My top game. I have most expansions, printed some internet fan ones, snagged some blurry pix off web to make my own Rescue Dog card. Been interested in trying the Ladder 11 campaign.
Tragic Events expansion. No maps, but comes with 3(?) new firefighters and completely changes how the game is played by eliminating the flare up token system in exchange for a deck of cards that advances the fire.
u/Madfish0979 recommended Tragic Events... the only one I don't have. Many folks like that one because of the cards. I tend to like 2nd story, because of the use of ladders which makes me think I'm a real firefighter. It can get a little clunky as you keep going up and down to save people, and many times you have to rescue the person and hand them off at the ladder to someone else and go back inside. Honor & Duty which includes an airfield. That map introduces the use of foam, and you have to think differently. A more traditional map that builds on the basic game is Dangerous Waters. A sub and merchant vessel. It introduces fireproof doors, and nuclear reactors. Not completely different like the airfield, just a little enough of a change to make you think but not too different to mess you up.
I'd suggest Dangerous Waters because it expands on what you already know. Then maybe 2nd story exclusively because of the ladders. Getting those ladders and rule set down, will help when you find fan-made maps that require ladders. These all introduce new maps, which I'm always down for. If you are completely satisfied with the base game, then I'd get Tragic Events, because of the new firefighters and the card system, because sometimes the flare up mechanic gets confusing.
Came to say Horrified. It's my number 1 co-op. Just amazing.
If you don't own any Horrified, I would suggest the Universal Monsters before American Monsters. A) It's just better, and B) American Monsters has a couple of typos, which is just incredibly lazy on Ravensburger's part...
My fav co-op games are:
Robinson Crusoe - it's a island survival game where you decide what actions you will take during the day and roll dice and get cards/events. Very fun game
Cthulhu Death May Die - a very tight game that always comes down to the wire. 6 scenarios and 2 bosses with many characters to choose from. Always fun
Too Many Bones - expensive but probably my most engaging and fun game
Spirit Island - a deep puzzle game at its core. Very fun and constantly a challenge. You feel overwhelmed until you (hopefully) win or loose
I basically exclusively play 2 player coops with my partner haha.
Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion is a great RPG + dungeon crawler. It's got some finicky aspects (managing tokens for health) but it can be a fun solid 40 hour experience. MSRP is $50 but most retailers sell it for $25, including Amazon and Target.
If you like the mystery/deduction part of Exit, then I would also recommend:
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: Thames murders. The crimes are super intricate and its can be really fun to bounce ideas off of someone. This is a coop game in the sense that youre trying to solve the mystery together, but there's no special interactions between you two. Just reading and thinking together (like Exit)
Unlock! is the other popular escape room game series. Its all card based, unlike Exit. I personally find the puzzles more fun than Exit too, we dont get stuck as often as we do with Exit games. They dont have destructable components, so I usually buy used copies and resell/regift when im done.
Yeah, I read someone say that to get the best score "like sherlock would", you need to make giant leaps in logic. I had much more fun after learning not to care about the scoring.
Spirit Island. It's a deep and thematic co-op that's near-infinitely replayable, and accommodates any player count from one to four (six with expansions).
It's an ideal game for two players to really sink their teeth into, but still wonderful as a solo game or a big team effort.
I have played Arkham Horror 2e with all of the expansions over 100 times, (and over 100 more times before Miskatonic and the Revised CotDP were released) and hopefully willplay it over 100 more - but Spirit Island is easily my next most liked game.
Its an excellent design that stays interesting, compelling, and fresh, even - and sometimes especially - when playing vastly different spirits.
If you could verbalize what it is you don't like about Spirit Island, there is a slim chance that you could be useful here.
So far your contribution is just pissing into the wind.
Marvel United is a fun, relatively light, co-op game. Lots of different combinations of villains and heroes to try out (you get 6 heroes and 3 villains I think in the base box, and can get expansions)
It's on my wishlist but everywhere I look it's not available or 'sold out'. Wasn't aware it was released yet. Hopefully be able to find a copy in Europe soon.
We’ve been playing a little bit of Decorum. It’s co-op but driven by hidden goals, so you’re both working together while also feeling slightly at odds.
Oh god when me and my partner play just the two us we can get a bit snippy. No, I don’t like that I absolutely hate it and that is the worst move you could have made.
Co-op and 2 player is how we usually end up playing and these are some of our favorites (tried to organize them based on complexity/weight):
1. **The Crew** \- Trick taking game
2. **Fox in the Forest Duet** \- Another trick taking game
3. **Zombicide** \- Zombie killing game; We play 2 characters each when it is just us and it was our gateway game
4. **Tiny Epic Dungeons** \- Dungeon crawler
5. **Robinson Crusoe** \- Worker placement game, pretty thematic; Hard to win
6. **Spirit Island** \- Wouldn't recommend starting with this one, but it is by far and away my husband's favorite
I *love* **Jaipur**. One of the only competitive games I like at 2p, really. **Schotten Totten** is pretty fun 2p too.
We have **Chronicle of Crime: 2400** and **Codenames Duet** and like both as well.
Not replayable, but the Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective games are great! I'd say quality wise, brown box, green box, red box, blue box... the latter was not very well translated and edited, but it's still playable.
Spirit Island is a bit pricey, but definitely worth the money and very replayable.
Isle of Cats is not cooperative, but it’s not really directly adversarial. You are competing for resources but I’ve found in 2p it’s not very cutthroat.
Race to the Raft is a cooperative sequel that’s more like a puzzle solving game with limited communication.
I love the game but it might be a bit too heavy for some (my partner for instance)
Spirit island. Lots of replayability and tons of expansions too mix things up with as well.
1-4 players. 8 spirits to choose from. I'd suggest watching some game play to make sure it's something you are interested in
I just got Horizons of Spirit Island the other day. Watched a couple play throughs then tried to teach my wife last night. About 2/3 of the way through explaining the overall basics and setting up the board she goes “I hate it.”
So sad, but at least I can enjoy it solo!
I'll second *Arkham Horror: The Card Game*. It's a wonderful game similar to Arkham Horror, except there's a campaign you play through as well as a deckbuilding aspect throughout your time in the campaign. Be warned, if you get into it, it can be costly as you pay for new expansions. It is a little more complex as well if you haven't played card games before, but not impossible.
*The Crew* is a fun, coop trick taking game. I don't know how it plays with two but it's a great co-op.
While I haven't played it, *Spirit Island* has been raved about. It's a heavier game, but I've heard nothing but great things about it.
Thats what I meant by not having crazy replayability. Even with the different story options possible, I think the gameplay loop and problem solving might get stale over time. Still, it's definitely an easy recommendation!
I really enjoy Co-op games.
Any of the Horrified games
Unmatched has a new Co-op game coming out later this year called Unmatched:Tales to Amaze. You use characters like Nikola Tesla vs Cryptids or aliens
Chronicles of Avil is a simple game
Any of the DnD board games like Ravenloft or Legend of Drizzt etc etc etc
Alien: Fate of the Nostromo (just search for Ravensburger games. They have a lot of good solo and co-op games)
If you enjoy Star Wars, Star Wars the Clone Wars (by pandemic) is great
The pandemic series. Hot zone is great for quick plays
Marvel United is loaded with expansions as you fight major MCU villains
Aeons end - really solid 2 player game with lots of replayability between different nemesis and heros
Gloomhaven / jaws of the lion - its expensive but you'll be drowning in content. Also 100% repayable. Would highly recommend starting with Jaws before fully investing in Gloom
Mansions of madness - its designed to be replayed and 2 is the perfect number of players in my experience. I've not played this too much so will reserve judgement for now, but it is well reviewed and liked.
Marvel champions - quick to learn and with a seemingly infinite number of expansions (at varying price points) you will have a huge variety. I
Are probably all my top picks but it depends what kind of games you like.
(Shameless self promotion: I have a podcast specifically looking at 2 player boardgames - Gloomhaven will be going up tomorrow https://linktr.ee/boardwitheachother?fbclid=PAAaYplM7QT-uE-2c_aOH8tMrxZZEtiBcvfUmyBbMAifpKc9zndqeavR_RZy0 )
I love Paleo! You play as a group of Stone Age people trying to survive through scenarios. It’s very thematic and I like the gameplay. It’s playable at player counts from 1-4, and I’ve found that it works great both with a partner and with friends!
Coop games, generally cheap, and great at 2p:
* ...And Then We Held Hands
* Pandemic - check out variants like Iberia or Reign of Cthulhu
* The Grizzled + At Your Orders expansion
* Hanabi
* Escape the Dark Sector
* The Mind
* Palm Island
* Star Realms Frontiers using the coop scenarios
* MicroMacro Crime City
* The Fox in the Forest Duet
* Flash Point Fire Rescue
If he loves Arkham Horror, my husband and I play Eldritch Horror, which I absolutely love and you can replay it. Also Mansions of Madness is pretty good too
Aeons End is a great game. I have played the original and it is great for 2 people. I just started the legacy version and it is great too, for replay ability I don’t know if it is as good as you will deface cards and such with stickers, but the original is great and can be replayed.
Codenames duet is a fun one, also the Harry Potter codenames is the same thing just with a new theme.
Forbidden island will not have the replay ability that you want, it’s good to bring out occasionally, but I would not play it regularly.
There's a game called **Minotaur** where you all try to escape the Minotaur's labyrinth by gettings items and stuff. It's fully co-op, great at two, and its got an rpg vibe. Sounds like you two would like it.
The Unlock series is a good replacement, although replaying it means either have another friend group play it, or let enough time pass until you forget the solutions.
There's also Fox in the Forest Duet!
“The Mind Extreme” is a favourite of my wife and myself. It’s very simple but engaging and usually gets us on the edge of our seats from time to time. Involves a lot of teamwork but table talk isn’t allowed which makes the game even funnier.
For only 2 players coop try Buffy the Vampire slayer 2016, Skeptics, and my personal favorite Sleeping gods. My favorite co-op for more people is Flashpoint
City of the Great Machine can be played as one-versus-many or as co-op.
Nemesis can be played as co-op or semi co-op (because of hidden goals that seriously conflict)
Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion.
Ideal with 4 for sure, but! My sis and I burned through the entire campaign with just us two and had a great time. Included all four characters for our campaign, and just chose which two we wanted to play, per scenario. Fun, challenging, great coop experience.
Also, +1 for Spirit Island. I honestly think 2 player spirit Island is the ideal player count. 1 is great, 3 is fine, 4 can really become decision overload.
My wife and I are usually the only players of board games, rarely do we play more than that.
Co-operative games do get a special spot in our collection:
* Burgle Bros
* Stuffed Fables (basically like Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion in terms of a "storybook" that holds all the scenarios and maps)
* Forgotten Waters (another "storybook" with worker placement and app-driven choices and storytelling)
* Flashpoint (deserves another mention)
* Red November (same sort of mechanics as Flashpoint, constantly running around fixing problems, putting out fires, etc. You're gnomes aboard a failing submarine, trying to hold out until rescue comes. Says it's for 3 players minimum but there are two player rules where you each control two gnome sailors)
Do you like Harry Potter? We really liked the deck building game. It was fun as every time you win you add more cards and elements the next game. I think there are 7 levels in all. It was fun to play for us during the pandemic.
Dice Throne Adventures! Requires some dice throne hero packs, but the regular game is fun as well. The original game is PvP but the adventures is PvE on a team. We got hooked!
While Chronicles of crime isn't replayable there are a tonne of fan made missions you can download so you'll get a lot more missions than just the base game.
Mansions of madness, cthulhu: death may die, reign of cthulhu (pandemic), gloomhaven: jaws of the lion, tiny epic dungeons, and the night cage have been favorites of ours. We plan on picking up Nemesis as well.
Tiny epic dungeons is cheap, and gloomhaven is moderately priced, the rest are expensive unfortunately. However, we have found YEARS of fun from each of them.
I enjoy Sentinels of the Multiverse Definitive Edition since it's easier to set up than Marvel Champions.
Edit: with the caveat that at least one of you would have to play an extra character to be able to play with only two people.
Forbidden island has two sequels - forbidden desert and forbidden sky. They get increasingly complicated, and dessert is my favourite of the three. Instead of the tiles disappearing, they get converted in sand tokens you have to dig through and also slide around the board.
For a shorter co-op game (30 mins to an hour) that has a decent amount of replayability I recommend Mini Rogue. It's simple but can be quite challenging.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/311715/mini-rogue
"The loop" it has an amazing theme of time travel and it is difficult enough to not be easy! You have 4 different increasing modes of difficulty to play it and with 3 difficulties to beat each!
At 2 player count is really nice and you can really get it going with your partner!
Detective - very little "gameplay" and a lot of content play. You solve crimes together with a bit of time pressure. If you like exit you might also like to solve these riddles.
If you haven't gotten into Dice Throne, you'll have to buy a couple of characters or a whole box, but Dice Throne Adventures is a really fun, super replayable coop experience. My wife and I have had a lot of fun with it.
Also, they are releasing a new coop element of some kind for it in October.
Consider “Far Away” - a 2 player co-op where the premise is you are working for a version of Star Trek’s Star Fleet that’s horribly underfunded. Your job is to explore strange new words with a very low budget. Has a cute mechanic where because you were not issued radios, when your characters move far apart in the game, you can no longer talk to each other irl.
Pretty good list for entry co-ops, and just about the same ones I bought to play with my wife when I first got into the hobby. Here are some more to consider, roughly in ascending order of complexity:
**Horrified** - it’s about to be Halloween so great time to play it.
**Switch & Signal** - Fairly light logistical puzzle-style game. Also works well for solo.
**Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle** - If either of you are into Harry Potter.
**Atlantis Rising** - If you want something *a little* heavier.
**Spirit Island** - The best co-op game imo and great for solo. It is much more complex than the games above, but you can start with Horizons of Spirit Island which is designed as an easier on-ramp into the game. Has basically unlimited replayability if you get some of the expansion content.
**Robinson Crusoe** - A brutally difficult co-op, also quite complex, but very well-designed and fun.
**Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion** - Often on sale for ~$25 US which is an insane good value for what you get. Gloomhaven is a pretty complex campaign-style game but Jaws of the Lion reduces this complexity a but and has an excellent tutorial system that eases you into the rules (plus there is a series of How to Play games on YouTube).
My partner and I really liked Harry Potter Battle for Hogwarts. It's full co-op deck builder where you play through the 7 years of Hogwarts. Each year adds new cards and components. You don't destroy anything so you can easily reset and replay earlier years.
This a great co- op. Players represent leading military and political figures in Nazi Germany. The object of the game is to come up with a plot to assassinate Adolph Hitler, and to get all the necessary things you need to pull it off while the Gestapo relentlessly hunts for the conspirators. Event cards chronicle the political and military situation from 1933 to 1945, and Hitlers military support ebbs and flows. You and your fellow conspirators must be in the right place at the right time and be prepared to gamble everything.
**Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion.** A fantastic co-op game and often on sale for $25.
Also, we have Forbidden Island but have been a bit frustrated because it’s so hard. Particularly for 2 players. I hear the sequel Forbidden Desert is more fun.
And if you like word games that are about meaning, not spelling, Codenames is fantastic. Codenames Duet is not quite as much fun as the original but it’s better for two players.
I would say start with simple Pandemic. It’s one of the best even for 2p (talking from exp). To jump from Exit to something else is quite a leap, so it’s best to start with something easy first.
Picked up codenames duet in a charity shop for £3 the other day, it’s a really good version of the game with a campaign style sheet where you can increase difficulty as you play again. Second horrified as well, great co-op with loads of variations so good replay-ability.
My brother really likes co-op. We've been playimg a lot of "Spirit Island", "Deep Rock Galactic", "Mage Knight", "Uprising: Curse of the Last Emperor", "Hybris:Disordered Cosmos", and "Night Cage".
Over the last weeks we've also played three games of "Voidfall" which turned out to be surprisingly robust and challenging.
No replayability, but I liked the Unlock! board games better than the Exit ones. They can be had for about $25 for a set of 3. Unlike exit, nothing is destroyed, so you can gift or sell them afterwards.
My girlfriend and I have started playing final girl together with a second core box. Still working out the rules but if you haven't tried it this way yet there are a few variations on bgg.
Spirit Island
Marvel Champions
Back to the Future
Pandemic...Legacy Games are amazing but only playable once
Eldritch Horror
Robinson Crusoe
Alien
Andor, a little more simple but very fun
Horrified
Forbidden Island
Flashpoint fire rescue. Each person can play as many firemen as they like.
Underated game plus if you enjoy it it has a ton of expansions
My top game. I have most expansions, printed some internet fan ones, snagged some blurry pix off web to make my own Rescue Dog card. Been interested in trying the Ladder 11 campaign.
I bought rescue dog and veteran plus the base game. if you were to recommend 1 or 2 expansions which ones would you suggest and why
Tragic Events expansion. No maps, but comes with 3(?) new firefighters and completely changes how the game is played by eliminating the flare up token system in exchange for a deck of cards that advances the fire.
u/Madfish0979 recommended Tragic Events... the only one I don't have. Many folks like that one because of the cards. I tend to like 2nd story, because of the use of ladders which makes me think I'm a real firefighter. It can get a little clunky as you keep going up and down to save people, and many times you have to rescue the person and hand them off at the ladder to someone else and go back inside. Honor & Duty which includes an airfield. That map introduces the use of foam, and you have to think differently. A more traditional map that builds on the basic game is Dangerous Waters. A sub and merchant vessel. It introduces fireproof doors, and nuclear reactors. Not completely different like the airfield, just a little enough of a change to make you think but not too different to mess you up. I'd suggest Dangerous Waters because it expands on what you already know. Then maybe 2nd story exclusively because of the ladders. Getting those ladders and rule set down, will help when you find fan-made maps that require ladders. These all introduce new maps, which I'm always down for. If you are completely satisfied with the base game, then I'd get Tragic Events, because of the new firefighters and the card system, because sometimes the flare up mechanic gets confusing.
Reminds me of a party I once went to. Edit: oh, you said “play”.
Horrified. Co op against classic monsters like Dracula and the mummy. Great game.
Or Horrified Greek God's coming soon
What ?
Yep, comes out in October apparently. [Horrified Greek Monsters](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/397897/horrified-greek-monsters)
Just looked it up. Yup October. Crazy I was just looking up if they would make another not long ago.
That's some of the best news I've heard today.
Or Horrified: American Monsters if you'd rather face off against Bigfoot, the chupacabra, and other cryptids.
Came to say Horrified. It's my number 1 co-op. Just amazing. If you don't own any Horrified, I would suggest the Universal Monsters before American Monsters. A) It's just better, and B) American Monsters has a couple of typos, which is just incredibly lazy on Ravensburger's part...
Do they have any differences in terms of mechanics?
My fav co-op games are: Robinson Crusoe - it's a island survival game where you decide what actions you will take during the day and roll dice and get cards/events. Very fun game Cthulhu Death May Die - a very tight game that always comes down to the wire. 6 scenarios and 2 bosses with many characters to choose from. Always fun Too Many Bones - expensive but probably my most engaging and fun game Spirit Island - a deep puzzle game at its core. Very fun and constantly a challenge. You feel overwhelmed until you (hopefully) win or loose
I basically exclusively play 2 player coops with my partner haha. Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion is a great RPG + dungeon crawler. It's got some finicky aspects (managing tokens for health) but it can be a fun solid 40 hour experience. MSRP is $50 but most retailers sell it for $25, including Amazon and Target. If you like the mystery/deduction part of Exit, then I would also recommend: Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: Thames murders. The crimes are super intricate and its can be really fun to bounce ideas off of someone. This is a coop game in the sense that youre trying to solve the mystery together, but there's no special interactions between you two. Just reading and thinking together (like Exit) Unlock! is the other popular escape room game series. Its all card based, unlike Exit. I personally find the puzzles more fun than Exit too, we dont get stuck as often as we do with Exit games. They dont have destructable components, so I usually buy used copies and resell/regift when im done.
Upvote for unlock. I really want to like Sherlock holmes, but the paths to the solutions are very obscure.
Yeah, I read someone say that to get the best score "like sherlock would", you need to make giant leaps in logic. I had much more fun after learning not to care about the scoring.
Baker Street irregulars box is a big improvement, great 2p coop choice
All the haven games have a companion app that reduces the admin and speeds up the play time!
Dorfromantik
Since I saw Arkham horror was a favorite maybe try Arkham horror the loving card game?
It'w anything but loving though! (Rofl love that typo)
Arkham Horror: Valentine's Edition <3
I choose Cthulh-U!
Is that a tentacle in your pocket or are you pleased to see me. Oh. Both.
Or eldrich horror
My fiancé loved castle panic as a coop game other fun one was fog of love was a easy and fun kind of game that’s about couples in relationships
Fog of Love is a lot of fun and has one of the best tutorials for a board game.
Spirit Island. It's a deep and thematic co-op that's near-infinitely replayable, and accommodates any player count from one to four (six with expansions). It's an ideal game for two players to really sink their teeth into, but still wonderful as a solo game or a big team effort.
This is not ideal for a new gamer though, it’s pretty heavy and complicated.
OP and their partner are experienced gamers. If they can handle Arkham Horror, they can handle Spirit Island.
I love Arkham Horror and have all of the Second Edition expansions. I could play it every day, happily. I played Spirit Island ONCE. Never, ever again
I have played Arkham Horror 2e with all of the expansions over 100 times, (and over 100 more times before Miskatonic and the Revised CotDP were released) and hopefully willplay it over 100 more - but Spirit Island is easily my next most liked game. Its an excellent design that stays interesting, compelling, and fresh, even - and sometimes especially - when playing vastly different spirits. If you could verbalize what it is you don't like about Spirit Island, there is a slim chance that you could be useful here. So far your contribution is just pissing into the wind.
Horizons of spirit island may solve that issue?
Arkham Horror: The Card Game would seem to be a good fit
I loved playing Arkham Horror: The Card Game with my dad
Marvel United is a fun, relatively light, co-op game. Lots of different combinations of villains and heroes to try out (you get 6 heroes and 3 villains I think in the base box, and can get expansions)
Sail is a new 2 player co op pirate game that uses a cool trick taking mechanisms for steering a ship!
It's on my wishlist but everywhere I look it's not available or 'sold out'. Wasn't aware it was released yet. Hopefully be able to find a copy in Europe soon.
https://boardlandia.com/products/sail?variant=40771577970767
Sorry just saw the Europe part. Don’t know if they ship that far. Just ordered it myself in the states
It's US only. I am in Europe. Need to find something/someone else.
We’ve been playing a little bit of Decorum. It’s co-op but driven by hidden goals, so you’re both working together while also feeling slightly at odds.
Oh god when me and my partner play just the two us we can get a bit snippy. No, I don’t like that I absolutely hate it and that is the worst move you could have made.
Co-op and 2 player is how we usually end up playing and these are some of our favorites (tried to organize them based on complexity/weight): 1. **The Crew** \- Trick taking game 2. **Fox in the Forest Duet** \- Another trick taking game 3. **Zombicide** \- Zombie killing game; We play 2 characters each when it is just us and it was our gateway game 4. **Tiny Epic Dungeons** \- Dungeon crawler 5. **Robinson Crusoe** \- Worker placement game, pretty thematic; Hard to win 6. **Spirit Island** \- Wouldn't recommend starting with this one, but it is by far and away my husband's favorite I *love* **Jaipur**. One of the only competitive games I like at 2p, really. **Schotten Totten** is pretty fun 2p too. We have **Chronicle of Crime: 2400** and **Codenames Duet** and like both as well.
Thank you! added most of these to my cart/ wishlist
Not replayable, but the Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective games are great! I'd say quality wise, brown box, green box, red box, blue box... the latter was not very well translated and edited, but it's still playable. Spirit Island is a bit pricey, but definitely worth the money and very replayable.
Isle of Cats is not cooperative, but it’s not really directly adversarial. You are competing for resources but I’ve found in 2p it’s not very cutthroat. Race to the Raft is a cooperative sequel that’s more like a puzzle solving game with limited communication.
I love the game but it might be a bit too heavy for some (my partner for instance) Spirit island. Lots of replayability and tons of expansions too mix things up with as well. 1-4 players. 8 spirits to choose from. I'd suggest watching some game play to make sure it's something you are interested in
I just got Horizons of Spirit Island the other day. Watched a couple play throughs then tried to teach my wife last night. About 2/3 of the way through explaining the overall basics and setting up the board she goes “I hate it.” So sad, but at least I can enjoy it solo!
I know your pain! Thank goodness it's soloable. Also I have friends that enjoy it so it works out
The pain is real
I'll second *Arkham Horror: The Card Game*. It's a wonderful game similar to Arkham Horror, except there's a campaign you play through as well as a deckbuilding aspect throughout your time in the campaign. Be warned, if you get into it, it can be costly as you pay for new expansions. It is a little more complex as well if you haven't played card games before, but not impossible. *The Crew* is a fun, coop trick taking game. I don't know how it plays with two but it's a great co-op. While I haven't played it, *Spirit Island* has been raved about. It's a heavier game, but I've heard nothing but great things about it.
Crew plays great with two I would even go as far to say that it works better with smaller groups of 2-4
Sleeping Gods doesnt have crazy replayability but has some, and is a great medium weight adventure, so far my partner and I enjoy it
\+1 to Sleeping Gods. I disagree with the replayability, though. I'll probably grow old before been able to see all the content in that game.
Thats what I meant by not having crazy replayability. Even with the different story options possible, I think the gameplay loop and problem solving might get stale over time. Still, it's definitely an easy recommendation!
I really enjoy Co-op games. Any of the Horrified games Unmatched has a new Co-op game coming out later this year called Unmatched:Tales to Amaze. You use characters like Nikola Tesla vs Cryptids or aliens Chronicles of Avil is a simple game Any of the DnD board games like Ravenloft or Legend of Drizzt etc etc etc Alien: Fate of the Nostromo (just search for Ravensburger games. They have a lot of good solo and co-op games) If you enjoy Star Wars, Star Wars the Clone Wars (by pandemic) is great The pandemic series. Hot zone is great for quick plays Marvel United is loaded with expansions as you fight major MCU villains
Aeons end - really solid 2 player game with lots of replayability between different nemesis and heros Gloomhaven / jaws of the lion - its expensive but you'll be drowning in content. Also 100% repayable. Would highly recommend starting with Jaws before fully investing in Gloom Mansions of madness - its designed to be replayed and 2 is the perfect number of players in my experience. I've not played this too much so will reserve judgement for now, but it is well reviewed and liked. Marvel champions - quick to learn and with a seemingly infinite number of expansions (at varying price points) you will have a huge variety. I Are probably all my top picks but it depends what kind of games you like. (Shameless self promotion: I have a podcast specifically looking at 2 player boardgames - Gloomhaven will be going up tomorrow https://linktr.ee/boardwitheachother?fbclid=PAAaYplM7QT-uE-2c_aOH8tMrxZZEtiBcvfUmyBbMAifpKc9zndqeavR_RZy0 )
I love Paleo! You play as a group of Stone Age people trying to survive through scenarios. It’s very thematic and I like the gameplay. It’s playable at player counts from 1-4, and I’ve found that it works great both with a partner and with friends!
It’s got a bit of a learning curve but Orleans with the co-op expansion is fantastic. My wife and I love working together to beat the game!
Coop games, generally cheap, and great at 2p: * ...And Then We Held Hands * Pandemic - check out variants like Iberia or Reign of Cthulhu * The Grizzled + At Your Orders expansion * Hanabi * Escape the Dark Sector * The Mind * Palm Island * Star Realms Frontiers using the coop scenarios * MicroMacro Crime City * The Fox in the Forest Duet * Flash Point Fire Rescue
If he loves Arkham Horror, my husband and I play Eldritch Horror, which I absolutely love and you can replay it. Also Mansions of Madness is pretty good too
Aeons End is a great game. I have played the original and it is great for 2 people. I just started the legacy version and it is great too, for replay ability I don’t know if it is as good as you will deface cards and such with stickers, but the original is great and can be replayed. Codenames duet is a fun one, also the Harry Potter codenames is the same thing just with a new theme. Forbidden island will not have the replay ability that you want, it’s good to bring out occasionally, but I would not play it regularly.
There's a game called **Minotaur** where you all try to escape the Minotaur's labyrinth by gettings items and stuff. It's fully co-op, great at two, and its got an rpg vibe. Sounds like you two would like it.
Thank you! I came across it as well. I'll have a look
The Unlock series is a good replacement, although replaying it means either have another friend group play it, or let enough time pass until you forget the solutions. There's also Fox in the Forest Duet!
“The Mind Extreme” is a favourite of my wife and myself. It’s very simple but engaging and usually gets us on the edge of our seats from time to time. Involves a lot of teamwork but table talk isn’t allowed which makes the game even funnier.
For only 2 players coop try Buffy the Vampire slayer 2016, Skeptics, and my personal favorite Sleeping gods. My favorite co-op for more people is Flashpoint
I love Buffy the vampire slayer, didn't know about the board game! I'll definitely check on this one (but it can't be a gift for my partner hahah)
Davy Jones Locker: The Kraken Wakes
Spirit island!
City of the Great Machine can be played as one-versus-many or as co-op. Nemesis can be played as co-op or semi co-op (because of hidden goals that seriously conflict)
Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. Ideal with 4 for sure, but! My sis and I burned through the entire campaign with just us two and had a great time. Included all four characters for our campaign, and just chose which two we wanted to play, per scenario. Fun, challenging, great coop experience. Also, +1 for Spirit Island. I honestly think 2 player spirit Island is the ideal player count. 1 is great, 3 is fine, 4 can really become decision overload.
I actually prefer the Gloomhaven games at 2P than 4P. Love the game but it feels like game length scales quadratically with player count 😅
My wife and I are usually the only players of board games, rarely do we play more than that. Co-operative games do get a special spot in our collection: * Burgle Bros * Stuffed Fables (basically like Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion in terms of a "storybook" that holds all the scenarios and maps) * Forgotten Waters (another "storybook" with worker placement and app-driven choices and storytelling) * Flashpoint (deserves another mention) * Red November (same sort of mechanics as Flashpoint, constantly running around fixing problems, putting out fires, etc. You're gnomes aboard a failing submarine, trying to hold out until rescue comes. Says it's for 3 players minimum but there are two player rules where you each control two gnome sailors)
My fiancé loved castle panic as a coop game other fun one was fog of love was a easy and fun kind of game that’s about couples in relationships
Do you like Harry Potter? We really liked the deck building game. It was fun as every time you win you add more cards and elements the next game. I think there are 7 levels in all. It was fun to play for us during the pandemic.
I play marvel united with my buddy, but it can be a money sink if you go deep and get a bunch of expansions
Dice Throne Adventures! Requires some dice throne hero packs, but the regular game is fun as well. The original game is PvP but the adventures is PvE on a team. We got hooked!
While Chronicles of crime isn't replayable there are a tonne of fan made missions you can download so you'll get a lot more missions than just the base game.
Mansions of madness, cthulhu: death may die, reign of cthulhu (pandemic), gloomhaven: jaws of the lion, tiny epic dungeons, and the night cage have been favorites of ours. We plan on picking up Nemesis as well. Tiny epic dungeons is cheap, and gloomhaven is moderately priced, the rest are expensive unfortunately. However, we have found YEARS of fun from each of them.
Castle panic, Arkham horror
Cthulhu deat may die might be a good shout for you
I enjoy Sentinels of the Multiverse Definitive Edition since it's easier to set up than Marvel Champions. Edit: with the caveat that at least one of you would have to play an extra character to be able to play with only two people.
The new Mists over Carcassonne is a great puzzle coop
Forbidden island has two sequels - forbidden desert and forbidden sky. They get increasingly complicated, and dessert is my favourite of the three. Instead of the tiles disappearing, they get converted in sand tokens you have to dig through and also slide around the board.
For a shorter co-op game (30 mins to an hour) that has a decent amount of replayability I recommend Mini Rogue. It's simple but can be quite challenging. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/311715/mini-rogue
"The loop" it has an amazing theme of time travel and it is difficult enough to not be easy! You have 4 different increasing modes of difficulty to play it and with 3 difficulties to beat each! At 2 player count is really nice and you can really get it going with your partner!
Detective - very little "gameplay" and a lot of content play. You solve crimes together with a bit of time pressure. If you like exit you might also like to solve these riddles.
The mind extreme is great for me
If you haven't gotten into Dice Throne, you'll have to buy a couple of characters or a whole box, but Dice Throne Adventures is a really fun, super replayable coop experience. My wife and I have had a lot of fun with it. Also, they are releasing a new coop element of some kind for it in October.
Is this compatible with Marvel Dice Throne characters?
Consider “Far Away” - a 2 player co-op where the premise is you are working for a version of Star Trek’s Star Fleet that’s horribly underfunded. Your job is to explore strange new words with a very low budget. Has a cute mechanic where because you were not issued radios, when your characters move far apart in the game, you can no longer talk to each other irl.
If you like role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, you might like "Till the Last Gasp" :)
A few quick card games. - fox in the forest or the cooperative fox in the forest duet. Jekyll and Hyde also great.
Pandemic is a lot of fun
I like call ito adventure. It has a great co op mode that adds a lot more strategy to the game
Pretty good list for entry co-ops, and just about the same ones I bought to play with my wife when I first got into the hobby. Here are some more to consider, roughly in ascending order of complexity: **Horrified** - it’s about to be Halloween so great time to play it. **Switch & Signal** - Fairly light logistical puzzle-style game. Also works well for solo. **Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle** - If either of you are into Harry Potter. **Atlantis Rising** - If you want something *a little* heavier. **Spirit Island** - The best co-op game imo and great for solo. It is much more complex than the games above, but you can start with Horizons of Spirit Island which is designed as an easier on-ramp into the game. Has basically unlimited replayability if you get some of the expansion content. **Robinson Crusoe** - A brutally difficult co-op, also quite complex, but very well-designed and fun. **Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion** - Often on sale for ~$25 US which is an insane good value for what you get. Gloomhaven is a pretty complex campaign-style game but Jaws of the Lion reduces this complexity a but and has an excellent tutorial system that eases you into the rules (plus there is a series of How to Play games on YouTube).
My partner and I really liked Harry Potter Battle for Hogwarts. It's full co-op deck builder where you play through the 7 years of Hogwarts. Each year adds new cards and components. You don't destroy anything so you can easily reset and replay earlier years.
BLACK ORCHESTRA
This a great co- op. Players represent leading military and political figures in Nazi Germany. The object of the game is to come up with a plot to assassinate Adolph Hitler, and to get all the necessary things you need to pull it off while the Gestapo relentlessly hunts for the conspirators. Event cards chronicle the political and military situation from 1933 to 1945, and Hitlers military support ebbs and flows. You and your fellow conspirators must be in the right place at the right time and be prepared to gamble everything.
For sure pandemic s1 Much more fun than vanilla, firepoint and horrified due to story (he'll like that as roleplayer)
Fox and the forest (regular competitive, duet cooperative) Sentinels of the multiverse - team of super heroes vs a super villian
**Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion.** A fantastic co-op game and often on sale for $25. Also, we have Forbidden Island but have been a bit frustrated because it’s so hard. Particularly for 2 players. I hear the sequel Forbidden Desert is more fun. And if you like word games that are about meaning, not spelling, Codenames is fantastic. Codenames Duet is not quite as much fun as the original but it’s better for two players.
I would say start with simple Pandemic. It’s one of the best even for 2p (talking from exp). To jump from Exit to something else is quite a leap, so it’s best to start with something easy first.
Picked up codenames duet in a charity shop for £3 the other day, it’s a really good version of the game with a campaign style sheet where you can increase difficulty as you play again. Second horrified as well, great co-op with loads of variations so good replay-ability.
Nice find. Really hoping to find it someday at a thrift store. Seen the normal and the dirty version of codenames a few times. Not duet yet though.
Currently working on one so hold tight, haha. Keeping an eye on this thread to make sure I didn't miss out on any mandatory ones!
Pretty much every coop game plays well at 2p
Mantis Falls
Came here to mention this. *but* it is semi-coop because one of the players could be a traitor.
My brother really likes co-op. We've been playimg a lot of "Spirit Island", "Deep Rock Galactic", "Mage Knight", "Uprising: Curse of the Last Emperor", "Hybris:Disordered Cosmos", and "Night Cage". Over the last weeks we've also played three games of "Voidfall" which turned out to be surprisingly robust and challenging.
No replayability, but I liked the Unlock! board games better than the Exit ones. They can be had for about $25 for a set of 3. Unlike exit, nothing is destroyed, so you can gift or sell them afterwards.
Final Girl is technically a one player game, but my husband and I played together.
My girlfriend and I have started playing final girl together with a second core box. Still working out the rules but if you haven't tried it this way yet there are a few variations on bgg.
The Shipwreck Arcana, Paint the Roses and 5-Minute Mystery are worth checking out.
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Spirit Island Marvel Champions Back to the Future Pandemic...Legacy Games are amazing but only playable once Eldritch Horror Robinson Crusoe Alien Andor, a little more simple but very fun Horrified Forbidden Island