6 Best Multiplayer and Co-Op Games of January 2018

MONSTER HUNTER: WORLD

The highly anticipated Monster Hunter: World finally released to console users in January, offering a story mode continuing through the high rank quests for the first time in the series’ history. As an elite hunter, you traverse various locales to trap or kill monsters to loot their bodies and make your armor and weapons even stronger for the next inevitable monster fight.

Monster Hunter: World also allows you to play with other random players and your friends alike to help take down monsters. Going to the gathering hub will allow you to make squads, post quests, and join others in their servers so you can fight one monster simultaneously together. The more people that join a fight, the harder the monster will become to take down.

Multiplayer servers can support up to 16 players, with quests having four people available to go at a time. If only two players go out together, their Palico cat buddies can come along to the fight as well. More than two and just the hunters will fight together.

Monster Hunter: World released for PS4 and Xbox One on Jan. 26, and is coming to PC users at a later time in 2018.

THE ESCAPISTS 2 (NINTENDO SWITCH)

Top-down strategy game The Escapists 2 has you attempt to break out of the toughest and most secure prisons in the world. As you go about your day as a prisoner, you learn more and more about the layout and schedule of the prison until you finally escape and use all the information you have collected to break out.

You can attempt to escape the prison alone, or team up with up to three friends with drop-in/drop-out couch co-op multiplayer. If you don’t mind playing with randoms, you can also team up online or even try out a versus mode where you try and be the first person in the group to escape the prison. Once you get out you can even settle the score with a battle brawl in the courtyard with your once teammates.

The Escapists 2 already released for PC, PS4, and Xbox One in August 2017, however last month it officially came to Nintendo Switch on Jan. 11.

FORGED BATTALION

As a Commander in Forged Battalion, you manage a faction of growing units and factories to find success in battle with various vehicles including infantries, light vehicles, heavy vehicles, and aircrafts. In the story campaign you fight with The Resistance against the growing threat of the military force, The Collective, after the world has been weakened as a result of the climate change crisis.

There is also online multiplayer where up to seven players can participate in various online modes to battle their factions against each other on dedicated servers. There are options to fight against each other or cooperatively against a unified enemy.

Forged Battalion released for early access on PC on Jan. 16.

KIRBY BATTLE ROYALE

Who better to fight Kirby than Kirby himself? In Kirby Battle Royale you choose from 13 different abilities to compete in 10 different battle types where it’s Kirby versus Kirby to the death.

Up to four player can fight against each other in local and online co-op. Some of the modes include Slam Hockey where you smack a puck to try and hit the enemy team, Robo Bonkers where you try and launch as many rockets as you can into a giant robot monster, Battle Arena where the last one standing wins, and many more.

The different abilities each have their own move sets and a special hat for Kirby to wear to tell him apart form the rest. Some of the abilities include Ninja, Sword, Ice, Doctor, Cutter, and more.

Kirby Battle Royale released exclusively for the 3DS on Jan. 19.

DRAGON BALL FighterZ

Dragon Ball Z fans were very happy last month, as the highly anticipated Dragon Ball FighterZ finally released to very positive reception.

The fights look like they are coming right from the anime, with the entire game truly feeling like fan service to lovers of the series. Dragon Ball FighterZ has a story mode that includes a new character by the name of Android 21 who was created under the supervision of Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama himself.

There are also numerous online features including an interactive lobby, ranked matches to rise to the top, and a party match where you and five others can battle like mad with insane combinations.

Dragon Ball FighterZ released for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on Jan. 26.

 DISSIDIA: FINAL FANTASY NT

24 of the Final Fantasy series’ most well-known characters have gathered in Dissidia: Final Fantasy NT to fight in 3v3 battles, where in solo play you can switch between the characters in your three person team while AI controls the other two.

Characters have four classes including range-based Marksmen, agility-based Assassins, power-based Vanguards, and trait-based Specialists. While fighting you can preform Brave attacks that slowly increase your Bravery level and therefore allow you to deal more damage.

The game also has optional online multiplayer, where 2-6 players can fight together and try to emerge victorious as you team up or fight against your friends.

Dissidia: Final Fantasy NT released on the PS4 on Jan. 30. If you’re still looking for a co-op game to play then why not check out the best co-op games of October, November, and December 2017.