The 10 Coop Games of 2017
This year promises to be a big year for gamers. We get a new Nintendo console, finally see what the new Zelda is all about, plus new entries for Resident Evil, Mass Effect, South Park, and Red Dead Redemption. And after last year’s fairly weak cooperative offerings, 2017 may be a rebound year for coop games as well.
Here now are the 10 Coop Games we’re watching for in 2017.
10. State of Decay 2 (Xbox One – 2017)
Zombie survival games should just be its own genre at this point considering how often they’re produced – we’ve got 3 on this list alone! The original State of Decay seemed good on paper. A resource collecting, open world game similar to DayZ but for consoles. Sadly developers failed to include a cooperative option. That option alone would have likely catapulted that game to top lists of the year instead of fading into relative obscurity. Well, State of Decay 2 seems to make good on missed potential as multiplayer is now front and center of all trailers for this one.
We’re gonna miss hearing Ellis’ awesome stories but this will have to do since L4D 3 is MIA
9. Fortnite (PC – 2017)
After Bulletstorm and Gears 4, we are eager to give anything developers People Can Fly create. The game is described as “Minecraft meets Left 4 Dead” where players can construct forts in a 3×3 grid to try to survive 14 waves of zombies. We’ve seen a lot of horde style games lately but we’re fans of the devs so we’re willing to give this one a shot – especially at free-to-play.
It feels like the game we’d brainstorm when we were like 6 but, hey, it could be fun
8. Ghost Recon Wildlands (PS4, Xbox One – March, 7th)
The E3 material on Wildlands last year was impressive though we haven’t really enjoyed the Ghost Recon series since Advanced Warfighter about a decade ago. Still, this game promises all campaign missions are playable in coop and feels like a more serious Just Cause.
Yeah, this should go well…
7. Shadow Warrior 2 (PS4, Xbox One – early 2017)
This game actually came out last year on PC and got solid reviews. The satisfying shoot and melee combat combined with a rewarding loot system means its easy to sink a ton of hours into this game. The console version is due out sometime early in 2017 so here’s hoping we aren’t kept waiting long.
These guys make FPS shooting and swordplay look easy – makes us wonder what really happened with Daikatana
6. Sea of Thieves (Xbox One – 2017)
It’s hard to pin down exactly what to expect with Sea of Thieves. On the outset it looks like a silly pirate walking simulator you can run around in with your buddies, that is until you reach your ship and suddenly you have assignments, ship to ship combat, and treasure maps to follow. There’s depth here which seems at odds with the extremely casual tone in the early trailers. Rare hasn’t had a hit in some time so we’re really hoping this turns out to be as much as those playtesters appeared to be having.
So this is going to either be great or completely terrible.
5. Overkill’s The Walking Dead (PS4, Xbox One – 2017)
So count us among those that feel like the best days of The Walking Dead are behind us but we’re hopeful for this title simply because of the talent behind it. These are the same devs behind Payday 2, The Darkness, and the criminally underrated Chronicles of Riddick games. Robert Kirkman is said to be heavily involved here and is promising to deliver the coop game we all want. Even as we get tired of the Neagan-lean, we can look forward to this game.
It’s already better than Fear the Walking Dead
4. Crackdown 3 (Xbox One – Q4 2017)
The Crackdown games so far have been fun if unremarkable experiences we’d only recommend if you’re able to play through with a buddy. These open world shooters are a dime a dozen but we’re curious what Microsoft means when they talk about the insane destructive abilities we’ll have in the new game thanks to Microsoft Azure. Plus, we’re starting to run out of levels in Watch Dogs 2 anyways so it’s time for a new game.
We’re gonna sit here and ponder why the devs think we won’t just called this Crackdown 3
3. Sniper Elite 4 (PS4, Xbox One – Feb 17th, 2017)
Sniper Elite 3 was a surprise sleeper hit for us last year and provided no shortage of laughter for us as we watched our sniper shots shred bones to splinters in super slow-mo X-ray scenes each time one of us managed to take out an enemy. The game rewards a slow and methodical pace but cuts absolutely lose during those brutal death animations. We couldn’t be more excited for the next entry into the franchise that finally let us shoot the balls of Hitler.
We never thought adding fatalities to a shooter would make that much of a difference
2. Cuphead (Xbox One – 2017)
Oh Cuphead. Maybe this is the year we finally get to play you. The game honestly doesn’t look that complex so we’re concerned as to why it keeps getting delayed but those animations still quickly win us over. Here’s hoping these guys finally wrap up any last minute edits in Unity they’re doing and are finally able to ship this game to production in the middle of this year as planned.
It’s taking so long but geez, Cuphead, we can’t stay mad at you with graphics like that
1. Destiny 2 (PS4, Xbox One – 2017)
Wake up guardians. We have very little to go on but Bungie did confirm a sequel is expected for 2017. Destiny will go down as one of our favorite games of all time. It captured the zeitgeist for months with weekly news about Xur’s offerings, raid challenges unlike anything we’ve seen on a console, and some of the best moments we’ve ever had in a game. It’s unfortunate much of the game depends on a vibrant community which has died now but we’ll be among the hundreds of thousands that will be exploring the cosmos in our custom ship the moment Destiny 2 arrives this year.
We can’t wait but can we get some competition for Xur to bring down those prices this time?
What coop games did we forget? River City Ransom: Underground? Dead Island 2? A new Borderlands (we hope)? Let us know below!
