PC game recommendation for my partner and I
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My partner expressed an interest in finding a game for both of us to play. She doesn't play many games, and I generally prefer single player games so I find myself at a loss for what's out there that we might like. Hoping the community here can help!
We have played some retro platformers together. Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country, that kind of thing. And I know she plays puzzle match games on her phone. Which isn't a lot to go on.
It needs to be a multiplayer PC game that runs on Linux/Proton (if unsure, please suggest your game anyway. It probably does). One machine is a mid-range PC from about 5 years ago. So probably no recent AAA games with high system requirements.
I'm thinking:
- Easy to pick up and play and can offer a satisfying play experience with short play times.
- Cooperative play would be a plus.
- Being able to play with just two people (not forced to play with random people online).
My particularities:
- I won't play a game that requires creating/signing in to an account to play it at all. I can tolerate that requirement for multiplayer play, but I'd rather it just use a Steam account.
- I'd prefer if it didn't install a launcher.
- I'd like it to either have a built in server and/or be selfhostable.
Seriously? How has no one suggested Untitled Goose Game or did I miss it? It is frigging hilarious and if you both like humor and fooling around as a mischievous goose, it is perfect! I played it with my 7 year old and we had tons of fun, plus the ending was the cherry on top!
Edit: also, similarly hilarious but a bit more stressful to play, Pizza Possum, my kid was and is nornally absolutely not into fast-paced gaming, but this one was an expection and is also hilarious to play together and it was a blast collecting all the gadgets. We still come back to both games regularly.
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That looks absolutely adorable and I think would be fun. I'll suggest it, thanks!
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Since you mentioned platformers, Rayman Origins might be worth a look. It's a 2D platformer from 2011 so it doesn't require a lot of power, levels take a few minutes to complete which makes it perfect for short sessions and it has local co-op (up to 4 players).
I tried it recently on my desktop (Pop!_OS, ubuntu based) and Steam Deck, played without issues on both of them.
Thanks! While I've heard of the franchise, I've never actually played a Rayman game before. But a local co-op platformer sounds good.
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Kingdom: Two Crowns is great fun in co-op.
I'm not sure I could convince her to play a tower defense style game. But it looks like MY kind of game, so thanks for the recommendation!
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Since she likes puzzles, the Trine game series could be nice! I think they added coop multiplayer starting with Trine 2.
If you both like hack 'n slash then Torchlight 2 is also great fun!
I think she'd enjoy that. And good to know there are several in the series so we can pick up the next ones if we end up enjoying it. Thanks!
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It takes two
split fiction
These two were the top two favs of my wife and I last year. Played it takes two on our steam decks, and split fiction on our PCs. One of them is older and handled it great. Both pcs run linux.
Agree with It Takes Two.
The platforming can be frustrating in parts, but as she's played Mario and donkey kong, then it should be fine.
I mean the other obvious option are the various Lego games.
Lego Harry Potter etc.
Or as others have said: Overcooked
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Farm Together 2 is AWESOME
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2418520/Farm_Together_2/
The graphics are nice but don't make the game stand out which is a minor shame since this is by far my favorite "build a farm" type game.
Splitscreen co-op and multiplayer is a blast and the game flow is very chill but rewarding.
Maybe. I like a farming sims but I think it might be a hard sell. Though the cute graphics might help. How in the going in to town portion of the game? Does it have RPG elements? While I like that kind of thing, I don't think she will.
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Overcooked
Super mario 3d world
Limbo
Inside
Overcooked: Looks cute, frantic, and fun!
Super mario 3d world: Feeling meh about it.
Limbo: Single player. But looks like something I might like.
INSIDE: Also single player. But somerhingt we both might like.
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Maybe. I like a farming sims but I think it might be a hard sell. Though the cute graphics might help. How in the going in to town portion of the game? Does it have RPG elements? While I like that kind of thing, I don't think she will.
Not really though I get how the game seems like it might be like that, in fact what I like about Farm Together 1 and 2 is that they are very focused on the actual moment to moment process of a running an arcadey farm. It is almost like a realtime boardgame or simple economy simulator, which makes the core gameplay loop immediately salient to anybody. You can pick up a controller, jump in and start helping out on the farm, it is a very simple, relaxed and rewarding gameplay loop and it makes the perfect co-op game because of it. There aren't long cutscenes and lots of stuff and context you have to explain, it is a pick up and play experience.
It isn't a shallow game either, while the game by no means "hard" in the sense that there aren't really fail states, figuring out how to create an economy with your farm is a really interesting challenge and the wide variety of unlocks encourage and reward strategizing. The graphics are deceptive, there is a genuine engine building game at the heart of Farm Together 2.
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One I haven't seen yet is Unrailed. It's a little bit of the chaos of overcooked, but not quite as stressful.
That looks like a lot of fun! Not sure if she'll like the builder element but it looks simple enough.
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Some obvious suggestions seem to be:
- Terraria
- Stardew Valley
Sorta requires another account... technically.. .Minecraft. IDK, maybe hytale would fill that niche. There's also some FOSS options like luanti that would be nearly indistinguishable.
- Left4Dead2
- Portal 2
- No Man's Sky
Some lesser known stuff:
- Core Keeper
- Dungeon Defenders
- RoboQuest
- Valheim
Category suggestion: Kart racing. There are no shortage of brands of that... sonic just came out with a new one and there's a couple really good sonic kart racers already out there that are on steam and console. Played a lot of sonic and all stars racing transformed with my wife and we had fun... it goes super cheap on sales and has remote play together so you'd only need one copy for both of you... https://isthereanydeal.com/game/sonic-and-all-stars-racing-transformed-collection/history/#price-chart:overview , mario kart, etc.
es-de is a really nice front end you can have in steam for couch coop emulation, I hear.
I know and like almost all of these games! Unfortunately I don't think she'll like any of them. Maybe some of the early levels of dungeon defenders.
RoboQuest caught my attention. While I generally don't gravitate towards roguelikes or FPS's, the combo has my interest piqued!
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Abiotic Factor has been a blast with a friend. I don't play a lot of survival games (I prefer more narrative than most offer, and Grounded was a great one for that) and this one doesn't take itself very seriously (you craft weapons and armor from general office supplies a lot of the time... I've never been so excited to find a cache of staplers).
May want to turn the difficulty down if she gets overwhelmed easily, as while they majority of the game is pretty manageable, there are the occasional hard fight.
She won't like a survival crafter, but I do!
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Thanks! While I've heard of the franchise, I've never actually played a Rayman game before. But a local co-op platformer sounds good.
Older games are purely singleplayer, multi is something they leaned on later on. For PC Rayman Legends also supports local co-op, I believe. This one however is only available on Steam and requires Uplay account or linking your Steam to it. Origins is available on both Steam and GOG - I can confirm the latter version does not require any additional accounts or services.
Finally, there's Rayman Raving Rabbids but that's more of a mini-game compilation/party game rather than a platformer. It also has multiplayer.
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Oh Minecraft. She'd get bored with an open world sandbox. Maybe there are mods or something that are more story driven, but that'd ruin my nostalgia for the game. Bit of a pickle!
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She won't like a survival crafter, but I do!
I'll take half credit! Lol. It's ridiculous in the best ways. I still have no idea how much longer we have on our playthrough but it is a pretty long game.... Or we suck, which is very plausible.
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My partner expressed an interest in finding a game for both of us to play. She doesn't play many games, and I generally prefer single player games so I find myself at a loss for what's out there that we might like. Hoping the community here can help!
We have played some retro platformers together. Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country, that kind of thing. And I know she plays puzzle match games on her phone. Which isn't a lot to go on.
It needs to be a multiplayer PC game that runs on Linux/Proton (if unsure, please suggest your game anyway. It probably does). One machine is a mid-range PC from about 5 years ago. So probably no recent AAA games with high system requirements.
I'm thinking:
- Easy to pick up and play and can offer a satisfying play experience with short play times.
- Cooperative play would be a plus.
- Being able to play with just two people (not forced to play with random people online).
My particularities:
- I won't play a game that requires creating/signing in to an account to play it at all. I can tolerate that requirement for multiplayer play, but I'd rather it just use a Steam account.
- I'd prefer if it didn't install a launcher.
- I'd like it to either have a built in server and/or be selfhostable.
Bokura, 2d puzzle platformer played with 2 players
::: spoiler Minor gameplay spoilers
Both players are seeing a completely different world. Different art, different puzzle elements. It is about communicating exactly what is happening, and puzzle solving.
:::It requires Steam, both players need to own the game, and two separate devices to play on (one for each player). Iirc networking goes through Steam, no way to selfhost.
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Overcooked: Looks cute, frantic, and fun!
Super mario 3d world: Feeling meh about it.
Limbo: Single player. But looks like something I might like.
INSIDE: Also single player. But somerhingt we both might like.
Yeah I should've mentioned my last 2 are single player. We took turns after each death and it was super enjoyable. Using the controller and navigating is only half the battle with those two games. The other half is just brainstorming and planning a solution to the puzzle.
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My partner expressed an interest in finding a game for both of us to play. She doesn't play many games, and I generally prefer single player games so I find myself at a loss for what's out there that we might like. Hoping the community here can help!
We have played some retro platformers together. Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country, that kind of thing. And I know she plays puzzle match games on her phone. Which isn't a lot to go on.
It needs to be a multiplayer PC game that runs on Linux/Proton (if unsure, please suggest your game anyway. It probably does). One machine is a mid-range PC from about 5 years ago. So probably no recent AAA games with high system requirements.
I'm thinking:
- Easy to pick up and play and can offer a satisfying play experience with short play times.
- Cooperative play would be a plus.
- Being able to play with just two people (not forced to play with random people online).
My particularities:
- I won't play a game that requires creating/signing in to an account to play it at all. I can tolerate that requirement for multiplayer play, but I'd rather it just use a Steam account.
- I'd prefer if it didn't install a launcher.
- I'd like it to either have a built in server and/or be selfhostable.
I’ve posted about this somewhere else too, maybe a different account idk.
But for games to play with people that aren’t really “gamers” I actually prefer single player games with light amounts of fast paced action or none at all. The “coop” comes from taking turns with the controller.
This works well with puzzle or logic games with generous reaction time requirements (again, or none at all), as well as story based games with light action. A lot of these games also come with natural pauses in the story that provide opportunities to either swap who is driving or put the game down for the day.
I’ve had a lot of success playing through many of these titles with partners. I’m sorting these roughly by category and then how strongly I recommend them. Some of these games I haven’t actually played yet, but I know them to fit the overall vibe.
Puzzle/Logic - no reaction time required
- Chants of Sennaar (HIGHLY recommend, requires decent notes and map making, so the person not using the controller still has a job)
- Strange Horticulture (HIGHLY recommend, also requires some light note taking to make life easier)
- Strange Antiquities (sequel to above, have not played yet, high expectations)
- Return of the Obra Din (have not played yet, high expectations)
- The Case of the Golden Idol + DLCs (STRONGLY recommend, got a bit burnt out by the end, but very fun, also light note taking)
- The Rise of the Golden Idol (sequel to above, have not played yet, moderate to high expectations)
- Baba is You (HIGHLY recommend, nice learning curve but becomes brutally difficult towards the end of the game)
- Myst (HUGE game, very good, but daunting and little to no hand holding, detailed notes required)
Kind of a category within a category, haven’t played these, but they’ve been referred to as 1.5 player games.
- Spiritfarer
- Chicory
- Child of Light
Puzzle/Logic - aim and reaction time needed
- Portal 1
- Portal 2 (and its coop if you have 2 devices)
- Portal Reloaded (community mod adding a portal through time with some seriously mind bending puzzles)
- Portal Revolutions (another mod, haven’t played yet but looks fun)
- Viewfinder (HIGHLY recommend, spiritual successor to Portal IMO and a very, very good game)
- Superliminal (HIGHLY recommend, a “Portal-like” that uses perspective as the core mechanic)
Story Based - some action sequences requiring aim and reaction time and some puzzling
- Stray (just a cute good time with some spooky, heart rate spiking moments where you really don’t want your kitty to get hurt)
- Alien Isolation (if you’re horror movie people at all this is like an interactive movie)
- Shadows of a Doubt (might be a miss for a lot of people, immersive detective sim)
- Firewatch (played this a long time ago, might not hold up)
- Dredge (spooky but cute fishing sim with good story)
- Summertime Madness (not much reaction time needed, but still some aim or speed based puzzles)
All of these that I’ve played were on either Arch (custom), Arch (Garuda), or NixOS based systems under Proton. Two of those systems were installed from scratch and they performed flawlessly, so if you’re on a system that handles all the audio and video driver installation for you things should be very smooth. The Garuda machine is a laptop from 2016 that is plugged into my TV and actually saw the most play time for these titles. It held up perfectly. The other two systems were back to back installs on my fairly beefy desktop, but installation and running the games was smooth after the initial effort to get the systems fully functional with drivers and controller support.
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I know and like almost all of these games! Unfortunately I don't think she'll like any of them. Maybe some of the early levels of dungeon defenders.
RoboQuest caught my attention. While I generally don't gravitate towards roguelikes or FPS's, the combo has my interest piqued!
It's really hard to suggest games without knowing what you guys normally would play. You mention puzzle games. There are a ton of two player puzzle games that you play head to head which might be fun, but it isn't coop exactly. I highly recommend super puzzle fighter ii turbo. It's available thru emulation and I think maybe on steam via that capcom arcade thing. There are lots of games that fit into that category if it ends up appealing.
If you have access to any of the games mentioned... maybe just have her try some of them and see what clicks. I know with my wife she wasn't really a "gamer" at first... and I just let her loose on my steam games and a few that she would have never considered before became favorites like half-life, portal, l4d2. Most of the valve stuff holds up really well and makes for good primers into FPS style gaming. We also got really into coop minecraft and dungeon defenders so hundreds of coop hours have been dumped into those. I'd pick a bunch of genre styles (fps, puzzle, survival, etc) and just show her some gameplay videos if she's reticent to play them sight unseen... see if anything sparks her interest. Then pick out some of the more well regarded titles from them to dive into. There are definitely classics that are considered classics for a reason.
As for roboquest... I've enjoyed that one. The dev kept putting out content patches so it's gotten a bunch of content dumped into it. Fun solo and coop. I personally love the pop art comic style. The progression is rogueLITE... so you're slowly building up new stuff in your hub as you play, which makes for a nicer experience, IMHO. They even have a free demo on steam if you wanna try it out while you wait for a sale.
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Oh Minecraft. She'd get bored with an open world sandbox. Maybe there are mods or something that are more story driven, but that'd ruin my nostalgia for the game. Bit of a pickle!
ah, usually the creative aspect draws people in but i know not everyone is that way.
