Why play solo when you can enjoy these awesome 2 player games with a friend?
Gaming’s detractors like to say that video games turn us into basement-dwelling misanthropes, utterly incapable of social graces, or even of making friends. That, of course, is wrong. Gaming has served as bridges between people of different backgrounds, and it continues to do so to this day with the increasing prevalence of multiplayer.
In fact, many among us gamers have found some of our best friends through gaming. And how best to spend time with such friends? Why, by playing more games, of course!
Here then, we present to you the 24 Best 2-Player Games to Enjoy With Your Best Friend in 2016 – games that will challenge, please, and provide great bonding sessions for you and your best bud.
24. Project Zomboid
Why suffer the zombie apocalypse alone? The end of the world is meant for everybody!
The isometric Project Zomboid offers an enormous sandbox world for both you and your friend to enjoy. As for the undead? There are armies of them out there, so you guys better have a strategy for dealing with them. Do you confront them head-on, or do the smarter thing and hide?
Players have to deal with more than just zombies; there’s hunger, illness, depression, and even boredom to worry about. Stay in the safety of your home at night, or venture out together into the wilderness in search of resources. You can farm, fish, trap animals, do carpentry, craft tools, weapons, and shelter… and that’s just a fraction of what the game has in store for you.
Sometimes, you have to spell it out for them.
Fast food.
Zombie parade.
23. Streets of Rage
Nothing says “bonding session” quite like beating the living crap out of hundreds of bad guys together!
Go old-school with Streets of Rage, a side-scrolling beat-em-up hailing from the golden years when arcade gaming was the face of quality multiplayer. In this game, the city has been seized by a crime syndicate. With the corrupt police force on their payroll, lawlessness and mayhem have taken over the streets. Leave it to three young cops, who decide to take matters into their own hands, to put a stop to this reign of anarchy.
You and your friend can choose from three characters: the boxer, Adam Hunter; the martial artist, Axel Stone, or the judo expert, Blaze Fielding. Rearrange your opponents’ faces with punishing punches and kicks, or break their backs with bone-crunching grappling moves. And if you eventually find yourself sick of playing the goody-two-shoes, you can always side with the bad guys for that extra-evil alternate ending!
One of the best 2-player games to enjoy with your best friend, and you can play it right now!
Strike fast and hard.
Ahoy, mateys!
A kick to the head is one of the fastest ways to solve a problem!
22. FIFA 16
Soccer is one of the most beloved team sports in the world, and FIFA just so happens to be the best soccer video game franchise!
Kick balls across the green as one of your favorite teams. Play in any of the 78 stadiums and 50 venues, all modeled after real-world locations. There’s even a Career Mode that lets you manage your own team.
It’s all the more enjoyable, of course, if played with a friend. Impress them with your fancy kicks and passes, then annoy them by scoring as many goals as you can. You can bet your room will be as loud as a pub filled with beer-guzzling hooligans watching a championship match!
Goal? Think again!
Here come your heroes.
That's one powerful kick.
21. Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara
Not a fan of the urban landscapes of Streets of Rage? Fire-breathing dragons, ax-wielding dwarves, and scantily clad barbarians more your thing? Then check out Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara.
What’s amazing about Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara is that it’s not one game, but two: 1993’s Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom, and 1996’s Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara. These arcade classics have been remastered for your pleasure. Up to four players can team up to engage hundreds of the most powerful monsters from Dungeons & Dragons lore, such as skeletons, ogres, and of course, dragons.
Fry your enemies with face-melting magic, bash in their skulls with your shield, pepper them with arrows, or slice into them with your blades. So strap on your leather boots, and get medieval in one of the best 2-player games to enjoy with your best friend!
Magic and mayhem.
Anyone up for barbecue?
Winter is coming.
20. Metal Slug 3
When it was released more than a decade ago, Metal Slug 3 was one the best 2-player games to enjoy with your best friend. Today, it remains one of the greatest run & gun games in the industry.
You and your friend pick your soldiers, then go from point A to point B, wasting countless enemies – such as grunts, tanks, and choppers – along the way. Not only are there several weapons to pick up, you also get to obliterate enemies with your powerful “Metal Slug” tanks.
Metal Slug 3 also features detailed backgrounds and beautifully animated sprites. Yes, they were a huge artistic and technical achievement all those years ago, but damn, does this game still look great today! As the most audacious of the series, you’ll find yourselves dealing with robots, aliens, monsters, and even the shambling undead. Some levels have you flying through the air with a jetpack, riding elephants and ostriches strapped to the hilt with all manner of weaponry, and even getting turned into zombies!
It’s a blast, and it’s a game you can still play today, thanks to Steam.
Toxic seafood.
Watch out for those lasers!
That giant crab means business.
19. WWE 2K16
WWE 2K16 sees the engine that was introduced in its predecessors receiving further upgrades, and it’s a blast!
With more than 120 unique characters, the game has the largest roster of wrestlers in the history of the franchise. And this number doesn’t even include the future DLC characters planned for the game. That’s a whole lot of muscle!
Like its predecessors, WWE 2K16 mines our nostalgia for gold. The 2K Showcase focuses on “Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s illustrious career, while WWE Universe features many storylines centering on The Undertaker. MyCareer lets you manage your own superstar, and even gives you the option of either joining or fighting The Authority.
Of course, the game’s best enjoyed with a friend. Pick your favorite wrestlers then pound each other into submission. Or create your own superstars from scratch, then pummel each other in the ring to see who deserves to be called the best. For all these reasons, WWE 2K16 is one of the best 2-player games to enjoy with your best friend.
High-flying badassery.
'Coz Stone Cold says so!
Ready for the kill.
18. Shank
Prefer your beat-em-ups with gallons of blood? Shank is the game for you and your pal!
Because sometimes knuckles aren’t enough, Shank has you playing the eponymous ex-hitman, who just so happens to be really, really good with knives. And chainsaws. And firearms. In fact, Shank is good at just about anything designed for murder. He’s quite the acrobat, too, allowing him to run up walls, and jump onto the shoulders of giant bosses.
But here’s what makes it one of the best 2-player games to enjoy with your best friend. The game boasts a co-operative mode that allows another player to assume the role of Shank’s associate, Falcone. Together, you’ll be slitting throats, shooting bad guys in the face, and ripping into their guts in one of the most violent beat-em-ups around. And it’s all presented in a sweet, comic book style, too!
The bigger they are...
Dead meat.
Hounds of hell.
17. World of Warcraft: Legion
World of Warcraft: Legion is the game’s sixth expansion, and it’s going to be huge. For starters, the Burning Legion are coming back to raise hell on Azeroth. Who are the Burning Legion? Oh, just an army of world-conquering demons who invaded Azeroth several times in the past. They were primary antagonists in Warcraft III, if you can recall. It looks like the Alliance and the Horde will have to put aside their differences (again) to fight off this threat.
And, oh, did we mention Illidan Stormrage, “the Betrayer” himself, is making a comeback, as well? Goes to show that no one stays dead for long in the World of Warcraft!
An enormous new continent called The Broken Isles, a new Demon Hunter class, customizable artifact weapons, a level cap increase, and loads of other goodies await in what will be one of the best multiplayer games to enjoy with your friend!
Spectacular sights.
Illidan Stormrage cosplay.
A peaceful night.
16. HELLDIVERS
Set in the distant future, you and up to three friends must protect Super Earth from the hostile aliens that seek to subdue its population.
This top-down, twin stick shooter puts you smack dab in the middle of chaos. As the elite combat unit Helldivers, you’ll be using powerful guns to rip through endless waves of monsters, driving vehicles or enormous mechs, and… avoiding friendly fire? Yes, in this game, you can accidentally blow your partners’ brains out if you’re not careful where you’re aiming. You can even crush them – or yourself – as flat as a pancake with carelessly deployed supply drops. It therefore pays to coordinate and strategize, lest you want your team destroyed from within.
Helldivers also boasts procedurally generated levels, so every experience is unique. An exhilarating, action-packed game that deserves a spot on this list!
Blood on the battlefield.
Preparing for war.
All hell is loose.
15. Broforce
Bad guys threatening truth, liberty, and the American way? Bring out Bro-force – a paramilitary group of patriotic meatheads who eat grenades for breakfast and excel in the use of overwhelming force. Up to four players can select from a variety of over-muscled commandoes, then run “n” gun their way through terrorist and alien scum.
Relish the fully destructible environments as you devastate strongholds of villainy with showers of sweet napalm. Enjoy an arsenal of insane weapons and gadgets, from firearms and explosives to swords, chainsaws, lightning powers, and jetpacks. Taste the freedom as you employ testosterone-enhanced special abilities – such as dive bombs and lightning-fast horizontal dashes – to blast enemies into hundreds of pieces of pixelated gore.
Get ready for blood, guns, and the rancid odor of man-sweat in one of the best multiplayer games to enjoy with your best friend!
Kamikaze Rocketeer.
Explosions and violence galore.
Rocket jumping.
14. Battleborn
Gearbox Software, creator of the Borderlands franchise, is ready to rock first-person shooter MOBAs with Battleborn.
If those bright, eye-catching colors and charming, cartoony art style aren’t enough to convince you, the game comes with several wacky characters to suit every playstyle. Prefer slicing into fresh meat over riddling skulls with bullets? Battleborn’s resident sword-wielders aim to please. A fan of the arcane? Battleborn’s magic users will wreak havoc on the plains of Solus. And there are guns and explosions galore for everyone else!
Battleborn is among the best multiplayer games to enjoy with your best friend, and it’s out right now!
All colors of the rainbow.
Say hello to your heroes!
Aim for the head.
13. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege puts an emphasis on realism, tactics and teamwork. The game pits two teams against each other: the attackers vs. the defenders. Defenders must protect a location or high value target by setting up traps and positioning themselves strategically within an environment; attackers scout the area using drones, then use gadgets and weapons to penetrate the opposing team’s defenses.
Destructible environments add a layer of strategy to the gameplay. Someone hiding behind an obstacle? Make short work of walls and furniture with a good blast from your firearm. Most importantly, you can also select from several operators, each of whom boasts a unique skill. For example there’s Jager, whose Magpie defense system intercepts grenades before they can hurt your team, and Thermite, whose exo-thermic charges are capable of burning through even the toughest walls.
It’s the thinking gamer’s shooter, and one of the best multiplayer games to enjoy with your best friend!
Protect the hostage!
Lethal weapon.
They won't get past us!
12. How to Survive 2
You’ll have a better chance of surviving the zombie apocalypse with friends!
Team up with up to three other people in local co-op, or go online to join groups of up to 16. Build a camp, craft weapons and items, then prepare to defend yourself from the undead swarms.
Off your enemies with elaborate traps, such as spinning blades that rip them to shreds, or spring-loaded spikes that impale them from below. Or if you want your violence up close and personal, bash their heads in with a guitar, or use your shotgun to shoot them point blank in the face!
How to Survive 2 also gives you endless character customization options, so you can make yourself look like a professional wrestler or a Mad Max psycho. An amazing multiplayer game, especially if you love killing zombies!
Just another ordinary day in the zombie apocalypse.
Are you ready for this?
Overkill.
11. Rampage Knights
Rampage Knights is another gory beat-em-up featuring barbarous medieval warriors.
Those monsters will come at you en masse. So get ready to throw those barrels, swing that ax, and watch the bloody limbs fly. Use explosive magic to turn your enemies into puddles of blood. Then test your skills in battles with gargantuan bosses, such as three-headed dragons, and other horrors to ugly for description.
Rampage Knights’ levels are randomly generated, so every adventure is unique. There are also countless weapons and spells to collect, each one with special abilities.
Definitely 2-player games to enjoy with your best friend!
Sending it back to whatever hell it came from.
The best things come in threes.
Looks like Doom's demons found a new world to conquer.
10. Injustice: Gods Among Us
The Flash vs. Wonder Woman. Green Arrow vs. Green Lantern. Batman vs. Superman. These are the greatest gladiator matches in history, and you can have them all in Injustice: Gods Among Us.
You’ve got dozens of fighters from DC Comics’ stable of heroes and villains, each one ready for a fight to the finish. And because this game is from the makers of Mortal Kombat, expect these battles to get really brutal. Imagine smashing your opponent through the wall, and punching them so hard they fly into the stratosphere. How about chucking a grenade in their direction? Or running them over with the Batmobile? The character roster is as diverse as they come; featuring the aforementioned favorites above, as well as others like the Joker, Lex Luthor, Shazam, Hawkgirl, Nightwing, and Deathstroke.
The game has a great cinematic story mode. But like most fighting games, Injustice: Gods Among Us is best experienced with a second player. So go online and fight others across the world, or invite your best friend over for some quality one-on-one versus matches. Truly one of the best 2-player games to enjoy with your best friend!
If you have to be anybody, be Batman.
The fastest man alive.
All he has to do is squeeze to snuff out this lantern.
9. Magicka 2
An isometric action-adventure game, Magicka 2 puts you in the pointy shoes of a faceless wizard tasked with saving the kingdom.
Unleash hell on the enemy hordes using powerful magic. You’ve got hundreds of spells to learn, all categorized under five distinct elements. Electrocute them with lightning, fry them up with fire, or zap them with a death ray and watch them boil from the inside.
But why enjoy the chaos alone when you can play with up to three other friends? Carpet the ground with blood and gore as you bulldoze through forests, dank caves, and beaches littered with murderous crabs. Just make sure to not to point your wand at your friends, because friendly fire is lethal.
An exhilarating game of magic and mayhem!
A bombastic beach party.
A showcase of powerful magic.
You shall not pass!
8. Left 4 Dead 2
First-person shooter Left 4 Dead 2 returns with its predecessor’s simple yet effective formula, which can be summed up as “four survivors vs. hordes upon hordes of undead.”
The game is all about teamwork, because you have to admit – when faced with an army of running, jumping, and occasionally exploding corpses, it doesn’t make much sense to go solo. Be cautious when raining bullets down on zombies though, as you can accidentally hit your mates.
There are several types of zombies, from agile Hunters to the corpulent Boomers that spray bile and explode upon death. Thankfully, you’ve got a plethora of weapons to waste these monsters with.
The game also procedurally spawns enemies and items, so no two games are ever the same. It also means you’ll never really know what’s lurking around the corner, making for some truly frightening moments.
\
Firing squad.
They just want to play!
Better start running!
7. Killing Floor 2
If you enjoy your zombie slaughter fast, hard, and gory, take Killing Floor 2 out for a spin!
After selecting one of many perks that can be likened to combat classes, you join a team of six to massacre wave after wave of zombie-like creatures called Zeds. Every wave introduces new enemy types and increases the enemy number, with the final wave pitting you against a boss. Should a player kick the bucket during a wave, he will stay dead until the next wave. The team loses if they’re all killed during a single wave.
Killing Floor 2 has been impressing the multitudes with its exhilarating action and unrelenting amounts of bloodletting, so why not try it out with your best friend?
Showers of gore.
My precious.
Eat this!
6. PAYDAY 2
When being good doesn’t pay, it’s time to don your mask, load your guns, and rob a few banks!
PAYDAY 2 lets you live the life of a criminal with up to three other friends. As a good-for-nothing lowlife, you can do everything from robbing convenience stores and banks, to kidnapping. And as your crew rises up the criminal hierarchy, expect tougher, more complicated, and ultimately more rewarding jobs.
Of course, there’s no one way to be a good villain. You can go for the stealthy approach, striking only at the most opportune times, or you can gun down everyone in a fiery blaze. You can even customize your character by having them learn abilities from five distinct Skill Trees: Enforcer, Fugitive, Ghost, Mastermind, and Technician. You’ll need to hone all your skills, because every scenario boasts dynamic events, meaning you’ll never really know what to expect.
It’s real shady, and one of the best multiplayer games to enjoy with your best friend.
Not your ordinary patriots.
Interior redecoration.
This gorilla's got skills.
5. Resident Evil 6
One of the best multiplayer games to enjoy with your best friend also happens to be the sixth major installment of the undying survival horror series, Resident Evil.
Resident Evil 6 is split into four interconnected scenarios. Each scenario has you playing as one of the series protagonists, such as Ada Wong or Leon Kennedy, and your friend as their partner. Together, you will make your way through cities, facilities, and wildernesses swarming with rotting undead, who would like nothing better than to take a bite out of you. To make matters worse, the new enemy, called the J’avo, are intelligent enemies who are able to coordinate with each other. They may look like zombies with an extra dose of ugly, but they’re far, far worse than your usual shambling corpse!
Thankfully, you’ve got skills with firearms, and you can swing a mean blade for those quick decapitations. Don’t forget those grenades – they come in handy. You can even upgrade your equipment, making them more lethal in battle.
An action-packed horror game that definitely deserves to be on this list!
Live to fight another day.
Leon's got his hands full.
I'm not sure what that thing is, but it looks hungry.
4. Double Dragon Neon
When it comes to beat ‘em ups, no name is more recognizable than Double Dragon.
Your girlfriend is punched in the gut and kidnapped. What do you do? Call the police? Drag the FBI into the mix? Panic? Heck, no! It’s the 80s, and you’re a man! You go to bloody war!
And so goes the story of martial artist Billy Lee and his twin, Jimmy. Level after level, you’ll pave the streets with the battered bodies of your enemies. And in addition to your repertoire of punches and kicks, you can pick up knives, baseball bats, and barrels, and use them against your foes. You can even equip your characters with special mixtapes, which enhances their fighting prowess.
Like all good beat ‘em ups, you can play solo or with a friend. Together, you’ll fight your way through dark alleys, a dojo in outer space, a genetics laboratory, and a creepy cemetery. It’s one of the best 2-player games to enjoy with your best friend, and it’s out now on Steam.
Double trouble.
The soul of a dragon.
A good enemy is a dead enemy.
3. Mortal Kombat X
When 2011’s Mortal Kombat reboot revitalized a franchise that had grown stale from too many uninspired sequels, we knew an excellent follow-up was inevitable.
Then 2015 came along, and with it the exceptional Mortal Kombat X – already being considered by many as the series’ best entry.
With X, Mortal Kombat is back and more gruesome than ever. It injects the franchise with new blood courtesy of eight new characters – some of whom are direct descendants of returning veterans like Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade. Not only are there more than a dozen characters to play as, each fighter also has a trio of distinct fighting styles to choose from, effectively multiplying the roster number by three.
Add to this the return of the much-lauded story mode, robust multiplayer modes, a first-person Krypt, and amazing DLC characters such as Jason Vorhees, the Predator, Leatherface, and the Xenomorph, and it’s no surprise Mortal Kombat X is one of the best 2-player games to enjoy with your best friend!
Sir, what a big sword you have!
Not a fair fight.
Slice and dice.
2. Street Fighter V
One of the best 2-player games to enjoy with your best friend is one that allows you to pummel each other in the face like no other game can: Street Fighter V.
In a move calculated to please all fans, the game’s exceptional roster is a good mixture of the old and the new. Newcomers Rashid and Laura are a perfect fit in Street Fighter mold, while icons like Cammy and Zangief are looking better than ever. Then you’ve got Karin and Rainbow Mika, whom we all have to agree have been absent from the limelight for too long.
But the best thing about the game is how it changes up the formula to make even the old characters feel new. New moves and mechanics, such as the character-specific V-Skills and V-Triggers, will pave the way for a deeper, more tactical fighting game sure to impress casual and hardcore fighting game fans alike.
Of course, Capcom isn’t done improving Street Fighter V. They’re upgrading the game with new features every month. July saw the roll out of the long-awaited cinematic story mode, and we’re still getting new stages, new costumes, and new fan-demanded characters such as Ibuki and Alex. What a great time to be a Street Fighter fan!
That's gotta hurt.
Taking Bison for a spin.
Fancy moves.
1. Overwatch
Overwatch is more than Blizzard’s exceptional competitive shooter – it’s an amazing, colorful story packed with wonderful heroes and villains, not to mention a look and animation quality that rivals Pixar’s best efforts.
Set in the future, the game tells the tale of the now-defunct task force Overwatch, which came into being to fight for humanity during a global robotic uprising known as the Omnic Crisis. As new problems arise, however, it may be time for Overwatch to come out of hibernation.
You have 21 heroes to choose from, and what an eclectic bunch they are! There’s the time-travelling adventurer, Tracer, whose speed and ability to rewind time makes her difficult to kill; D.Va, a South Korean ex-pro gamer who can fight while driving her giant mech or without it; a cyborg ninja named Genji who can kill you with one slash from his sword; a super intelligent gorilla called Winston; and more.
It’s one of 2016’s biggest games, and definitely one of the best multiplayer games to enjoy with your best friend!
Shoot 'em up.
The music of battle.
Heroes never die.
That’s it for our list of the best 2-player games to enjoy with your best friend! Do you feel we left your favorite game out? Tell us in the comments section below!
And if you enjoyed this article, check out the following:
10 Cooperative Games That Require Teamwork to Win
11 Best MMORPGs to Play in 2016
11 Awesome Multiplayer Games Coming Out in 2016
10 Best Multiplayer Horror Games You Should Play With Your Buddies
