What is better than enjoying a great video game? Perhaps enjoying a great video game with a friend. When a game lets two or more buddies go through the story or a separate mode together, it immediately elevates the experience. It can even turn a bad game into something fun.
For one reason or another, the ten games below squandered a perfectly good opportunity for some intense cooperative action. It is unfortunate, but we’re sure the developers would have liked to put co-op in if they had the time, resources, or technical power on the hardware to do so.
10 Resident Evil 4
Co-op would be inconvenient for the main campaign because Ashley Graham is only by Leon’s side for about 30% of the adventure. However, the Mercenaries mode presents a perfectly good opportunity to let two friends run around the map and dispatch Ganados.
It also would make earning five stars on every stage easier. Fortunately, Resident Evil 5 remedied this by including co-op in every mode, including the Mercenaries. Resident Evil 6 and Revelations 2 similarly fully support co-op.
9 Agents Of Mayhem
Agents of Mayhem takes place in the same world as Saints Row, set in the timeline of the recreated planet after the end of Saints Row 4’s DLC, Gat out of Hell.
The Saints Row series’ dedication to co-op and Agents of Mayhem’s several playable characters seemed like a no-brainer for co-op, but it is completely absent from the package. The game was not as well-received as the Saints Row franchise. Here’s hoping the next game from the studio reincorporates co-op.
8 Mortal Kombat: Special Forces
This is often seen as one of the worst pieces of media ever associated with Mortal Kombat, and that’s really saying something considering Mortal Kombat: Annihilation exists. The game barely functions.
Worst of all, it is an exclusively single-player beat ’em up. It feels like Sonya Blade should totally be the second-player character, but no option exists. Thankfully, the series more than redeemed itself in the beat ’em up genre with Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, which does indeed have two-player co-op.
7 Fallout 4
Fallout 76 sought to fulfill fans’ fantasies of a multiplayer Fallout. Unfortunately, it had a disastrous launch fraught with bugs. The game has since made numerous improvements.
It feels like we should have gotten multiplayer Fallout years ago, however. Fallout 4 especially feels like it should have supported cooperative play in some way. Why can’t we summon a player as a companion to aid us in a mission like in Dark Souls?
6 Doom/Doom Eternal
The recent Doom games do a great job of translating the classic franchise’s hectic gameplay to a modern gaming landscape. Unfortunately, it misses one major element; cooperative gameplay.
On the recent re-releases of Doom and Doom 2, it is simple to go through the campaign levels with a friend. However, it is completely impossible in the new games. The combat arenas are large enough to not feel too cluttered with one more Doom Slayer in on the action.
5 Elder Scrolls
Similar to the Fallout games, it only seems logical to let players in Elder Scrolls journey through either Skyrim or Cyrodiil with a friend. Even if you could not do the major story quests, just venturing through dungeons or the countryside together would be a thrill.
It is easy to imagine why it is not a feature. Bethesda games are so infamous for launching with bugs, adding multiplayer would only further complicate matters in this respect. At least fans can play Elder Scrolls Online.
4 Breath Of The Wild
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild truly breathed new life into the franchise. The only thing that would make it better is being able to toy around in the open world with a friend.
Considering Nintendo’s lackluster online infrastructure, it is easy to see why multiplayer is not a priority. We wonder if the sequel will incorporate multiplayer in some way. Link and Zelda together in the teaser makes us think this could be something Nintendo is planning.
3 The Bouncer
Square’s underrated brawler came and went upon release, but it deserves recognition. The graphics were gorgeous for the time, it utilized ragdoll physics long before it was the norm, and the gameplay took advantage of the PS2’s pressure-sensitive face buttons.
It completely lacks cooperative multiplayer, however. Considering the game follows a party of three bouncers traveling together, co-op only makes sense. At least it includes a competitive mode supporting four players.
2 Resident Evil 0
Resident Evil 0 is one of the weaker entries following the classic Resident Evil formula. The mechanic of switching between two different characters is interesting, but it ends up just adding more needless steps to puzzles.
Perhaps the developer should have considered trying to work in a cooperative multiplayer angle instead. As it stands now, the prequel to the original Resident Evil is only worth playing by fans who want to go through every entry.
1 Metal Gear Solid: Phantom Pain
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker on the PSP included co-op. Even though The Phantom Pain borrowed numerous elements from the prior PSP spin-off, it decidedly eschewed co-op for some reason.
Infiltrating the large bases in the maps during side ops would be pure bliss with a friend. It would also add a layer of strategy. Imagine one friend distracting the enemy and attracting their aggression while another waltzes in and completes the objective with no resistance.
