Do you love board games and would like to experience them in a way that drops the competitive aspect to feel more like going with your friends on an epic world-saving quest?
Then it’s time you drop the likes of Risk and Monopoly to engage with games where the only opponent is the game itself, and the end goal really is making friends along the way. Here’s our list of the best cooperative board games to play right now.
10. Exit: The Game
If you, grew up watching the Saw films like me, you likely have an inexplicable thing for escape room-type games. Exit: The Game allows you to enlist your friends to solve the toughest riddles in the history of board games.
This series has many games, each coming with novice, intermediate, or expert difficulty settings. You can start with an easier one until you get enough experience to tackle the tougher ones, or head straight into the Catacombs of Horror if you find your current game to feel like child’s play to your team’s already massive hive brain.
The only real downside of the Exit games is their limited replayability. You’ll probably only truly enjoy each of its offerings the first time you play them, or at least until you forget the solution to every puzzle.
9. Forbidden Island
You and your friends are stranded on a sinking island. You must work together to get out of this always procedurally generated predicament before it sinks and brings you and your friends to the bottom of the ocean with it. The premise is as simple as the gameplay itself, but not all great board games need to be extremely complex.
Forbidden Island is one of the best games you can play with your younger family members or friends who aren’t sold on board games yet.
8. The Mind
If you want a game that is more about exploring your group’s dynamics than having extremely unique or complex mechanics, then The Mind is an excellent pick. It’s a card-based game where you have to be mentally in tune with your friends while avoiding verbal communication as you attempt to overcome the game’s challenges. The Mind is somewhat simple but fun and provides great training for any group that wants to find alternative means of getting in sync.
7. Zombiecide: Black Plague
Even if you’re already suffering from any degree of Zombie-genre fatigue, I must try to once again pull you back in by talking about an awesome Zombie game that features a unique twist in the genre.
Zombiecide: Black Plague ditches the usual modern-day setting to get you and your friends to embody a bunch of fantasy characters straight out of a regular D&D campaign and go from scenario to scenario until you put an end to the zombie threat.
Think of it as a turn-based version of Left 4 Dead, where instead of assault rifles, you pick up the best weapons of medieval times to slay as many zombies as you can. What’s not to like?
6. Pandemic
Pandemic has you coordinating with your team to employ the best strategies that you can muster in an attempt to prevent the world from getting overrun by various diseases.
Though not the first of its kind, 2008’s Pandemic is the game that really got the ball running for cooperative board games. Matt Leacock’s brainchild is responsible for inspiring a slew of great and highly successful titles and also spawned numerous expansions and spinoffs. Still, I’d argue that the original game remains the most fun you can have when employing your friends as you try to stop a deadly disease from overtaking the world.
5. Nemesis: Lockdown
Do you like Alien, Dead Space, Returnal, DOOM, or Event Horizon? Of course you do, and Nemesis: Lockdown brings you all the horrors of the aforementioned plus a dash of paranoia in a package that you can share with your friends.
You’ll find your team stranded on a Martian base that has been breached by an evil alien entity that will kill any person it detects. Nemesis will have you and your teammates coordinate to stealthily perform a bunch of tasks required to survive. Nemesis is one of the most tense board games you’ll ever play and, thus, likely one of the most memorable out there.
4. Arkham Horror
How do you get something as family-friendly as a board game to convey actual horror? While there’s no singular answer, designer Nikki Valens pulled it off by making a board game that’s just incredibly challenging. The original Arkham Horror takes no prisoners while pitting a group of friends up against an old Lovecraftian horror, and you might learn that the very first time you engage with it.
My first attempt at getting into the game saw one of my party members dying on their very first roll of the dice. Sure, we were set up against the toughest horror the game could throw at us, but that taught us never to be unlucky again.
3. Arkham Horror: The Card Game
Defeating the cosmic horrors seen in H.P. Lovecraft’s body of work should be too much for a human to handle alone. It might prove too much even for a good team of humans. If you’d like to avoid the bummer of getting wiped out after putting in long hours, then I recommend Arkham Horror: The Card Game. It is just as good but will likely take you a lot less time to complete. Both are excellent options.
2. Gloomhaven
If you’re looking for the blockbuster of board games, then look no further than the incredibly heavy Gloomhaven. The huge and hefty-priced box isn’t just for show, though, as this game provides you with one hell of a package.
Gloomhaven is less of a board game for single sessions and more of a treasure trove of epic long-term adventures you can take your friends on. Gloomhaven’s quests don’t have to be extremely long, but they can reach hundreds of hours if you want them to.
This is the one you should give a shot if you want something similar to Dungeons & Dragons in theme but without roleplay elements, focusing on a tactical combat approach that more pragmatic players are sure to enjoy.
1. Spirit Island
This is one of the many games that likely took inspiration from Pandemic, and one many claim to have surpassed the original. Instead of fighting disease, you and your friends are tasked with defending your island against colonizers. Regardless of your preferred game, I’d say this premise is easily the coolest of the two.
Spirit Island requires players to assume different asymmetrical roles with each new session. It’s a highly challenging title that might put off some because of its complexity, but it might just be the most rewarding co-op board game for people who go the extra mile to give what the island demands of them.
Published: Aug 22, 2024 04:59 pm