The best co-op games to play this Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is a time for togetherness, and that can be achieved in many ways — including picking up a controller and engaging in a great co-op game. We’ve curated a list of some of the best two-player co-op experiences currently available that you can easily enjoy with your Valentine — or your Palentine, for the platonically-minded among us. With a smorgasbord of recommendations across all kinds of genres, you should be able to find something to pick up and share with a special someone.

The Dark Pictures Anthology

Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One

The Dark Pictures Anthology is a series of horror games that are all linked together by the Curator, an unsettling man who tells a series of scary tales that the players must navigate through choices and dialogue options. Each story starts with five protagonists, all of whom can either live to see another day or die to some terrifying peril. The Shared Story mode is a great way to experience the Dark Pictures Anthology — each player tackles a different branch of the story, occasionally meeting and collaborating. My only caveat would be to ignore Little Hope and enjoy Man of Medan or House of Ashes instead. —Cass Marshall

Palworld

Where to play: Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

You’ve definitely heard about Palworld, the survival crafting game that adds legally distinct Pokémon-like creatures to the formula. It’s a great hook, one that has brought lots of people who would otherwise avoid survival games into the fold. Palworld admittedly doesn’t have much in the way of legs — once you finish building your base, catching all the Pals, and creating a massive factory, you’ll likely want to move on. But not every game needs to last forever, and Palworld’s highly derivative formula results in a satisfying and accessible co-op game with one friend (or more, if you want to bring a crowd). —CM

The Division 2

Where to play: Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4

The Division 2 had the bad luck of being a game about a pandemic that launched right around the spread of an actual pandemic. That association, as well as its inconsistent political commentary and adoration of all things tacticool, will turn some players off. If you can get past those hurdles, you might be surprised to find a fantastic co-op experience that flows beautifully moment-to-moment. Publisher Ubisoft has also made sure that players at different progression points can sync together seamlessly, which means that there are no invisible walls blocking co-op play. I enjoyed playing with my husband back in 2019, and The Division 2 has received more updates since then — including one recent addition — that fill out its portfolio of content even further. —CM

Gotham Knights

Where to play: Windows, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5

Fans of previous games in the Batman Arkham universe groused a fair bit about the combat system in Gotham Knights, and how much of the game focuses on using it. That’s a fair point, especially since that combat system is pretty nuanced, but you can win practically every fight by spamming simple attacks or just sneaking around using one-shot stealth takedowns.

That said, if you aren’t an Arkham games purist and you enjoy partnered story games, Gotham Knights is a great two-player experience. The entire game is fully co-op, but large chunks of the narrative are open-world, letting players choose whether to consistently work together to stop criminals and foil crimes, or split up to pursue different goals. There’s a solid “Batman dies and his successors try to save Gotham” story to play out, a lot of different story options to follow, and plenty of customization, making this a great game for co-op partners with different styles (completists vs. narrativists, for instance) or different levels of commitment to the game. —Tasha Robinson

Heavenly Bodies

Where to play: Windows, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4

If you’re looking for something much more casual to dip into together for an evening or two of puzzle-solving, the physics-based game Heavenly Bodies is a hoot. You play a pair of ragdoll astronauts in zero gravity, trying to get various pieces of space equipment functioning together. Gameplay can be frustrating at first, as you parse out the game’s visual language and figure out the goals of a given level. It can also be a laugh as you try to learn how to control your hapless, floppy spacefarer. But there’s a real satisfaction in plugging in all those batteries, realigning all those satellite dishes, and finally getting your space station functioning. It’s like Among Us without all the accusation and murder, and with a lot more boneless bodies floating around. —TR

Super Mario Bros. Wonder

Where to play: Nintendo Switch

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is not only one of the best co-op games from the past few years but one of the best games, period. It’s a hallucinatory take on the classic Super Mario Bros. franchise — it’s colorful, clever, and downright wacky at times. It’s also the perfect co-op game because it’s got options that make it fun regardless of you and your partner’s experience levels. This isn’t the sort of game where you’re going to get upset with your partner (ahem, Overcooked); several characters don’t take damage, for example, like Yoshi and Nabbit. They’re still playing the same game but don’t have to worry about pesky Goombas or any of the new, weirder-than-ever enemies. Yoshi, too, can be ridden by the other player — how romantic! — which makes for some extra silly moments and a way to get around the game’s sometimes annoying camera. —Nicole Carpenter

Halo Infinite

Where to play: Windows, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One

For the competitively-minded lovers, try Halo Infinite this Valentine’s Day. You can play Halo Infinite multiplayer within the campaign itself — up to four players total — or in its competitive player vs. player modes. The game’s continued to evolve since its release, particularly with its competitive playlists. So, if you haven’t played since it launched, it might be worth hopping in with your lover to give it another go. 343 Industries has been working to spice things up over the past few months, so why don’t you, too? For extra Valentine’s Day spirit, customize your Spartans’ armor in all pink. —NC

It Takes Two

Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One

Ironic to put a game about divorce on a list of best games to play as a duo on Valentine’s Day, no? But It Takes Two, from developer Hazelight Studios, is a two-player game built from the ground up with co-op in mind — and the story of divorce is a huge part of that. There’s no single-player mode, so you’ll have to have a partner to play as Cody and May, a married couple who get trapped into doll bodies as their child, Rose, tries to work out the why of the divorce. It can be played either on a split screen locally or online, and you and your partner will have to cooperate through different challenges and minigames to make it through the levels and back to Rose. Though it’s about divorce, it’s also about reconciliation and cooperation, and director Josef Fares has called it a romantic comedy — making it a good option for Valentine's Day. —NC

Gears of War

Where to play: Windows, Xbox Series X/S or One or 360 — depends on the title

This is another one for fans of linear, single-save story games where you’re perpetually moving forward, getting stronger, figuring out your preferred combat style, and winning your way through varied challenges. The Gears of War series actually feels more real as a co-op experience than as a single-player one, given the story dynamic of “doomed hero and squaddie-for-life buddies fight an endless horde of mutant abominations.” At least if you’re playing with a partner in the room, you can share your gripes about the conditions, the challenges, and the never-ending setbacks of war, just like real-life military squaddies. There’s a developing, mostly linear story to these games, so purists may want to play them in order, but really, you can drop in on any of the mainline series and the experience will be about the same: Get your orders, wade through monsters, figure out how to survive the latest messy combat, hope your partner has your back. —TR

Left 4 Dead / Left 4 Dead 2

Where to play: Windows, Xbox One, Xbox 360

Speaking of hoping your partner has your back, the Left 4 Dead games are another case where you just have to hope the other half of your co-op team has some skills, or you’re going to… well, it’s right there in the title. (The first time I played, I got mobbed by zombies in the last five seconds of a level before the rest of my team escaped by boat. The friend playing with us told my husband, “It’s too late. You have to leave her behind. She’s already dead.” I wasn’t yet, but I sure was by the time that boat left.)

Left 4 Dead is yet another series that’s as much about the story and the different challenges as it is about the gameplay, and it’s a lot more fun with a partner. As you’re trying to hold off zombies long enough to gather fuel, fill up a car, and escape a disintegrating mall, you get to decide for yourself whether to split up or stay together and cover each other’s backs, whether you’re in each moment together, or going “everyone for themselves.” The answers may test your relationship a little, or they may teach you more about how you resolve shared tasks, how you navigate stress and conflict together, and which one of you is better suited to deal with the zombie apocalypse. And if that doesn’t sound like enough of a challenge, the Left 4 Dead games allow you to play with up to four people simultaneously, so it’s the rare game that can let more of your polycule in on the fun. —TR