Action

Darksiders

Website: Darksiders

Current Status: Completed

I received this game via a Humble Bundle for Christmas from a friend. I admit it sat lonely in my Steam collection from some time, but it peaked my interest one day. The rest is history. It was actually one of the first games I completed in a fairly decent amount of time. It is packed with action, puzzles, story, the whole deal. I developed an absolute love for the series and company behind this marvelous piece of work.

Darksiders II

Website: Darksiders II

Current Status: Not Completed

You pick up in the storyline as, Death, War’s brother and one of the four horseman. For me, sadly, Darksiders II is a yet another game, I meant to play through completely, but have yet to do so. My son picked up interest in it at some point, and progressed my game to a point where, I feel like I’ll need to start over, but haven’t really got around to it at this point and time. I will say, I thoroughly enjoyed the play through I accomplished to date on my own, and I certainly want to go back and finish up what has become one of my favorite game series.

Darksiders III

Website: Darksiders III

Current Status: Not Completed

It is time that you see Fury shine. In this installment you play one of the horseman, Fury. Perhaps it is just my aging reflexes, but my first attempt at Darksiders III went horribly wrong. I did attempt a controller setup at some point as well, which again, was not successful. Given I want to eventually experience the full story, adventure, and playthrough on all the series, I hope to make it back to Darksiders III again some day. Hopefully, with a bit more success than my previous run.

Darksiders: Genesis

Website: Darksiders: Genesis

Current Status: Not Completed

A friend and I have worked through a few chapters of Darksiders Genesis to date, but along with a slew of other games in my list, we have not completed it. Our online play tends to go over numerous other games listed on our about page, which in some aspects have stalled my ability to go through some of these solo and small co-op games at times. The chapters we have made it through however, have certainly held some enjoyment for me. My wife and I also recently made an attempt, but ended up having to quit due to the sheer number of bugs and issues we were running into. I was disappointed to say the least, but perhaps one day I’ll get to finish up the previous game with a different co-op mode or maybe I’ll find time to walk through it solo.

Borderlands

Website: Borderlands

Current Status: Not Completed

Borderlands introduced some of us gamers into a wild ride of action, weapons, character development, and content. I feel like it was in a genre all of its own in its initial release. Most of our group didn’t actually play through the game solo, and instead ran through it together. The random loot, gave such as an action rpg feel, while the character development felt similar to a RPG. It provided us all with a decent amount of time as we roamed through the wastelands together aiding those in need.

Borderlands 2

Website: Borderlands 2

Current Status: Not Completed

An amazing addition to the Borderlands series with tons of content to boot. Borderlands 2 made its way into the hands of our group quite a bit later than its initial release. Never-the-less it also provided us with days of action packed adventure, much like Borderlands did. We still visit it every now and then, and I’m always happy to load it up when the group does manage to come around to another play through of some sort.

Grim Dawn

Website: Grim Dawn

Current Status: Not Completed

I actually purchased this game on a whim during a Steam sale. I love action rpg games, and its rare I get to really dive into them. Sadly, I have not really even scratched the surface of what Grim Dawn has to offer. The game certainly seems well polished, and the little interaction I’ve had with the community leads me to believe it is indeed a great game.

Titan Quest

Website: Titan Quest

Current Status: Not Completed

Yet another hidden gem I got from a Humble Bundle gift that sat in my Steam list for some time. The character development in this game is vast, with what appeared to be almost endless possible combinations. It comes across as an almost cult classic amongst the action rpg community, with players that have been playing since its release still going strong even today.

Vampire Survivors

Website: Vampire Survivors

Current Status: No Ending

I was gifted this masterpiece over the Thanksgiving Holiday. This game is absolutely fantastic. I admit it starts out a bit slow, and the starting character isn’t all that great. That said, it is highly addictive and just worlds of fun. You can unlock other characters to adjust the gameplay to more your style, there are achievements, hyper modes, power ups that you can unlock for all your characters, relics to gain in numerous stages, and you can evolve your weapons to much stronger versions during gameplay. The graphics remind me of perhaps something you might have seen on the original NES or perhaps the SNES, but in my opinion, the gameplay more than makes up for that. It is simple and fun. It is certainly one of those games that are great for just a quick match or to pass some time playing something you might enjoy. Our group highly recommends it!

Rayman Legends

Website: Rayman Legends

Current Status: Completed

While it certainly is an older game at this point, I knew my wife liked most of the Rayman franchise, and thought it would be nice to be able to play it together on my PC. We both use XBox One style controllers. Over all the game is still nice, and several of the parody based songs in the final stages of the campaign like play style have been fantastic. It was quite a bit of fun for the both of us.

Super Bomberman R

Website: Super Bomberman R

Current Status: Completed

I picked up this semi-classic title to play with my wife during our co-op sessions. It was quite a bit of fun for us both, and certainly brought back some memories of our previous Bomberman games we played on the SNES. We had no interest in fighting each other, and played through the story mode instead. While the game was certainly a good one, it was a rather quick adventure, all things considered. We decided against going back through on other difficulties, though even the difficulty we choose was certainly a challenge when you are trying to coordinate your progression, movements, and bomb placements with a team mate.

The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series

Website: Skybound Games

Current Status: Completed

TWD: TTDS is certainly not your typical adventure or action game, but it is still a miraculous piece of work, no doubt. My son and I took a semi-co-op style approach to this game awhile back. We would effectively sit at one of our PCs and attempt to quickly agree on the decision to be made by the current character in play. It was a project we started some time ago, that got pushed to the back burner for longer than either of us would care to admit. In a turn of events, we didn’t realize we were on the last episode of the seasons we had access too. After a recent rebuild on the PC we were playing we found all our previous progress was lost (Oops, pretty much my fault there. I thought it had Steam Cloud. Lesson learned. It does not. Gamers be ware.). In any case, we rolled on through the best we could on the last episode and completely what we believe was a work of art, just last weekend. If choose your own adventures are your thing; you love story and depth. I would imagine this would be a great game for you to try!

Quest Hunter

Website: Quest Hunter

Current Status: Completed

I picked up this gem on sale to set back for my wife and I to play later. It started out a bit rough as you can progress yourself relatively quickly and find yourself in areas you are not particularly well equipped or leveled for. It has a decent mix of humor, with various abilities for your character, and gear to equip them. In our playthrough, I opted to do more control and ‘tanking’, while my wife is setting her character more towards a damage role. The balance has worked out far better than our initial start, and certainly compliments our play style a bit more. Quest Hunter looks like a great game to play with your friends and family, although it certainly can be played solo.

TIP: If you are struggling with completing the Deal with Animalizing, and Helping a Stranger quests in Strangewood. You need to go ahead and fight the boss in the Mountain Pass to open the ‘Strange Ship’ area for exploration. From there you can initialize the dialogue required to complete 3 quests over all in Strangewood.

Sackboy: A Big Adventure

Website: Sackboy: A Big Adventure

Current Status: Completed

This is one of those games where I feel like the marketing might have failed it. To be fair, I get the reasoning behind the name, based on the character, art, and graphics. It’s a title I likely otherwise would have never gave a second thought about. All that said, it’s actually a great game! My wife and I played it on my PC via co-op with XBox controllers. It has a kind of Mario World like feel too it, fantastic humor, and really is just loads of fun. We’ve certainly had our fair share of laughs at the humor and mishaps in our run through the game. The customization of the characters is a very nice addition to the gameplay, and all of the interactions we’ve had in gameplay seem to reflect your chosen skins and alterations. The devs certainly did some great work with all that, and I suspect it was quite a bit of extra animation, cinematic, and coding as well.

Castle Crashers

Website: Castle Crashers

Current Status: Not Completed

I picked up this game during a Steam Summer Sale on a recommendation from my son. It allows for split/screen co-op and has full controller support. In fact, the game actually recommends the use of a controller. My son and I have had a few casual play throughs on my PC, although he had played it prior on XBox One. The Behemoth, have created quite a fun packed game with this title. I love the uniqueness of each knight character, and the ability to customize to your playstyle while leveling. Like several other games I have mentioned recently, it is simple over all, yet fun. Some of the battles can be a bit chaotic at times, and there is enough challenge to keep your attention. Even at full retail, it’s certainly a value in my opinion. I’m hopeful to make a run through the game later with my wife as well, or maybe with several of us together, since it appears to support up to 4 players.

Red Dead Redemption Online

Website: Rockstar Games

Current Status: No Ending

This game spawned from my son’s request to play it. We caught it on sale during a Steam Winter sale. I admit, initially, I was a bit apprehensive about the idea, but ultimately, my son has played countless games, including games he doesn’t particularly care for on my behalf. I figured it was only fair that I give him the opportunity to pick a game for us to play. I’m glad I did!

Grand Theft Auto V

Website: Rockstar Games

Current Status: Not Completed

After trying Red Dead Online, I decided I was going to expand my view a bit on games, and pick up Grand Theft Auto V with the next Steam sale. My son, jumped the gun so to speak, and caught a sale on it and purchased it for me. My thoughts were that I was really enjoying Red Dead Online, save for the influx of hackers, of course, and I might actually enjoy some aspects of GTA:V. Especially considering that Rockstar Games devotes a massive amount of time to this ip of their empire. My son mentioned quite a few things that sound like it could be fun, such as heists and other co-op related activities. The co-op related activities tending to be what I enjoy most.

Destiny 2

Website: Bungie

Current Status: Retired

Destiny 2 technically could fall into several various gaming genres. Steam lists it as an action / adventure game. While, I admit Destiny 2 does have some MMO elements, to me, it doesn’t exactly fit in the MMO category. MMOs are typically about large player interactions. Some of these interactions are obviously limited, but generally in a MMO you will have hubs and other areas where a very large number of players are present. To my knowledge, Destiny 2 is mostly instances of a group of players taking on content in most cases. From what I’ve gathered, and at this time, I believe that cap is 6 on Raid content. All that said, the uniqueness of the game as an action FPS / RPG has caught the attention of at least a decent portion of our gaming group, and we have been having quite a bit of fun playing Destiny 2.

Trine Enchanted Edition

Website: Frozenbyte

Current Status: Completed

I was tempted to actually place the game in CO-OP because it makes an absolutely fantastic CO-OP game! The unique abilities of each character: Rogue, Wizard, and Knight make for some very interesting game play. It’s packed with puzzles, combat, and for an older game, it certainly has a nice sense of beauty. It is a game that I’m certain would be fun to play solo, but it is an absolute blast to play with someone else!

Trine 2: Complete Story

Website: Frozenbyte

Current Status: Completed

Trine 2: Complete Story apparently includes the expansion Trine 2: Goblin Menance. A rather nice addition included for their gaming community if I don’t say. The work Frozenbyte has done to improve some of their older ips is amazing to me. It’s not often game companies will take the time to do such things on games of age past. I can only hope Trine 2: Complete Story is as action packed with puzzles, combat, laughs, and great times as the first Trine I played: Trine: Enchanted Edition.

Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power

Website: Frozenbyte

Current Status: Completed

The 3rd installment of what has turned out to be a truly remarkable series of games. My wife and I absolutely loved Trine: Enchanted Edition and Trine 2: Complete Story. We are both looking forward to seeing Amadeus the Wizard, Pontius the Knight, and Zoya the Thief again! What beautiful scenery, wonderous adventures, and interesting puzzles might await us!?

Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince

Website: Frozenbyte

Current Status: Completed

The 4th installment of the series boasts it has moved back to the 2.5D gameplay. My wife and I did enjoy the 3D aspects of Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power, however, it did have some rather troubling situations with the camera and gameplay in our co-op style gameplay. I later picked up the DLC for Trine 4: Melody of Mystery, and my wife and I worked through that content as well. Just an absolutely fantastic game and series of games!

Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy

Website: Frozenbyte

Current Status: Completed

The 5th installment of the Trine series also uses the 2.5D gameplay aspect. This lovely addition was published by none other than: THQNordic! As you can see by some of the games listed on our page, I’m a fan! My wife and I have certainly enjoyed all the adventures the Trine series has to offer! Frozenbyte claims Trine 5 is “Trine’s deepest and visually richest chapter to date, with an all new cast of characters – some friends, some foes, but all unforgettable.”

Children of Morta

Website: Dead Mages

Current Status: Completed

“Children of Morta is an action RPG with a rogue-lite approach to character development, where you don’t play a single character – but a whole, extraordinary family of heroes. Children of Morta sets its story in a distant land but copes with themes closer to our daily lives that one would expect. It is a story of simple emotions we all know so well and value more than sometimes we dare to admit: love and hope, longing and uncertainty, ultimately loss and sacrifice we are willing to make to save the ones we care the most for.” This is a title my wife seemed to be interested in for some of our co op gaming sessions. It’s a bit outside of the realm of what she would generally play, but seems to hold potential for quite a few great adventures to come!

Chained Together

Website: Anegar Games

Current Status: Completed

“From the depths of hell, climb chained to your friends through diverse worlds. Solo or co-op, try to reach the summit and discover what awaits you there…”

My gut tells me this game should technically fit the Co-Op games, but it’s classified as adventure / action. To be fair, it appears there is a solo play option, so I decided to ignore my gut on this one, and place it where I seen it via other platforms. I purchased Chained Together to play co-op with Qvaid, but my son and I actually delved into it late one Saturday night for a short, but fun test run. Should that interest you, you can read about the first trial run on a Hobbit Plays post, here.