10 Co-Op Games You Should Absolutely Avoid

In the vast world of co-op games, there are unfortunately some that aren’t worth our time or money. Video games that fall into this category can be anything: from those that make you grind too hard to those that are poorly designed or have performance issues.

Whatever the problem, I thought it would be good if all these games were put in one place so you know which cooperative experiences are better left. That way, you can spend less time checking out disappointing releases and more time enjoying better multiplayer experiences with your friends.

10

Skull and Bones

“AAAA” Game Died

Skull and Bones is a crime game that was in development for nearly 11 years, and it delivered a naval-only experience with no shipboards or any meaningful on-foot exploration. Although Ubisoft’s CEO announced it as a “quadruple-A game”, the game does not have a traditional campaign, and instead, features several characters that act as quest providers.

What was the final nail in the coffin for the game was the introduction of small items for a game that already had a price of $70 when it launched in 2024. This move, as you can imagine, did not please the public. Even if you can find loyal fans here and there on various platforms, the game still has a small active player base, and its price has been greatly reduced, so it can now be purchased for less than $10 two years after its release.

9

Redfall

The Fall of Arkane Studio

Redfall is an open world shooter for four players where you hunt down and kill hordes of vampires. In short, I can say that the game was trying, without success, to achieve what games like Left 4 Dead have done. Even though the game is open world, the journey around it gets repetitive quickly, as it revolves around you doing the same few actions over and over again.

AI enemies, whether humans or vampires, can have bugs, attack you in unnatural ways, and make it easy for you to pick them off like clay pigeons. Combined with its other shortcomings, these problems led to poor sales and caused the game to quickly fade from the limelight.

8

Gotham Knights

Batman’s Gone. So is fun

Gotham Knights was conceived as a game where Batman’s sidekicks take center stage after his death. Those playable sidekicks are Robin, Batgirl, Nightwing, and Red Hood. And while the idea is there, the execution is not. The main development of the story is easily predictable, and the combat, which is the core of the game, seems dull and boring.

As you fight enemies, you often fall into the same repetitive loop, hitting them with auto attacks until you charge up your special attack bar to unleash a more powerful strike. Also, some enemy attacks seem inevitable, which, for me, breaks the fun of combat. Finally, there were performance issues, as console players were locked to 30 fps, which disappointed many fans.

7

Overcooked 2

The Game Needs a New Recipe

I know I’m going to be stepping on toes criticizing this game, but hear me out. Overcooked 2 is a fun franchise to play with your friends, and I had a lot of laughs while playing it. My problem with this game is that it needs grinding, which kills the coolness of it.

To unlock new levels in the game, you not only need to complete the old ones but also collect the stars given to you based on your score in that particular level. For a moment, the game is very accessible, and allows you to progress without thinking about how many stars you have in any level. However, that is changing quickly.

After a few stages in the game, you run into a virtual wall where you can’t play the levels in front of you because you haven’t collected enough stars from the previous levels. Therefore, you have to go back to the levels you have already completed, and complete them again with a high score, just so you can get new levels in the later stages of the game. I believe this type of setup punishes players, which is why the game needed to be listed.

6

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

Rocksteady’s legacy is being questioned

When I look at the action shooter Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, I can’t help but think about what this game would be like if it wasn’t all bad. First, this over-the-top game put a lot of focus on guns and turned the members of the Suicide Squad into Counter-Strike characters, where each damage depends more on the shot. Characters are attacked by melee, but the game lacks that melee combat that was so great in the Batman Arkham series.

Although the game has an open world, the journey is often repetitive because the game relies on a limited set of standard equipment types. Finally, there are five different currencies that you will use to upgrade the characters, and one of them is, of course, premium that offers expensive cosmetics through microtransactions. Ultimately, these circumstances combined and many even led to the cancellation of the planned Wonder Woman game.

Have You Heard About Storage Costs?

Metal Gear Survive is a four-player co-op game with a single-player campaign that some players have even referred to as an insult to the entire Metal Gear name. The game puts you in a survival loop where you need to defend yourself from enemies like zombies that are trying to overwhelm you. Sound easy? Well, because it is, and it’s repetitive and boring, mostly because enemies tend to be passive, chase you for a while and have a limited pool of attacks. The story starts with a few interesting mysteries only to reveal disappointing answers later.

However, what I believe to be the game’s biggest flaw and one of the reasons why the community opposed the game is that it decided to charge $10 to buy additional save slots in the game. This is very annoying because if you want to start over with a new character, you have to delete the one you already have or pay. I honestly haven’t heard of anything similar since the PS1 memory card era.

4

Fast & Furious: Showdown

The Only Thing Fast & Furious Here Are Fans Avoiding This Game

I decided to put Fast & Furious: Showdown in this article as an example of one of the worst examples of a franchise game that is quickly pushed to coincide with the release of a movie (in this case, Fast & Furious 6). The game’s co-op campaign, where you can play with one more player locally, includes a standard mission and a replay that can be completed in a few hours.

Additionally, the gameplay was more focused on shooting, with weird weapons like laser guns, since in co-op one player will drive while the other one shoots. This part of the game really misses the focus of the racing franchise, making it completely irrelevant to fans.

3

Hunter: Hunting Grounds

An Asymmetric Co-Op Game Without Balance

Predator: Hunting Grounds is a co-op shooter where a team of four marines needs to complete objectives on the map while a fifth player hunts as a Predator. The map selection is limited to the game with only six main maps where, like in the sea, you will face dumb AI soldiers who usually sit there waiting to be shot.

When you play as a Predator, the first thing you notice is that he is not as powerful as you would like him to be. If a group playing marines sticks together in their missions, it’s almost impossible to beat them as they can melt your HP bar quickly. The fact that the Marines even have a way of reviving their team members makes matters worse when it comes to equality in the game.

2

Aliens: Fireteam Elite

Co-op Shooter Out of Ammo

In Aliens: Fireteam Elite, you will find a decent three-player co-op shooter that reminds you of the Left 4 Dead franchise and does not show any major flaws on the surface. However, when you dive deeper, you start to see things like a shallow grinding loop that takes you to push through narrow paths and clear mobs in designated areas.

Furthermore, I would say that the story of the game is lukewarm and easily forgettable while it fails to capture the intensity of the franchise. Even though it has a solid shooter and can easily eat up your weekend, you will soon get the feeling that you would have been better off playing Left 4 Dead 2 instead.

1

Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr

You are a martyr for Playing This

Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr presented as a PvE action RPG project in the style of Diablo, but in the Warhammer 40K universe. Even though it had a good idea, the game was disappointing with its slow and slow combat where the different classes with their own fighting styles didn’t combine into meaningful combos. Playing a class like the Crusader, for example, can feel very easy as you aim down enemies until they move.

The game has also had many reports of freezing and FPS drops, with friendly co-op matches being run over and over again. In addition, if you equip gear above your character’s power level, your damage is reduced, making stronger-looking items a worse choice than weaker ones. This confusing factor leaves most of us wondering what our best choice for a particular device is.