Multiplayer co-op is the genre of the hour. But this genre includes a whole variety of games from MMORPGs to trivia. We are looking specifically at games that require players to work together to solve puzzles and maybe level up some grub?
If you like solving complex puzzles, you’re going to enjoy this genre of games that emphasizes more on the puzzles rather than the fighting or mining aspects. So gather up your playing buds and let’s jump right in.
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Best Co-op Online Puzzle Games
Here are some of the best co-op online puzzle games you can play right now to kill the time during the quarantine. On that note, check out the best Zoom games too that you can play with your friends and family on a group video chat and have some amazing time with them.
Never alone
If you’re looking for a beautifully atmospheric game, look no further than Never alone. The game is ethnically inspired by native Alaskan folklore. You can play it both in single-player as well as co-op. Players must choose between the humanoid and the fox; each having its own unique abilities, and work together to solve the game’s puzzles while you search for the source of the blizzard.
Jump canyons and traverse blizzards all the while enjoying the beautiful aesthetics and storyline of the game.
Download: Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna)
Google Feud
Google Feud is a fun little game where you try and guess the top 10 Google autocomplete answers to a search. The game is similar in essence to Family Feud, where you must guess the most common answers given to a question.
You can choose from four categories; Culture, People, Questions, and Names. While the game doesn’t have a multiplayer option, it is a lot more fun to play it co-op with a friend. This increases your chance of getting it right!
Play: Google Feud
Trine Enchanted
Trine Enchanted is the remake of the original game Trine. This game brings back the physics-based puzzles and adds outstanding 3D visuals of nature and deadly castles, in a fairytale world.
The game features an interesting 3-way co-op where each player has their own unique qualities. The game starts off with all the players using the same main character until the unlock their own. Explore every nook and cranny of the map to make sure you don’t miss any hidden gems. Use the experience points collected to level up your skill tree. The game revolves around its physics-based puzzles that must be solved using the special abilities of the 3 players.
Download: Trine Enchanted Edition
Child of light
Child of light relies heavily on its storyline and is almost like Fable in its playability. It has an interesting ‘sketched’ art aesthetic that adds nicely to the gameplay. The game starts as you wake up, abandoned, in Austria, and follows the life ‘Aurora’ who must make her way home.
The puzzles within the game are not that puzzling, but the beautifully crafted scenery in the land of Lemuria definitely makes up for it. Craft gems in a multitude of ways to upgrade your weapon and climb the enormous skill tree. This game can be played both single-player and co-op. Because of its huge skill tree, the players branch off into different skillsets early on in the game, creating very unique characters. The seamless drop in and out co-op mode lets you can choose between Aurora and Igniculus on your way to recovering the moon and stars.
Download: Child of light
Badland
This multi-award winning game has players dodging deadly spikes and poisonous motes while trying to make it to the end of the level. Play as one of the tree-dwellers as you take in the beautiful and dangerous backdrop of the forest. Badland is a physics-based puzzle game that requires a lot of attention to detail while playing. If you slip up and forget to take a certain potion, chances are you aren’t going to make it to the end.
Badland is super fun and also super stressful to play in co-op. The co-op mode not only increases the speed of the game depending on how many players are playing but also requires players to learn each level thoroughly, in order to make a plan of action to complete the level. Throughout the game there are a bunch of interesting powerups that need to be taken at just the right time, in order for you to pass the level.
Download badland: Steam (PC) | Android | iOS
Ultimate chicken horse
This is a crazy fun game, where players create their own obstacle course. The game offers a huge selection of obstacles to choose from to customize the levels to the T. From bees to fire blasters, can you manage your way to the end?
The co-op playability makes it infinitely more fun, with all players using their stash to design each level. Team up with other players to troll your enemies. At the end of each level, you are given a bunch of obstacles to choose from to create the next level, and on it goes. Choose your animal and start creating!
Download: Ultimate Chicken Horse
N+
Talking about physics games, N+ is a super minimalistic game that can be played right in your browser. If you’ve played the fancy pants adventure, that’s the first thing you are going to think of when you start the game. The game is a nail biter, with the outcome of the game based heavily on player skill.
The game employs stick figures in a stick landscape, where you have to jump obstacles and dodge traps to clear the room of coins. To double the fun, the game allows co-op mode. Since the game is so light, there is virtually no lag during co-op gameplay. On a side note, you can also create your own levels to test out your co-op skills!
Play: N+ v2.0
BattleBlock Theater
If you have a bit of a dark sense of humor, you might want to check out BattleBlock Theater. The game employs a super fun 2D environment, where players must work together as a team to overcome obstacles and get to the end of the level. BattleBlock Theater is quite a step up in terms of visuals from a lot of the other 2D games out there.
Like other games on this list, you can build your own levels if you want to, or even try out other players’ build. Although you might not even need that, as the game is loaded up with hundreds of levels. The game elaborates on a storyline where you must free all 300 of the prisoners over the course of all the levels.
Download: BattleBlock Theater
ibb & obb
OK, this game is infinitely more complicated than it seems. At first look, it seems like the game is childish, with its simplistic design. However, just wait till the puzzles start getting difficult. This game is going to have you pulling your hair out (in a fun way?).
The gameplay is very mechanically demanding, in that tasks must be completed in a certain way only, in order to advance. Ibb & obb employs unique gameplay by creating different worlds, with different rules. Users must remember the rules for each world, as they dash in and out of various worlds in each level. Work together to vanquish enemies using the modified physics of the worlds, and get to the end of the map.
Download: ibb & obb
Portal 2
A sequel to ‘Portal’, the hugely well-received game from 2007, ‘Portal 2’ brings back all that fun now with a dedicated co-op mode! If there was one thing missing from the original, it was being able to play it with your friends.
Portal 2 has been reworked with some gorgeous backdrops and incredible physics. Create portals that you and your friend can travel through while exploring the Aperture Science Labs. The new co-op mode has its own unique storyline and set of puzzles for you to solve.
The addition of the co-op mode has definitely made the game more complicated in terms of puzzle-solving. Players must work and think together to figure out the mechanics of each room.
Download: Portal 2
Minecraft
Yes, yes, we know Minecraft is not technically a puzzle game. But we are also here to tell you that if you have not played the puzzles created by other players in Minecraft, you are missing out on so much!
Minecraft is a sandbox game where players create and manipulate the environment. You can play the game in its intended survival mode, where you build your own weapons and battle monsters, or you could play it in multiplayer, using the hundreds of player-created maps. Because of its immense malleability, the game can be used to create puzzles for other players to combat. Some of these puzzles are pretty tough and require quite a bit of creativity to get past.
Download: Minecraft | Puzzle maps for Minecraft
Human: Fall Flat
This is a game with a sense of humor. Human: Fall Flat is a co-op multiplayer game in which players must survive the harsh conditions they are placed into. Its simplistic yet beautiful backdrop is sure to catch your eye. Using the environment you must solve puzzles and stay alive!
The co-op mode allows you to play with up to 7 people, interacting with giant mining equipment to try and find the hidden gold. The game employs decent physics to facilitate solving of the puzzles. Players must use their ingenuity to come up with solutions, using whatever is strewn around them. The best part is that the puzzles in the game have multiple solutions; there is no one right answer!
Download: Human: Fall Flat
Tick Tock: A Tale for Two
This beautifully eerie game has a dark theme to it that runs throughout the game. You can tell the level of detail put into the game, just by interacting with all the objects. Each object has its own unique personality that you can use to help solve the puzzles.
The storyline is centered on Scandinavian fairy tales, allowing the players to walk through villages and enter shops, looking for clues to the puzzle.
In this game, each player plays a slightly different version of the same storyline. Because of this, Tick Tock: A Tale for Two can only be played in co-op, as players rely heavily on each other to solve the puzzles, and communication is key.
Download: Tick Tock: A Tale for Two
Knights And Bikes
Knights And Bikes is an obscure indie art game with beautiful aesthetics. The game takes place in the 1980s on a fictional island and follows the adventures of Nessa and Demelza as they roam through the island discovering its many secrets.
The girls form a bicycle club, a theme that remains through the game as they exchange the scraps that they find along the way for bike optimizations. Each new scene offers a variety of objects to interact with, creating a constant sense of intrigue throughout the game.
The puzzles in the game rely on both players working together, as they each have unique qualities, which may need to be combined at times. The game does offer a single-player mode, where the player must switch between the two characters to solve the puzzles.
Download: Knights And Bikes
Lost Elements
Here is another highly overlooked quirky game with some beautiful backdrops. Lost Elements is a calming co-op game where players select an element to play as and work together to solve the game’s puzzles.
Each element has unique powers that can be combined if needed. For example, if you choose the water element, you can swim to find clues at the bottom of the lake.
Players can interact with certain aspects of the environment to help them solve the puzzles. The game can get quite difficult, as there is only one way that a puzzle can be solved and the interactable portions of the environment are not easily distinguished.
Download: Lost Elements
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
Originally a board game, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes has made it to Steam. This intense game of shouting and cooperation gets the blood pumping. One player must defuse the bomb, but without the instructions booklet! Other players must decipher the instructions and shout them out without pointing or indicating.
The player diffusing the bomb must describe the bomb to the other players using words only. All the players must be on a group call for the game to work flawlessly. To keep you on track, each bomb has a countdown timer depending on its complexity. Can you work together with your teammates and diffuse the bomb in time?
Download: Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
We hope you enjoyed this list. ‘Multiplayer co-op puzzle’ is quite a unique brand of multiplayer games and we hope to see a lot more games emerging into this genre. Do you have a favorite go-to co-op game? Let us know in the comments below.
