There’s a whole host of co-op games out there with varying runtimes and possibilities, thanks to the rise of the friendslop subgenre. Multiplayer titles can offer endless replayablity and numerous game modes, but sometimes, a short co-op game with an effective story or casual approach can be just as fun to play alongside friends.
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We rank some of the best co-op games that you and your pals can complete together in under ten hours. To determine whether a game can be beaten in less than ten hours, I’ll be using the HowLongToBeat website, where players contribute their experience to determine the average playtime of a game.
10
PHOGS!
Nine and a Half Hours of Playful Main and Side Content
One for the dog lovers, PHOGS! has you and your duo play as two dogs whose bodies are merged into one. This, combined with physics-based gameplay, allows you to stretch, wriggle, and bounce your way through the various challenges you will be faced with in this adventure full of puzzles.
Apart from the fact that the players are inseparable via a stretchy belly, what makes PHOGS! stand out is the vibrant world building. The visuals are playful and a treat for the eyes, with biomes made up of a food world, sleep world, and play world.
What’s more, I like that there’s plenty of secrets to discover and collectibles to find, all of which fit within the ten-hour playtime window.
9
KeyWe
A Nine-Hour Shift
The most adorable postal delivery service around, you and a partner take control of Jeff and Debra, two kiwi birds who must keep mail deliveries on schedule. Due to their size and absence of hands, you have to jump, flap, peck, and slam all the devices needed to keep the business running smoothly, including a typewriter, levers, bells, and buttons to type telegrams, send urgent messages, and dispatch packages.
If playing as birds in a chaotic mail room environment doesn’t sound challenging enough, you’ll also have hazards to deal with, such as changes in weather, to keep you on your eight kiwi toes.
8
Knights and Bikes
Nine Hours of Imaginative Adventure
Knights and Bikes captures the feeling of child-like adventure, told through two friends, Nessa and Demelza. Along with their pet goose, you explore an ancient island, in the search for treasure and ways to cure their childhood boredom.
Not all is as it seems, as you’ll face puzzles and enemies channeling a curse, but they’re nothing your trusty frisbees, water balloons, and toilet plungers can’t handle. Both characters have different skills, so it’s beneficial to combine them in order to save the island and each other.
Exploration has an extra layer of charm because, as the name of the game suggests, you traverse the world on bikes. These bikes can be upgraded and personalized with further abilities.
7
Unravel Two
Six Hours of Friendship
Unravel Two is an experience full of heart, where you and a friend play as characters made of yarn who are attached to one another.
The environment is inspired by real Scandinavian locations, made up of natural landscapes and urban environments. As you progress through puzzles that rely on teamwork, you’ll watch your world flourish and unfold right in front of you, opening the door to even more challenges.
As for the story, it delivers a message about the power of positivity in the face of uncertainty, and asks you to consider how you’ll use love to defeat difficult emotions such as doubt and fear.
6
Untitled Goose Game
Four Hours of Honking Silliness
If you want a co-op game that’s all-out silliness, you can’t go wrong with Untitled Goose Game. Taking on the role of a goose allows you to get up to all kinds of mischief, leaving your unique footprints around the property of the townsfolk and up and down the high street, finding ways to ruin people’s day.
Despite being a sandbox, there is a list of objectives you can complete to keep the chaos somewhat structured and allow you to unlock new areas in your playthrough.
I think playing through the game as two pesky geese in co-op is even better, because you can plan pranks, tear up the town together, and do twice as much honking.
5
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake
A Moving Journey Spanning Three and a Half Hours
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake revamps the touching story of two brothers who go out on a quest to locate the Water of Life to cure their father, who has a deadly illness. The brothers rely on each other to solve puzzles, navigate dangerous locations, and fend off bosses.
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The gameplay and narrative remain mostly faithful to the original game, released in 2013. The remake contains rebuilt characters and landscapes, and has updated graphics and performance. The soundtrack has even been re-recorded using a live orchestra, for an elevated emotional experience.
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake is more akin to a traditional co-op gaming experience, as it’s built for local couch co-op only.
4
Portal 2
Five Hours of Timeless Puzzles
Portal 2 offers more to love beyond the classic single-player experience, as its co-op mode is made up of a different story and levels to play through that support two players. There are five official testing courses, each with chambers to test your puzzle-solving skills. The chambers become more difficult as you progress.
Of course, GLaDOS is there to highlight your mistakes and comment on every death, but in co-op, she even tries to break up your friendship by pointing fingers.
I would recommend Portal 2 to anybody looking for a co-op puzzle game, due to its enjoyable gameplay loop that’s memorable long after the credits roll.
3
Backrooms: Escape Together
Four Hours of Frights
Developer
Triiodide Studios
Publisher
Triiodide Studios
Release Date
October 2022
If co-op horror games are more your jam, you can’t go wrong with Backrooms: Escape Together. Up to six players get to encounter a range of Backrooms entities in the iconic liminal spaces that are as eerie as they are unsettling.
The presence of proximity chat has the chance to bring about some hilarious moments, especially when you hear your friends screaming for their lives as they try to escape an entity, just for them to get eviscerated.
No two runs are the same, because even if you replay any of the 12 levels in the game, you will be faced with different layouts, item spawns, and entity encounters.
2
A Way Out
A Six and a Half Hour Mission
For a more adrenaline-filled way to play co-op, A Way Out has you and a buddy play as prisoners Leo and Vincent, who are planning their escape from jail. What starts as a prison breakout quickly spirals into an unpredictable and emotional story, as both characters have to learn to trust one another to achieve their objective.
It’s a casual game, but there are numerous gameplay mechanics on show, including driving, sneaking, fighting, and even fishing.
The developer of A Way Out is Hazelight Studios, the team behind It Takes Two and Split Fiction, which are considered to be among some of the best two-player co-op games ever made. If you enjoyed previous games from Hazelight Studios, you can’t go wrong with A Way Out.
1
LEGO Voyagers
A Captivating Four Hours
Through its narrative told without words, LEGO Voyagers provokes curiosity and poses questions in relation to building friendships and shared dreams. Even though the world is made entirely out of LEGO bricks, the environments you will jump, build, and snap your way through as two nameless LEGO pieces are gorgeous.
Puzzles are the core of the gameplay loop, but there is freedom to move around the scenes that your characters are connected to. The puzzles themselves are simple, and can vary from finding the brick you need to repair an object to simply building to reach a higher area.
LEGO Voyagers is my top pick for a short co-op game that you can play to kick back and relax with a friend.
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