It Takes Two won Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2021 specifically because it demonstrated what cooperative gaming could achieve when designed for exactly two players from the beginning. Every mechanic, every puzzle, every environmental challenge requires both players to participate — there is no option to carry a less engaged partner. The variety of gameplay types across its 10-12 hour runtime is extraordinary.

Full co-op support for up to four players, with each player controlling their own character, making their own dialogue choices, and contributing to a shared story whose outcome depends on the combined decisions of the whole party. Playing BG3 with friends adds a layer of emergent comedy and drama that solo play cannot produce — the moment a party member makes a catastrophically bad decision in a conversation is uniquely entertaining when experienced together.

Lethal Company is the highest-comedy co-op experience available. The proximity voice chat, the genuine scares, and the inevitable group failures produce content that is best experienced together. Four friends playing Lethal Company for the first time — none of them knowing what to expect — is one of the best possible gaming experiences of 2025. The chaos is the feature.