Have you and your partner not spoken in days, despite living in the same house? Do you long to rekindle the love you once had, if there was ever anything there at all? This Valentines Day, perhaps try these carefully curated co-op games that will, at the very least, take your mind off the pain.
#11 — It Takes 2
Play as an antagonistic, divorcing couple forced to work together in this innovative puzzle/adventure game. If you’re worried that may be too on the nose, just laugh together at the main characters’ dysfunction and temporarily feel superior. At least you and the person you share a bed with aren’t enemies; you’re just strangers.
#10 — Awkward
This underrated 2018 game will handle the conversation for you! Answer the prompts to personal questions and maybe, dear God, maybe, it will snowball into an actual conversation. Though the game advertises itself as intense and unique, most players find the questions palatable and mundane. Just like the myth of love.
#9 — Portal 2
Let Glados’ deadpan barbs fill the silence for you in this classic 2011 co-op game. Atlas and P-Body only communicate with each other in beeps and gestures, maybe you two could give that a shot?
#8 — Bread and Fred
This well-loved 2023 game is set in a chilly arctic landscape, just like the ice that sits uncomfortably between you two. Work together to climb peak after peak, never quite achieving satisfaction. Maybe you’ll finish the game, or maybe there is no happily ever after in games or in life.
#7 — Golf With Your Friends
Fitting, because the person sitting as far away from you as possible on your couch is more like a very nearby neighbor than your lover. Golf may be the world’s least interesting sport, but nothing could be more boring than the life you’ve made together.
#6 — Snipperclips
Cut out pieces of each other in order to progress, just like how you’ve carved out chunks of each other’s personalities over the years until neither of you can remember who you actually are. You changed yourself for companionship, and what was it worth in the end?
#5 — Minecraft
Sometimes, there’s no beating the classics. Listen to the soothing music while you build separate houses and live out your mutual fantasy of finally separating.
#4 — Goof Troop
Return to a simpler time with this 1993 capcom game. Remember the 90s? Remember when you were young and believed in romance? Remember when anything was possible? God, why can’t we go back?
#3 — Having Affairs
Not all games are played on consoles—some are played with the lives and hearts of those around you. Mutual infidelity makes the silence over your morning coffee tense and salacious, not just cold and awkward. Each sideways glance and bite of scrambled eggs is now loaded with sexy subtext.
#2 — Pong
Why the hell not? It’s just passing a pixel back and forth, like how you’re both constantly passing the buck, hoping the other will instigate the break up first. Nostalgia points because your parents probably played the same game when their love died.
#1 — Having Children
You’ll definitely have things to talk about now. If the silence in your shared home unnerves you, fill that silence and every second of every day with the largest responsibility any two people can share: cultivating human lives. You’ve already done such a bang up job with your own. At least you won’t have to worry about finding games to play together anymore, as you won’t have time for that.
