Shack Chat: What is your favorite co-op shooter?

Greetings, and welcome to another Shack Chat. This week, we’ve got Remnant 2 on the brain, a game that’s shaping up to be one of the year’s best, and a must-play for co-op teams that enjoy shooters. With that in mind, Remnant 2’s release had us recalling our favorite co-op shooters. Have a read and see what the Shacknews staff chose, then be sure to leave us a comment in the Chatty thread telling us your favorite co-op game of all-time.

Question: What's your favorite co-op shooter?

Killing Floor 2 - Ozzie Mejia, Senior Friendship Editor

Most of the shooters I play are designed to bring out a competitive element in everyone, but then there are games like Killing Floor 2, where the idea is more than merely taking out mutant enemies. It's also to cement the bonds of friendship with loved ones and also strangers around the world. Nothing brings people together like Zeds stomping our heads in unless it's doing the "make it rain" motion between rounds. Killing Floor could have been one of a bunch of competitive shooters in a crowded lot of them, but I'll always appreciate Tripwire's commitment to making it a PvE bonding exercise.

Borderlands 2 - TJ Denzer, Gunzerking 4 Lyfe

I was okay with Borderlands 1, but I really liked Borderlands 2, and I really liked playing it with my friends. That game was so good in how it improved upon the original. The classes felt so much better, the quests were both ridiculous and incredible, the villain was a certified cad, and there was just so much game to see in terms of creatures to slay and ridiculous amounts of ordinance to slay them with. It’s hard to think of a time I had so much fun blowing hours upon hours in a game like that. There have been very close contenders, but nothing that quite captured the magic of going through Borderlands 2 for the first time.

Gears of War 3 - Asif Khan, Shacknews CEO/EIC/EIEIO

While there are plenty of great co-op shooters to choose from, Gears of War 3 stands above them all in my book. The game’s campaign is an absolute blast to play through with friends, and the Horde Mode is probably the best in the franchise’s history. I added hundreds of hours of replay value after I unlocked the Infinite Ammo mutator, and it was a blast to play the game with ICE-T at Shacknews E4 2020. Gears 3 will always be my co-op shooter goat. RIP DOM.

Remnant 2 - Bill Lavoy, Director of Recency Bias

I’m left with no other option but to choose Remnant 2, as that’s what I’m into now and I’ve enjoyed my co-op sessions with that game immensely. The team composition, the buildcrafting, and the incredible environments and encounters will make this a co-op favorite for many. While I’ve had some co-op time with it already, that was for work purposes. In the next day or two, my after hours team will start its playthrough, and I’m eagerly awaiting that.

I’m going to give an honorable mention to Ghost Recon Wildlands. That game is a blast to play with friends. My group would often put someone on overwatch with a sniper rifle, while one or two other teammates would sneak into a compound and handle the close quarters stuff. It made for some incredible moments, especially when everything went wrong and you ended up in a firefight.

Halo 2 - Sam Chandler, You always take me to such nice places

Could it be anything else? Halo 2 is my baby. It’s my happy place. It’s a game I not only feel like I can excel at, it’s one that I love playing with other people. I used to love playing co-op after school with a mate of mine. We’d spend hours exploring outside of maps, seeing where we could reach in Outskirts. Recently, I played through the entire campaign on LASO (Legendary, All Skulls On) with another friend across dozens of weekends. It was a grueling process but one full of laughs. 

As an aside, I also have thousands of hours of fun clocked in the multiplayer on Xbox Live, which is kind of a co-op? At a stretch. How about: cooperating to eliminate the enemy team? Either way, sign me up for more Halo 2.

Left 4 Dead 2 - Dennis White Jr., Community Manager

There are plenty of games to choose from for this week’s ShackChat and I have fond memories of plenty. But I don’t think I had more fun with friends in a co-op experience than Left 4 Dead 2. With all of the previous game’s maps being available, the creativity of the new maps, and the awesome characters to choose from, I was very excited and the game did not disappoint amongst my group of friends. 

House of the Dead 2 - Steve Tyminski, Stevetendo Show Host

What is my favorite co-op shooter video game? I don’t play too many of these games but I think for this question, I’m going with a classic arcade game, the House of the Dead 2. I have never played the arcade cabinet of House of the Dead without another person so that’s why it’s a co-op to me. I have fond memories of going on vacation at the Jersey Shore, playing House of the Dead 2 with my dad and brother. My dad’s not into video games too much but even he had to play the House of the Dead games. We used to play the Sega Dreamcast version at home too. You need another player to play this with since some of the boss fights are tough as nails. 

There you have it, our staff picks for our favorite co-op shooters. There have been so many good ones over the years that we've undoubtedly missed dozens of worthy mentions. That's why you're here. What is your favorite co-op shooter?

Shack Staff

Shack Staff stories are a collective effort with multiple staff members contributing. Many of our lists often involve entires from several editors, and our weekly Shack Chat is something we all contribute to as a group.