Summary
Open worldsare one of the most beloved elements in a game, as they allow players to explore however they want,trigger exciting side quests, and try different methods to progress through the story, all while leveling up, and meeting or recruiting new characters to their party. When developers add split-screen to that already wonderful concept, the result is a series of vast games offering hours of fun through cooperation.
Over the years, there have been many titles that combine collaboration with limitless exploration, and while a few have swung and missed, the majority of them have received critical acclaim and are still cherished by thousands of gamers, regardless of their age or era. Here are thebest open-world games thatsupport split-screen co-op.
A prehistoric setting with dangerous dinosaurs, an open-world concept, and modern technology sounds like they wouldn’t mix well, but they do.Ark: Survival Evolvedwill have players explore an island teeming with dangers. They’ll have to establish a base, gather resources, and craft weapons in order to survive this inhospitable place. With about 194 creatures populating Ark, the fictional setting of the game, it’s safe to say there’s plenty to discover.
The split-screen co-op mechanics for console versions are fairly simple. All players have to do to access this mode is start a game and have the other player press a few buttons to then proceed to the character creation window. For PC, it’s a lot more complicated, as there doesn’t seem to be a dedicated split-screen mode. However, players shouldn’t despair, as there are many ways to brute force split-screen gaming, one of them beingNucleus Co-Opsoftware.
It should be noted, though, that this program will require running two separate versions of the game, so it might not be the best choice for lower-end PCs that can’t handle the workload.
For many hardcoreGears of Warveterans, it was quite difficult to finishGears of War 3and come to the (at the time correct) conclusion that that was going to be the end of the series. Luckily, in 2016, they were all proven wrong with the release ofGears of War 4, and its 2019 sequel,Gears 5.The new trilogy titles took a few risks and managed to make considerable changes without losing the franchise’s fandom — all while under a new developer, switching from Epic Games to The Coalition after Microsoft purchased the IP.
Gears 5is the first title in the franchise to pursue an open-world format, and, as expected when venturing into a new game mechanic, it has a couple of rough patches along the way. While the campaign can’t be compared with those from the original trilogy, it’s still very fun to decimate The Swarm.
Gears 5offers a split-screen co-op mode for its campaign, where up to 3 players can participate locally at the same time. Considering that, every day, fewer games offer a split-screen feature natively on PC and prefer to stick to consoles, this is a nice thing to have.
Ever since the firstDiablogame came out back in 1996, players have fallen in love with the turn-based RPG franchise, always asking for more releases and additional content.With the release ofDiablo 4, the latest in the franchise’s long history, players have been given yet another title packing hours of fun, tons of weapons, characters, and items, and of course, hellish and challenging bosses.
PlayingDiablo 4in split-screen co-op is fairly simple on a console, but there are some considerations to take into account. It’s possible to play split-screen locally with a friend with a single copy of the game; however, to play online with someone who’s not in the same location, both players must have their own copy to play together through the matchmaking menu.
As for PC, things are a little more complicated since there’s no native split-screen option. As mentioned earlier, there are many workarounds to this, but a sufficiently powerful PC is required for many of them.
WhentheBorderlandsfranchisefirst got its start, it immediately broke the mold and became one of gamers' favorite titles worldwide due to its irreverent world design, unique art style, snappy combat, and unfathomable amounts of unique loot. Luckily, the torch was carried wonderfully by the sequel,Borderlands 2, introducing new enemies, weapons, and bosses to defeat.
It’s important to note thatBorderlands 2was initially released for the PS3 and Xbox 360, which were powerful enough for their time and could run games very well at 30 fps, but were also known to struggle occasionally with certain split-screen titles. Fortunately,Borderlands 2was not on that list, and ran smoothly in single-player and in split-screen co-op mode, allowing players to explore Pandora and watch each other’s backs in the process.
Set in the medieval fantasy open-world of Rivellon,Divinity: Original Sin 2explores the years following the death of Lucian, a human with enormous power who was praised as the “Divine”. The game has a fair number of characters, NPCs, anda wide variety of powerful skills— the iconic RPG class system is also present and well-developed. Unlike other titles on this list,Divinity: Original Sin 2does have a native PC split-screen mode; however, there’s a caveat.
Players will have to use two controllers, as it’s not possible to have one player using a mouse and keyboard, and the other a gamepad. All in all, it’s a small price to pay in exchange for getting a native feature that most other developers overlook completely.
