, for collection and/or creation, so you can do other things.

The only survival resource you need to manage is oxygen and power. Your backpack carries a 72.5 seconds worth of oxygen, suffocation take 15 seconds after you run out. You can get oxygen tanks which extend this (80 seconds each) or a portable oxygen generator which will provide you with unlimited oxygen as long as you have power.

Your main base has an unlimited supply of oxygen and power (up to a certain wattage). When you are within range of your base you will be fed oxygen and power from your base and it will refill your backpack. You can create tethers which link you back to your bases oxygen supply and allow you to explore further away from your base. Tethers are easy to make. They never dissapear unless you remove them so they also work as breadcrumbs, so you can return to previous locations.

Power is needed to run the machines, if you run out all that happes is that they pause what they are doing. They resume when power is restored.

This video shows you the early game and you can see the tether system that I talked about.

 
strumpusplunket said:
Ah, maybe DRG is a bit different to what I'd gathered. Looking up some player reviews of it, it does sound really good.
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Yup, Deep Rock is great fun, and it is quite different from the usual wave/horde shooters

strumpusplunket said:
GTFO looks interesting. I know it's geared around four players, so it is okay with three (AI teammates tend to be a bit rubbish in these games...)
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GTFO works fine with 3 players. The AI is... OK - it doesn't do stupid things like alert mobs etc. (I believe they are basically treated as invisible to "sleeping" mobs), but considering how key teamplay is, it does make some scenarios difficult (also has an annoying habit of using ammo/health kits when you are trying to save them!).

It's also brutally difficult and needs a lot of patience, but is very satisfying when you manage to clear a level (just be prepared for some arguments when one of you screws up and wipes the team :p)

Factorio might be an option? It's good fun multiplayer, and again can be very satisfying when you work together to come up with a nice efficient design. Also a nice big map so you can each have your own little "task" to set up a mini-factory to feed into the main base - e.g. one of you sets up a refinery system, one sets up a copper mine, one a steel mine, etc.

For something a bit faster paced and less "thoughtful", how about Risk of Rain 2?
 
Thekwango said:
also worth mentioning Halo Infinite - it's free for the multiplayer and there's a load of game modes. i quite often drop on to it for a quick bit of solo action but could be a good shout for co-op too.
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Ooh, it has campaign coop. I do like when we can play through an actual campaign together. Remnant and Dying Light are a couple I had most fun with personally because of that.

Brok said:
A lot of Destiny 2 content is built around a group (fireteam) of 3 and is easy to dip in and out of.
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One of the kids mentioned Destiny. I think the base is f2p now too?

Chuk_Chuk said:
Unfortunately the xbox app is not playing ball right now, but from memory (we played this back in 2021). We played as a team of 3 and 100% completed the game in about 2-3 weeks. I think it was about 40 hours of actual game time. We were addicted and I don't remember it feeling grindy.

Resources are abundant, the challenge is exploring/finding them and bringing all of it back. Items you drop don't despawn. You also got vehicles, which allowed you to mine resources quicker or they help you carry more resources. By the end of our run we had a catalogue of resources to draw from when we needed to build something.
Some resources can be automted, for collection and/or creation, so you can do other things.

The only survival resource you need to manage is oxygen and power. Your backpack carries a 72.5 seconds worth of oxygen, suffocation take 15 seconds after you run out. You can get oxygen tanks which extend this (80 seconds each) or a portable oxygen generator which will provide you with unlimited oxygen as long as you have power.

Your main base has an unlimited supply of oxygen and power (up to a certain wattage). When you are within range of your base you will be fed oxygen and power from your base and it will refill your backpack. You can create tethers which link you back to your bases oxygen supply and allow you to explore further away from your base. Tethers are easy to make. They never dissapear unless you remove them so they also work as breadcrumbs, so you can return to previous locations.

Power is needed to run the machines, if you run out all that happes is that they pause what they are doing. They resume when power is restored.

This video shows you the early game and you can see the tether system that I talked about.

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That's cool. I notice it's on GP too, so I might give it whirl solo to try it out once I've finished Atomic Heart.
 
Haggisman said:
Yup, Deep Rock is great fun, and it is quite different from the usual wave/horde shooters



GTFO works fine with 3 players. The AI is... OK - it doesn't do stupid things like alert mobs etc. (I believe they are basically treated as invisible to "sleeping" mobs), but considering how key teamplay is, it does make some scenarios difficult (also has an annoying habit of using ammo/health kits when you are trying to save them!).

It's also brutally difficult and needs a lot of patience, but is very satisfying when you manage to clear a level (just be prepared for some arguments when one of you screws up and wipes the team :p)

Factorio might be an option? It's good fun multiplayer, and again can be very satisfying when you work together to come up with a nice efficient design. Also a nice big map so you can each have your own little "task" to set up a mini-factory to feed into the main base - e.g. one of you sets up a refinery system, one sets up a copper mine, one a steel mine, etc.

For something a bit faster paced and less "thoughtful", how about Risk of Rain 2?
Click to expand...

I think we'd perefer something a bit action-focused, but one of my kids is such a crazy gung-ho, always needs reviving player that GTFO might be a stretch :)

(I always get any reviving teammates achievements in barely any time when I play with him)
 
strumpusplunket said:
I think we'd perefer something a bit action-focused, but one of my kids is such a crazy gung-ho, always needs reviving player that GTFO might be a stretch :)

(I always get any reviving teammates achievements in barely any time when I play with him)
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Hah, yes in that case GTFO maybe one to avoid - using your gun tends to be a last resort "oh ****!" thing (especially considering the hugely limited ammo you get!)
 
The forest or the new forest game will keep you all entertained.
I would also recommend looking at the following;
Raft
Dont Starve Together
 
sidimmu said:
The forest or the new forest game will keep you all entertained.
I would also recommend looking at the following;
Raft
Dont Starve Together
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Think I'll keep an eye on the new one. I think one of the kids does have Raft. Will ask when he gets home later. I tried Don't Starve, but didn't get on with the gameplay loop for some reason. I know it was well received, but I was bored quite quickly. I may be just an old, impatient curmudgeon these days...

Brok said:
It is although you will find a lot of activities are closed to you without the paid content. Still, its enough to let you know whether its for you or not I would say.
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Cool. A few f2p ones we can try out. It looks like this might be shaping up to be a good year for games in our house.
 
strumpusplunket said:
Think I'll keep an eye on the new one. I think one of the kids does have Raft. Will ask when he gets home later. I tried Don't Starve, but didn't get on with the gameplay loop for some reason. I know it was well received, but I was bored quite quickly. I may be just an old, impatient curmudgeon these days...
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Impatient might be the word, Dont starve together is a very deep game with a lot of customisation and I found it very difficult to get to the top of hunting and killing some of the more difficult/world monsters.
Frankly I was always playing with the ex gf, who just wanted to build base's, survive and explore, compared to me trying to find a way to off the Bearger or Deerclops.
 
sidimmu said:
Impatient might be the word, Dont starve together is a very deep game with a lot of customisation and I found it very difficult to get to the top of hunting and killing some of the more difficult/world monsters.
Frankly I was always playing with the ex gf, who just wanted to build base's, survive and explore, compared to me trying to find a way to off the Bearger or Deerclops.
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Yeah, part of it is age, and the time pressure that comes with it, but I have much less patience for drawn out gameplay loops than I used to. Maybe when I retire I'll feel I have time to get lost in deep systems again that take time to work through again. Coop might be different, as if the kids are having a good time I put up with a lot more in this respect.
 
strumpusplunket said:
Yeah, part of it is age, and the time pressure that comes with it, but I have much less patience for drawn out gameplay loops than I used to. Maybe when I retire I'll feel I have time to get lost in deep systems again that take time to work through again. Coop might be different, as if the kids are having a good time I put up with a lot more in this respect.
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I would say Dont Starve and Dont Starve Together, whilst technically being almost identical games, do play out very differently, least thats how I found them!
DS Together has quite the scope from what I remember.

Have you tried Ready or not? (unsure if this has more than 2 player mode).
If I can think of any others, I'll come back here.
 
sidimmu said:
Impatient might be the word, Dont starve together is a very deep game with a lot of customisation and I found it very difficult to get to the top of hunting and killing some of the more difficult/world monsters.
Frankly I was always playing with the ex gf, who just wanted to build base's, survive and explore, compared to me trying to find a way to off the Bearger or Deerclops.
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i need to get into this... have tried a few times and just aimlessly wonder around before eventually dying.
 
bigmike20vt said:
i need to get into this... have tried a few times and just aimlessly wonder around before eventually dying.
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If you got DS Together, I'd maybe try to find a random server with some nice people to join on to.
Its very cartoony but quite a serious survival based game.
Feel free to add me on steam - same username, always up for giving it a go again!
 
sidimmu said:
I would say Dont Starve and Dont Starve Together, whilst technically being almost identical games, do play out very differently, least thats how I found them!
DS Together has quite the scope from what I remember.

Have you tried Ready or not? (unsure if this has more than 2 player mode).
If I can think of any others, I'll come back here.
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Right. Will see if the kids like the look of DST too.

I'd not heard of Ready or Not. Looks like a modern take on the old SWAT games from the mid-2000s? I vaguely remember playing one of those a long time ago.
 
The Ascent is another one to maybe consider - fulfils the RPG/shooter requirement, although it's top-down isometric rather than FPS/TPS, lots of nice effects & OTT explosions though :D

Or for something completely different - what about Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes? If you take it in turns to defuse vs instruct
 
strumpusplunket said:
Right. Will see if the kids like the look of DST too.

I'd not heard of Ready or Not. Looks like a modern take on the old SWAT games from the mid-2000s? I vaguely remember playing one of those a long time ago.
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Ready or not being a PVE Swat type of game indeed.
Can be quite tense and communications are needed between the team members, its a good bit of fun I find!
 
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