What’s your best coop gaming moment? | Team Talk

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Playing games together is something special. It has the power to take things to the next level – sometimes literally if you’re particularly bad at platforming, we’re looking at you Rayman Origins – and can be the catalyst for some unforgettable moments.

With Split Fiction already earmarked on many people’s Game of the Year lists, it got us thinking about some of our own coop highlights. (Rest assured we’ll have a review of it for you soon.)

The joy of coop gaming is being able to play together but not necessarily have the same experience. You work as a team and even if your characters do have the same abilities, you still manage to find your own perspective on the action. Often lamenting the unfairness of your fate compared to others is, oddly, part of the fun of it.
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So, cast your mind back, what’s the moment coop really peaked for you? Let us know on our Discord.

And if it’s more cooperative rambling you’re after, then you can delve back into the archives and see what we thought were our most memorable experiences, way back in 2019.

by Team            PTC

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It Takes Two | James Parry

Given that it won Game of the Year all over the place back in 2021 and really sets the standard for coop games in the past few years, It Takes Two is probably a title you’ve heard of, even if you haven’t given it a go yourself.

For me, this was the first time I’ve played through a game start to finish with my wife, and she enjoyed it enough to give Split Fiction a go with me as well.
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The beauty of the game overall is its constant chopping and changing of mechanics and styles between its levels, meaning that there’s new and exciting things around the corner all the time, and even if a section gets a bit tricky, you know it won’t last too long.

As for the best moment, the game’s most memorable are often pretty harrowing, thanks to the dark side of Hazelight Studio’s signature sense of humour, so for my personal best a more uplifting section comes to mind.

The Snow Globe chapter has your tiny characters navigating a winter scene, which gives rise to not only some really fun environmental storytelling, but one of the most fun mechanics - magnets.

Since it’s so simple to understand, its easy to get to grips with, and combined that with skating about on ice, you’ve got yourself a really fun level from start to finish.

Gears 5  | Chris Brand

The original Horde mode from Gears 5 was a gruelling test of endurance, with 50 waves of increasingly difficult enemies. It has since been watered down into Horde Frenzy, with the difficulty curve compressed into a meagre 12 waves, and a successful run is nowhere near as satisfying. Of course, stumbling at the last hurdle is not quite as heartbreaking (screw you, wave 49) but no-one sets out to fail.

My first few attempts were nary more than a learning experience, as I got to grips with the characters, mechanics, maps and enemy types. Over time, I got further and further and the, once seemingly unreachable, wave 50 was tantalisingly close. Then it happened. A run that was going better than any other, until my entire team shit the bed on the afore-screwed wave 49.

Rather than being disheartened, I felt elevated. It wasn't a successful run, but it was close enough that I knew it was possible and I had managed to overcome the biggest obstacle of all: my own restlessness. After sitting in the same place for almost 3 hours (probably for the first time ever), I was energised, focused and determined. The next time I attempted this Herculean feat, I'd be ready for it and get the win.

Nope. Shit the bed, wave 49. A pattern forms. At this point, I was starting to doubt if I'd ever beat the coveted wave 50 but I was having enough fun to keep trying.

Finally, it did happen, thanks to someone playing as the under-appreciated robot, Jack, and securing scores of revives in the later rounds.

Horde Frenzy is still tough, and you shouldn't expect to go all the way without some practice, but that feeling of achievement is significantly lessened.

Baldur's Gate 3 |  Liam Andrews

I’ve had a lot of great coop moments over the years, but I’d have to give one of my most memorable to a very recent game: Baldur’s Gate 3. The memorable moment in question came in the game’s Adamantine Forge area.

Spoiler alerts for anyone who hasn’t played this part yet!

This forge was the location of an epic battle with a giant set of mechanical armour known as Grym, who has a huge amount of health and is invulnerable to pretty much all attack types. Grym will also relentlessly target whichever member of your party offers the most threat.

This made it an incredibly one-sided fight and our party of three was sent packing on numerous occasions. The fight became so frustrating that I was resigned to the fate of loading an earlier save and giving up on the area altogether, when we realised we could use Grym’s targeting system to our advantage to lure it under the forge’s giant hammer.

I placed myself under the hammer and started dealing out attacks to get Grym’s attention, while another of the party stood ready to activate the hammer’s lever and another kept us alive with healing spells. Grym obediently made its way over to me, and the huge hammer was dropped for an instant KO.

It was such a sweet victory that I didn’t even mind that I ended up flattened alongside Grym. After being revived, I left the forge with a lovely new set of adamantine armour and one of my favourite coop memories.