DEAD BY DAYLIGHT
Dead by Daylight is PC survival horror title that tasks players with completing several tasks to escape an enclosed area while one player controls a killer that is chosen from several roles: Trapper, the Wraith, the Hillbilly, the Nurse, Michael Myers, the Ha,g or the Doctor; each of which has his/her own ability. The human players have to either repair a certain number of generators or by escape through a trap door. The trap door only appears when one player is left standing. The players can see where teammates are once they’ve been downed by the killer, making it easy to rescue other team members. Other advantages that the survivors have over the killer is the sound of a heartbeat and tense music that will appear once the killer is near. The killer can’t exactly run, but can walk much faster than the survivors, making his approach to survivors that much scarier. Work together with the other survivors to escape the mass murderer or end up dead and alone.
Dead by Daylight is currently only available for PC but there is a planned release for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on June 20.
DEAD SPACE 3
The Dead Space series has done a fantastic job at making a name for itself as the king of space horror. The first two titles featured an engineer Issac Clarke who embarks on a solo adventure with nobody by his side except for creepy, multi-limbed Necromorphs. Visceral Games made a hard turn once they developed Dead Space 3 – this was the first time that a Dead Space game has featured a full-on cooperative campaign mode with drop-in/drop-out online play. If you’re too scared of shooting monsters by your lonesome, then you and a friend can team up and make the experience not so scary.
What’s really cool is that whether or not you play online, the story won’t be changed at all – there are seamless transitions while playing with a second person that won’t have an effect on the plot in any way.
ZOMBIU
ZombiU originally came out as a Ubisoft launch title for the Nintendo Wii U. The game was later ported to current consoles by the name of Zombi. As a launch title for a system that didn’t do so well in terms of sales, ZombiU turned out to be an incredibly terrifying experience that extensively used the Wii U’s Gamepad in a pretty unique way, especially for multiplayer.
During normal gameplay, you would use the touchscreen to manage your backpack of items and weapons. What was really scary was the fact that the game did not pause while you were organizing your inventory so you would literally have to keep checking the television screen to make sure that there weren’t any zombies nearby who would interrupt your tidying up session.
In ZombiU, the multiplayer was unfortunately offline only, but having the Gamepad by your side would make the competitive modes really interesting and a blast to play with a friend. One mode in particular, King of Zombies, would put one player as the king who is able to use the Gamepad to place zombies in certain spawn points, attempting to kill the other player who is controlling a human on the TV screen. As the levels go on, the King can spawn even more powerful zombies as the player gets access to more firepower. King of Zombies makes for a high-octane multiplayer mode that might make test your friendship.
LEFT FOR DEAD 2
Left 4 Dead 2 takes zombie killing to the next level with tons of multiplayer content and a wide range of customization options to make playing with friends a necessity. Set during the aftermath of an apocalyptic event, Left 4 Dead 2 leaves you with four survivors who fight against hordes of zombies that are extremely aggressive. The first-person shooter features five game modes, four of which are multiplayer-focused and one that is called Realism Mode that strips away some of the video game aspects of your typical shooter, like being able to revive and seeing where your partners are, making it necessary to communicate with teammates even more than usual.
Versus mode lets human players take control of the infected and their mission is to try to prevent the survivors from completing a stage. The two teams swap sides once per stage, and are scored based on their stage progress as survivors. Survival mode is more cooperative because it has all four human characters fighting together to survive wave after wave of the infected. This takes full cooperation and communication to ensure that you and your buddies don’t end up being dinner for the zombies.
RESIDENT EVIL 6
Resident Evil 6 was the last title before the series was “rebooted” with Resident Evil 7. That being said, the sixth entry in the beloved horror franchise contained tons of content and the online/local Mercenaries mode proved to be as much fun as the main game itself.
Not only is the entirety of the Resident Evil 6 campaign available for online and co-op multiplayer, there is also a Mercenaries mode that has you killing zombies in a limited amount of time in an enclosed stage as you try to amass as many points as possible by keeping up with combos and chains. There are multiple characters to choose from that hail from the Resident Evil series and they come equipped with certain weapons and items. You must work alone or with a friend to get the highest score possible, which means that working together is a must if you plan on achieving that prestigious S rank.
DEAD NATION
Housemarque games are no strangers to arcade shooters, whether that be their PS4 title Resogun or their PS3 zombie-killing title, Dead Nation. Fight your way through 10 levels of a destroyed city that is rampant with all kinds of different zombies. This twin-stick shooter had players collect items and money so that before every level, you would be able to upgrade your weapons, buy health packs, and stock up on much-needed explosives.
Dead Nation features two-player multiplayer which can be done locally or online on the PS3. If you’re looking for the same experience on the PS4, look no further. Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition released in 2014 for the system and comes included with the Road of Devastation downloadable content pack that focused on continuous survival and presented players with upgrade paths instead of new stages.
DYING LIGHT
Dying Light’s four-player multiplayer pits players against an unstoppable player-controlled zombie that’s basically unkillable. Like Dead by Daylight’s multiplayer, Dying Light tasks players with objectives to complete while being chased down by a Night Hunter, an incredibly fast and terrifying creature. As part of the cooperative mode, the four players must destroy zombie nests and set up explosives to draw the attention of other survivors.
The main campaign is also playable with up to four friends in co-op mode. The multiplayer adds a deep layer to the zombie-killing, parkour-filled world of Dying Light and makes running around a post-apocalyptic city extra amusing.
