Our Favorite Co-Op Games
Whether you are a newbie to the hobby or a seasoned cardboard veteran the Coop genre can be one that is pretty hit or miss depending on your group that you play coops with and your feelings of taste as a boardgamer. From young and intro gamers to a core group of friends that you always play long games with hopefully there is something here that suits you!
Starting Out
When I first started collecting games I learned a lot from early content creators and intro game suggestion lists. One of the first couple games included Forbidden Island. In Forbidden Island you and up to three others explore an island that is actively sinking. Your goal is to collect four treasures on the island using sets of cards that you collect and trade with your teammates and then make it back to the helipad in time. What makes this a constant struggle is that your actions are limited and each turn cards for sections of the island are drawn and then flooded or sunk, if a piece is sunk then that section of the island is gone forever! This can cause some pretty tough setups with the island as now old paths are gone in order to efficiently collect all the treasures.
The Forbidden series has gotten quite a following and they actually have multiple sequels to their game system. Forbidden Desert, Sky, and recently Jungle are a part of the forbidden series and have their own little quirks. Desert involves finding ship parts in shifting desert tiles while a sandstorm adds sand blocking tiles and will actually move the desert around on you. Forbidden Sky involves building your catwalk landscape to locate circuit points on the map to then connect them to your spaceship. Forbidden Jungle is the newest game to the collection and looks the most complex, all with defeating alien figures and moving the jungle like a puzzle box to find a portal and surround it with power crystal tiles.
Games for the Family
For our family we have found that co-op games are our favorites to play together, especially when it comes to what our daughter wants to play. These coops have been our favorites when it comes to family game night ranging from easy to play party games to wider length games with long term goals.
Just One
Such a fun party/co-op game! In this game on your turn to guess you give a number on a card that you don’t see that contains a word. Others at the table in secret write a word that relates to that secret word. Before revealing, any duplicates that were written by people at the table are set facedown, unable to be used for clues. Then you get a chance to see what clues are left and guess the secret word. This game plays incredibly fast and has been a good way to have fun as a team and also teach new words and ideas for clue giving. Being able to play with up to seven people is also a boost
The Crew
This recent title was a surprise for us as it played very well with our youngest. It is a cooperative trick taking card game which at least to someone like me who doesn’t play many trick taking games feels pretty unique. Without going into the details of trick taking each round/scenario the deck is passed out to players and instead of needing a certain amount of tricks to win you instead reveal a number of objectives based on the scenario difficulty. These goals could range to goals such as I will win the pink 7 and green 2, or I will win the first and last trick, and even I will win no tricks. This really changes up the play style as you start to think of different ways to deliberately pass off tricks to other players on purpose all while having very limited communication. A very fun social experience that I recommend.
Pandemic Series
This classic coop was honestly what started our family interest in coop games and for good reason as this game system has stood the test of time so far. When it comes down to it this game system is basically based on traveling around the map taking care of disease hotpoints while set collecting. You collect colored cards to find the cure to the diseases, all while using your unique player powers to your advantage to stem off expanding diseases. However, you may find yourself on top of the world one round but once those epidemic cards start coming out then you really have to start strategically investing your cards for traveling to hot zones and efficiently using your actions in order to win the game. We have the original still but have picked up the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King version which as a huge Warcraft fan has been a lot of fun. Essentially its own game but with the pandemic system it adds more interesting story building and actions to the mix. You really can’t go wrong with Pandemic no matter if you are looking for a shorter length version in Rapid Response to a multi-game epic version in Pandemic Legacy.
All vs 1
Looking for a unique coop experience that hits that family weight but offers an interesting twist on that coop element? What about a 1 v all game? We recently played Jaws again and I think this will be one of the first games that we will break out if we are looking for a unique experience that still contains elements of co-op but with a dash of hidden movement and dice chucking fighting. A two act game where first you try and locate the shark around amity island while the shark moves with hidden movement. Then in Act 2 you must have a final showdown on the Orca to finally end the shark menace once and for all! Other co-op games may try and make a system to control the actions of the single enemy in their games but I find it really cool that there is actually a solo player completely controlling how the shark acts, really giving a thematic experience in a thematic package. Highly recommend!
Professor Plums aka EPIC experiences
So you have gotten far into your board game hobby experience or maybe played a handful of co-op games and are looking for something that offers a DEEP experience? I think the following two games have the ability to scratch that itch. Definitely both a time and money investment but isn’t that true in any great hobby?
Eldritch Horror
This was one of the first games that I picked up when I was starting in the hobby after watching Wil Wheaton's tabletop episode on it. In this game you play as an investigator with starting equipment and a stat card while you work with others to trek the globe and complete investigations, collect weapons and assets, defeat monsters while sealing portals, and collect artifacts while trying to stop the great old one from awakening to destroy the world. Truly too many things to list off here in full detail Eldritch Horror offers a great option to play through that thematic experience of being in a world containing eldritch events with so many choices of how you want to complete your goals and work with your teammates. I ended up picking up all the expansion material to explore the full depths but what you can collect is incredibly VAST if you are a big Cthulhu fan.
The Haven series: Gloomhaven/Frosthaven
A few years ago in the far off time of 2017 a little game called Gloomhaven came out and took the industry by storm. In this game you take on the role of a unique unlockable character with its own set of cards that are used during combat encounters. A campaign scenario based game and essentially a dungeon crawl game you complete scenarios with other players who have their own special character. From there your scenario options and story evolve from there leading to an incredibly epic adventure. This game was so popular that it stood at the number 1 spot on boardgamegeek for over 5 years and spawned a couple sequel games. If the large size of Gloomhaven and price are a bit much then Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion is an excellent option. A much shorter 25 scenario package with only four characters, it allows one to get into the card play system of Gloomhaven easier. The first 5 scenarios are also treated as a tutorial walkthrough of the game system and is incredibly well done. However if you love the game system and universe then honestly Frosthaven is for you. This is the big bad sequel to Gloomhaven that essentially took the scope and length of Gloomhaven and doubled it. Along with its core gameplay system now you are involved in building up a ragtag town on the brink of a frozen wasteland while unlocking even more unique player characters. If you are looking for an epic coop experience then this is a pretty fantastic option.
A little bit of history: Freedom the Underground Railroad
I wanted to mention this title as an option as I think it is pretty unique in how it presents an incredibly sensitive topic in a very respectable way in a game. In Freedom the Underground Railroad players take on the role of members of the underground railroad. These members have their own special ability for effecting the game and players will use these abilities and funds to move slaves from southern plantations up into Canada and freedom. During the game event cards over the course of history of America into and through the Civil war are revealed, which can grant positive effects and cause negative problems for the players and their attempts to free more and more slaves. Victory comes from freeing enough slaves while financing enough support for the abolition movement. This is a bit hard to find and takes a bit to learn but it is quite the experience to play.
