r/gaming • u/SilentPrecognition • 21h ago
The rise of "friendslop" games has reminded me how fun playing co-op with friends can be.
Whatever you make of friendslop games, there's a real silver lining to trend of cheap, goofy indie games blowing up right now. To me it seemed like we had a long stretch of time where everything multiplayer was focused on pvp or some sort of live service grind, but now I’m seeing all sorts of interesting co-op titles pop up.
These chaotic little low budget games kind of reminded everyone how fun it was just to play something silly with friends, and now people want to play together more. Devs are picking up on this and the co-op section in steam is looking better than ever. I personally had a similar realization and I’m playing a bunch of games with my gf and friends now regularly. Recently we had a good few weeks of fun with Mechameleon with friends and I’m pretty much running out of 2 player co-op games to play with my gf at this point. It Takes Two and Untitled Goose Game were our favorites so far and we want to play Water Me & You next when it comes out, it looks similar to It Takes Two but with some base building stuff as well.
I feel like it was way harder to get someone to try a game like that with you before, everyone was just stuck on their “main game” be it League, WoW, Counter Strike, whatever. Now it's kind of become more popular or cool you could say to play something with your friends, and people don’t just ghost you when you’re supposed to play together.
Has anyone else noticed this shift? It may be just something that happened my own friend group but it feels like a bigger trend.
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u/Aurelie_Giga 21h ago
Since you played Untitled Goose Game, you might like their next project called The Big Walk. It's so much fun if you have a group of friends that are willing to play it with you!
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u/DisguisedLu 20h ago
Me and my friends finished this game the other day and it was such a loving end, it's an absolutely brilliant game one I will never forget. I recommend this game to anyone and everyone
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u/nibblerhank 15h ago
The last series of puzzles/ending has me in tears. At multiple points I quietly said out loud "I love you guys".
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u/buddhamunche 20h ago edited 20h ago
Big walk is a special game. I’ll definitely remember this one for a long time!
Edit: I’ve even been listening to the music on my own walks lol!
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u/Mentendo64 20h ago
The more players the better the experience.
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u/buddhamunche 20h ago
Definitely! We had quite a few players at first, it dwindled down to just the 3 of us. Still an awesome, beautiful experience.
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u/tomorrow_comes 20h ago
I’m super bummed because my (unfortunately fickle) gaming friend group had a whole conversation going about this game. Others were planning a play session on it which fell through that particular day. Then I bought it, but then no one else followed through on actually getting it and refused to do so. My saddest Steam refund…
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u/sound_judgment 19h ago
fwiw apparently people have have a great time looking for people to play with online with some distinctly notable characters popping into multiple games. Might have luck going that route if your friends are still not committing
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u/tomorrow_comes 19h ago
That’s cool, thanks for taking the time to mention it. Personally my preference is to play stuff with my friend group, but if I get a strong itch to get into BW I’ll consider this!
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u/derphunter 18h ago
My friend group renamed the genre for Big Walk, as friendslop didnt seem appropriate
We called it a friendsterpiece
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u/Pure_Sherbert_668 20h ago
Yeah, I’ve noticed this too. It feels like multiplayer gaming is slowly shifting from “what competitive game are you grinding?” to “what stupid game can we all play together tonight?” Honestly, I think that’s a pretty good thing. Not every multiplayer game needs to be competitive or something you play for hundreds of hours.
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u/raptorlightning 16h ago
I like working with friends on something. Friendslop is a stepping stone towards a good co-op experience in the future. Big Walk or whatever it is, is getting close.
It's making up for the comraderie that modern capitalism is stealing from us.
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u/buttbuttlolbuttbutt 5h ago
I don't even think its a shift, its just the folks, like me, who are too busy for the grind or to get gud, or dont care about conpetition.
These games didnt shift me, they pulled me back in, and I think thats a bigger part of it for a lot of others. Less of a shift, and picking up the people the competitive trend leaves behind.
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u/KarlUnderguard 58m ago
Yeah, watching my stepson go from screaming at CoD to working together with friends to solve puzzles in Big Walk has been a pleasant surprise.
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u/PorkchopExpress980 21h ago
We gotta try harder with these genre names.
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u/Howitzeronfire 20h ago
Friendslop is super general term but is more for those generic Lethal Company clones with nothing original or new or a new twist. Just a re-skin.
Other games we should probably call co-op focused or just coop
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u/KingRemu 20h ago
I still feel like it has an unnecessary negative tone attached to it. I've had some great times on these "friendslop" games. Something that can rarely be said about triple A games in recent years.
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u/KarmicUnfairness 20h ago
The quality of a game doesn’t necessarily allow or prevent you from having fun with it. The “slop” is a negative qualifier because these games are usually janky with little qol or polish to them. Stuff like Meccha Chameleon launching with very barebones infrastructure and maps.
Once again, none of this prevents you from having fun with the game but it is clearly of lower quality.
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u/KingRemu 19h ago
I thought that was a given. Of course they're gonna be janky, it's mostly indie devs after all.
When I download one of those games I expect jank, but somehow they're still more fun than most games.
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u/Zuiia 19h ago
Indie games dont necessarily mean a game is unpolished. A lot of indie games are very focused experiences that do one thing extremly well.
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u/KingRemu 19h ago
Maybe I came across wrong but that wasn't my point at all. I'm just saying there's certain value in the whole idea that sometimes a single dev can make a more fun experience than a big studio. I have more hours on BOMBANANA! than the MW4 beta for example which probably has a budget of several hundred million and I'm fine with some jank.
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u/Zuiia 19h ago
Ah gotcha, yeah that is not how I understood your previous comment, but english is also not my first language.
I think a lot of people are kinda fatigued with how "safe" the modern AAA games have become. I am glad that there are indie devs out there delivering more amazing experiences, and in recent years even some more AA games that have also been more experimental.
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u/KingRemu 19h ago
It could also be that we've kinda lost the plot ourselves which is why something new and fresh from a small dev hits so nice because we're so used to the big studios just rehashing old ideas with overly aggressive monetization. I guess that's exactly what you mean with the fatigue though.
A lot of these friend slop games usually have a fresh idea that makes them ultimately more fun in a world of "triple A slop", even if it's just a bite-sized experience for a couple nights.
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u/Hot-Guard-9119 19h ago
There are plenty high effort, high quality games made on minimal budget by a single dev. Everyone knows this "oh, we're a small indie team" is just an excuse.
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u/KingRemu 17h ago
Absolutely. Games like Inside and Firewatch and even multiplayer games like BattleBit for example are some of my most memorable games ever and they are made by very small studios. I'm just saying that these days a game hardly needs to be perfectly polished to be more fun than the yearly slop we get from billion dollar triple A studios, and I think that's beautiful.
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u/Hot-Guard-9119 19h ago
That's because people see them for what they are. Overwhelming majority are low effort shitty games.
I remember Dead Space 2 review by mandalore, and one thing he said about multiplayer mode in that game stuck with me.
"'Well, it's fun with a friend.' But everything is fun with a friend. You could throw rocks at a wall with a friend and have a good time—that doesn't mean throwing rocks at a wall is good game design. The fun comes from the friend, not the game."
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u/lightfire456 17h ago
how dare you insult throwing rocks at a wall with a friend by comparing it to dead space 2 multiplayer
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u/KingRemu 19h ago
I understand your point but reality is still slightly different. I'm not gonna play a shitty game and I'm sure there are dozens of bad ones out there but slight jank is fine if the gameplay loop is good.
I don't mind paying $5 for a game I only play one night with my boys. It's cheaper than a beer.
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u/behv 17h ago
And I think this is why the title is perfect
Peak/Big Walk will be fine because they're good games. But the slop games that only promise $5 of fun have a place to exist now
Truth is we need games to replace an empty field or throwing rocks at a wall if our friends are online, so might as well lean into it and make games for that purpose
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u/robot_socks 1h ago
I agree. I think the term has an extreme negative connotation.
They are selling, so it probably doesn't really matter. To me personally, it seems odd or maybe counter-preductive to lump all of these co-op games together under a kind of derogatory name while so many people seem to be longing for co-op games.
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u/sound_judgment 19h ago
Yeah personally I like the friendslop name. I get that its origins are meant to be a bit disparaging but oh well. It's a fun name and language evolves with use. Friendslop games are super fun.
Also does not need to be treated like an insult that some games in the genre were made quick and dirty or are kinda shallow or whatever. Who cares? If it's fun, it's fun! If my friends and I have an absolute blast playing it for a few weekends then drop it, that's fine!
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u/Temporary-Mention-83 12h ago
It was mostly because those games hit massive sale success on PC and some people need to put them down hence the term. And then everyone decided to laugh over how nonsensical it is and embrace it.
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u/sankto 20h ago
I used to call these games "fast food coops", y'know when fast food was cheap and quick and tasty
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u/PizzaWarlock 18h ago
Isn't that what slop means? Low effort, mass produced, cheap, and messy. But just because it's all of that doesn't mean it doesn't taste good.
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u/faffc260 20h ago
any other concise name doesn't capture the meaning well, games that are fun because you play with friends made on a low budget. these games would either be unplayable without friends or very much less enjoyable without doing so with people.
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u/senorharbinger 9h ago
I think you summed it up perfectly with the last sentence. Games that would be unplayable or much less enjoyable (on their own merits) without friends.
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u/elmacanon 20h ago
Friendslop describes it perfectly. Low effort ugly games that are fun with friends
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u/LimitlessAeon 19h ago
I’d never call split screen/couch co op “slop” no matter how many sweaty neckbeards choose to try to make it happen. We need more of it.
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u/CaiFayB0nes 20h ago
It's like the internet has forgotten Party Games exists as a genre.
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u/DiseaseRidden 19h ago
Friendslop != party games. Its a specific subset of party games characterized by relatively low effort, janky-ness, and generally being a bit disposable. Maybe the name isnt perfect, but these games absolutely fit into their own category separate from more traditional party games.
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u/CaiFayB0nes 19h ago
Could you clarify "disposable" in your statement? Genuinely asking, I'm sick and don't want to misunderstand you before I continue this discussion.
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u/DiseaseRidden 19h ago
Like, you'll pick up the game, play for a weekend, then never touch it again. And that isnt necessarily a bad thing - $10 for 2 or 3 nights of fun is a great deal - just typically the games arent really meant to last, you get your value out and then move on to the next one. The same wouldnt really be the case for a more "traditional" party game.
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u/CaiFayB0nes 19h ago
Gotchya, thank you very much for clarifying! To me that's what makes them party games vs "friendslop". Party games (in my experience, anyway) you're not even really meant to play for more than a couple days at a time, so these types of games fall into that category just the same. I wouldn't call R.E.P.O. friendslop just because me and mine aren't playing it every chance we get together, but it is still part of our regular rotation of goofy games to play when we do.
To me, friendslop would be the jank knockoffs you find on the mobile market or Roblox, stuff that is very obviously low-effort trying to cash in on a hype train, not something I spent the weekend having fun playing with my friends.
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u/MrStealYoBeef 16h ago
In absolutely no universe would I compare these kinds of games to Mario party, fusion frenzy, or Jackbox. They're not party games.
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u/SilentPrecognition 21h ago
I don't really like the term friendslop either I just couldn't think of any other word that explains exactly which games I'm talking about. If someone knows one I would love to hear it hahaha
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u/PorkchopExpress980 20h ago edited 20h ago
Just as you said, "2 player co-op". People will instantly know what you mean. If you wanna shorten it, "couch co-op" or "local co-op".
Edit: iirc those used to be called "party games"
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u/radMMOgamer 20h ago
Ehhhh. Friendslop I think mainly refers to games put out and developed with “low effort” that heavily rely on the natural fun/emergent moments that come with playing with a buddy or two. Gameplay wise they are very simple. Examples: Peak, Chained Together, etc
This isn’t a dig to the genre as I really enjoy it, but it is a real distinct niche and not just general co-op.
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u/Expensive-Friend3975 19h ago
Yeah I don't get the hate for the term either. Most games labeled friendslop have genuine deficiencies that straight up wouldn't be acceptable if the game cost more than $15 bucks.
Barebones UI, underwhelming audio, poor optimization, bland graphics.
Those are by no means necessary for a game to be fun, but without them I could never call a game polished. Thus slop feels pretty earned. You won't be playing this game in 2 months, but for $5 or $10 bucks you and some friends will have a good time with it.
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u/ThisIsMyCouchAccount 18h ago
Because it's a pejorative term. it's only called that because of the "AI slop" term got popularized around the same time. Just look at Lethal Company. That came out before -slop got added to things people don't like. Nobody called it friendslop.
Any other take is just retroactive justification.
But that ship has sailed.
I also think people are really overselling the "low effort" aspect. Nothing is really low effort in programming. Especially game development. Imagine spending two hundred hours of your life making something and having it called "slop" like what we feed to pigs.
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u/senorharbinger 9h ago
For me it's the difference between a fun or interesting game on its own that has the opportunity for emergent storytelling or fun moments, versus a game where there's not a lot of game there and you're expected to supply the fun yourself, probably with friends being silly.
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u/CosmosStalker 20h ago
Those wouldn’t work tho. Local co-op and couch co-op are outdated terms and most “friend slop” games are more than 2 players. Co-op could be referencing anything from Minecraft, it takes two, or space marine. “Friend slop” refers to games like Peak, Gamble with your friends, chained together, REPO, etc
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u/sound_judgment 19h ago
Local co-op and couch co-op aren't outdated terms. It just refers to in-person (aka local or couch) play whereas most friendslop games are not designed for in-person play and would not work well that way.
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u/CosmosStalker 19h ago
They’re outdated because 99.9% of games coming out today don’t have local co-op
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u/sound_judgment 18h ago
Sure but that doesn't make the term outdated, just means there's way fewer of them these days.
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u/CosmosStalker 18h ago
the term in this context is out-dated. which is why people use the term "friend slop". Its a more modern term to better describe the newer genre
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u/sound_judgment 18h ago
I mean in this context the term is just incorrectly used. Friendslop games often cannot be played locally because they are designed around distance. I genuinely cannot even think of a friendslop game I've played that doesn't rely on you not being in the same room as your friends. Friendslop and local/couch co-op are just completely different genres.
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u/CosmosStalker 18h ago
Correct, you agree this is the wrong term for these kinds of games and also an outdated term. Perfect
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u/ellemeno93 20h ago
You dont need a buzzword to describe things. You just use your descriptive words to specify what you mean. Friendslop doesn’t even say anything besides what, you play with your friends in a shitty game?
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u/LrdHabsburg 20h ago
Respectfully, have you played these games? It’s a great descriptor
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u/MrStealYoBeef 16h ago
Friendslop doesn’t even say anything besides what, you play with your friends in a shitty game?
Yes. You just described the genre perfectly. This is exactly what I expect when I get a friendslop game, I'll enjoy it for a few days with some friends and I'll never have fun playing it by myself because it's just not fun without a couple other idiots I know shit talking back to me while we role play.
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u/Ralathar44 17h ago
Video game Genre names have always sucked. Alot of people, for instance, think Gacha is a genre. Or a monetization style. But you can have a gacha game in any genre or monetization style.
Portal and Mass Effect are technically shooters. (FPS and third person shooter). But the reality is we know the first is a puzzle/humor game and the second is an RPG.
Back before they kicked out the original creators and the channel lost its mind Extra Credits once made a very good video about video game genres.
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u/ThatCarlosGuy 1h ago
The "slop" just means something churned out quickly. AiSlop has been a big one lately because it's games made with AI churned out quickly. Because of the terrible quality of AiSlop it now has a negative connotation.
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u/Euklidis 21h ago
Imo gaming has always been at its best with friends even for single player, non coop games.
It's fun discussing all the stuff and even grievances you have with a game just like ypu would do with a movie, comic, series, anime or book and compare experiences.
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u/demicus 20h ago
Shout out to RV There Yet! My weekly gaming group keeps coming back to it when we get bored of other games and it's still so much fun. We just found out there's a third mountain coming soon!
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u/ThenThereWasReddit 20h ago
Probably my least favorite of all these type of games I've played lol
Just goes to show it really is different strokes
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u/BuccalFatApologist 6h ago
Yeah I bounced off RV hard, but I really enjoyed Peak, Repo, Ghost Exile and Big Walk.
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u/Frontass 20h ago edited 17h ago
Slapping "slop" at the end of a word needs to stop
Edit - I greatly appreciate all the replyslop and I hate you all
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u/bad_kitty_is_bad 20h ago
You're right. The nameslop is getting out of hand
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u/Smallest_Bubbles 18h ago
It can be very funny sometimes. During a Summer Game Fest livestream everyone was commenting "[genre]slop" for every game shown and then I forgot what game it was for but someone commented "qualityslop" which is such a funny concept.
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u/asphalt_licker 20h ago
Why is it called “friendslop”? Slop implies something is bad right?
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u/Swineflew1 19h ago
A lot of the games are pretty low-effort and relies on players entertaining each other.
Not necessarily bad, but for years I've always said that enjoying games with your friends doesn't mean a game is good, it means you enjoy your friends.19
u/shawnikaros 19h ago
A mediocre game can be great if you get to play it with friends
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u/TenBillionDucks 17h ago
But I'd rather play a game my friends and I all agree is fun already that is more fun with each other
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u/MrStealYoBeef 16h ago
You won't be playing very many games with them then. Genuinely great co-op games aren't exactly getting made at breakneck pace.
For the time in between when you just want to game with your friends and don't care too much about the quality of the game itself, friendslop has got your back.
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u/Mindless_Zergling 19h ago
A lot of them are pretty creatively bankrupt, aping mechanics and design wholesale from the more popular games of the genre
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u/StrategyEven3974 19h ago
A whole genre that essentially operates on: "What if we took a Mario Party minigame and made it 5 hours long?"
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u/NotSoScary555 20h ago
Some people consider the games bad but its “slop” as in mass produced and cheap, and designed to be thrown away right when youre done in a few hours
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u/sound_judgment 19h ago
It did but imo it morphed pretty quickly into an affectionate term because so many of these games are genuinely so fun
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u/Sevenix2 17h ago
Yeah. I heard someone use the word "Friendsmaxing" and I find it way more appropriate.
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u/ElectronicMoo 21h ago
I frakkin love them, quirks and all. Heck, especially because of the quirks sometimes. My coop friend and I can only play on little windows usually late at night (both have new families) and so to be able to pick something up that doesn't require a huge time sink is a win to begin with.
Rv there yet, Lethal company, invokkr, repo, that "you're the press taking pictures of monsters destroying the town" (forget the name atm) kind of games are right up my alley.
Spend a couple bucks, play for a few weeks - I dig it.
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u/DangerWildMan26 12h ago
Co-op games are a ton of fun I just wish they would be couch co-op too but that’s super rare still
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u/AlmightyCraneDuck 20h ago
I remember when I was young just fucking around in Forge on Halo 3 playing off-beat games like cops and robbers with my friends and having the best time. There's something really nice about finding games that aren't so serious and can turn you into a hooting, hollering kid again.
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u/KnightofNoire 20h ago
My biggest problem with friendslop is that it feels like most of them don't even have matchmaking or some sort of lobby/party finder so people who has no friends that plays those games are out of luck.
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u/vinewood 20h ago
Man things like: plate up, peak, repo are all so much fun and so diverse depending on what group you play with. Also really like the proximity chat vibe and how you sometimes just have entire adventures with part of the crew which can lead to injokes even in the same session. 10/10 way to spend an evening
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u/ThenThereWasReddit 20h ago
As someone who primarily only co-op games, it's been nice to have something other than survival games to play. I swear to god if I had to chop down one more tree or break one more rock I was going to torch my PC.
Still, while I have nothing against the people playing or making these games, I do hope that it will lead to actual quality co-op games, too. Most of these "friendslop" games only last my group a single night, or two if they're really good.
For as much as people clearly enjoy playing games together, without the need for guns or PVP, there sure aren't many successful, quality games out there. Or, there is, but I've just played them all.
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u/MegaWeinerFarts 21h ago
Has anyone else noticed this shift?
Not at all, but that's because I have no friends.
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u/ncopp 20h ago
"Friendslop" has been amazing for me and my friends. Before, we had maybe 2 or 3 games that we all played together and it would get stale quick. If we wanted to pick up a new game, it was a AA or AAA game running $40-70.
Now with "friendslop" we have tons of games to play with each other and they're so cheap that we can just pick up a new one for $5-10 for a night or weekend. If it doesnt hit, we can drop it without really caring and move onto the next one.
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u/buddhamunche 20h ago
Same here. I’m 30, my friends are all married and starting to have kids and stuff. It’s very difficult for us to all play a co op game together because we only get one gaming session with all of us together per week if we’re lucky.
We all have an income, we don’t mind picking up one of these games for $10-15 and just having a blast with it for a couple sessions. It works a lot better than trying to play a long game that we’ll probably never finish together.
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u/Citizen_Gamer 21h ago
Life-long co-op fan here. As the youngest of 3 brothers, any games that let me play co-operatively with my brothers, rather than compete with them or having to wait my turn in a single player game, was my favorite. Contra. Double Dragon 2.
"Friend slop" games are fun, but I mainly prefer games with co-op campaigns. I like when there is a proper end-state to the game, rather than the live service play forever format.
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u/Bored_Acolyte_44 20h ago
I'm having the opposite experience. I come from MMORPGs mostly, and the number of players that you can be around and doing things with in this friendslop onslaught has been isolating in comparison.
I know it's not by design, but it feels like a by design phenomena that is meant to silo people off into tiny groups of 3-4 people.
I know it sounds like a paradox, but the current crop of games is far less social than the games we have had in the decades past.
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u/nextgenium 20h ago
Yeah I see the streamer friend groups on brand new friendslop games all the time. But my friends are actually never gonna play stuff like this. They prefer to get together to play old games and it has some... charm? Six of us sat down for Civilization 5 and it ate almost 2 weeks. We'll be back next year, same as always. Pls don't say that we r too old haha
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u/LrdHabsburg 19h ago
As a friendslop lover my favorite gaming memories will always be weeks-long civ campaigns
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u/nextgenium 11h ago
True. Same here. Civ kinda randomly became the game my friends (and also me) could all sit around for hours even tho we all like completely different genres. Maybe there's a friendslop that hits like that, something you'd actually wanna come back to, we just still cant find one that works for everyone xd
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u/MrStealYoBeef 16h ago
Diablo 2 still eats up chunks of my life.
And that's still not even the oldest game I still play semi regularly.
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u/F3nrir096 19h ago
Throwing out a recommendation to Machine Party. Is pretty much Mario party ish mini games mixed with Saw. Good fun
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u/sdm10 19h ago
How to fish was an amazing experience with my two friends. A really weird game. I never expected Fishing Soulslike. We were doing strategies and planning how to tackle the bosses to get to the next island. I even got a picture of the ending with the three of us sailing to the sunset on our discord. I recommend it.
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u/MasterOfPipettez 18h ago
Havent noticed this at all. Playing with random toxic strangers online is a hard pass. If im getting together with people in person we are probably playing physical boardgames.
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u/Brungala 16h ago
While alot of these kinds of games are fun, it's a matter of actually getting people to play these games. Sure, you could go into pub lobbies and make friends, i guess, but most of the time, these games blow up on social media for a good few weeks, people play them for streams, and after about a month or two, the game dies off.
I don't mean to come off as cynical/pessimistic about this, but it's what i've noticed.
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u/JudasJunkie666 8h ago
R.V there yet got me back into playing with friends after a year of nothing but single-player.
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u/UnluckySh00ter 4h ago
It’s cute but it’s acutely named friendslop because they are all just one off games fun for a few runs and then move on.
Doesn’t come close to split screen 4v4 lan connected Xbox’s which could easily happen now but then how would they sell you gun skins and emotes if you were to ever play the game offline
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u/ImSoSweepy 3h ago
Friendslop, as it is now, is in it's, "Push out as much AI-generated shit as possible because people will buy it," phase.
Same with "tidy up" and kingdom incremental games.
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u/Looking_Magic 21h ago
I’ve noticed that too. Only thing is to not fall for the hype every month that the newest “friendslop” game is the best game on earth, I see it every time. And then a week later nobodies playing😂
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u/boxinggoose 15h ago
Those 4hrs you'll spend playing that $5 game though are worth it for the memories
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u/ThaDilemma 16h ago
Bunch of bots with no creativity just mindlessly repeating what they read online using the term “slop” is pretty fucking hilarious.
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u/Fart_Barfington 21h ago
Ive gotten roped into playing some of these with my 11yo. They can be a lot of fun.
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u/SilentPrecognition 21h ago
Which one did you play? I played Content Warning with my nephew a few times and it was pretty funny, he got really immersed.
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u/Fart_Barfington 20h ago
We did content warning and are playing big walk currently
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u/seiirin 20h ago
Big Walk was such a good puzzle coop game. I had a blast with my SO. Currently replaying it as a 3man team, and it's still just as fun- we were interested in seeing how the puzzles change with the addition of players.
I personally feel like it's a bit wrong to slap on the term 'friendslop' to Big Walk, as I feel like it isn't one. No shade to friendslop games, as I've definitely enjoyed the ones that I've played; but I wouldn't associate Big Walk along with other friendslop games.
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u/thejokerofunfic 19h ago
We need to stop with naming these things __slop, it's getting old. At this point slopslop is a bigger problem than any individual slop (minus AI slop, that one's a huge problem and that term can stay)
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u/atomicitalian 20h ago
I feel like friendslop was a term created by people who don't have friends to play with and refuse to talk to or play with randoms online.
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u/Swineflew1 19h ago
I play with friends, but a lot of these games are still low effort copy/paste ideas with different themes.
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u/Sipricy 21h ago
Yeah, friendslop has been pretty good this year.
You should try out Big Walk if you're looking for more co-op games. It hits surprisingly hard for being "just" a silly hiking game.
It's not co-op, but if you have a group of friends, I'd suggest checking out Super Battle Golf. It's like if you took the rules of golf and threw in some mechanics reminiscent of Mario Kart. It's a great, chaotic time.
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u/SilentPrecognition 21h ago
I think that Big Walk is on our list, I don't remember if its what we are playing next, I wasn't there for the last session. I'll check out the Golf game too, thanks.
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u/bumford11 20h ago
The group I play with just can't coordinate well enough to play these games. No matter how many times I tell them 'here' and 'there' aren't useful location descriptors they never learn 😭
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u/PresentationLoose422 20h ago
We really enjoyed RV there yet. So chaotic and stupid with hilarious physics. Can’t wait for Dear Passengers to release.
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u/neon8100 20h ago
Yep! Couldn't agree more. My girlfriend likes to play games with me in split-screen too, so it's nice to finally see some proper games coming out that support it! Not exactly friendslop, but we absolutely adored playing Balders Gate together. We've recently been playing Powerwash Simulator 2 together too.
This has fueled a desire to try and support local multiplayer in projects I'm working on, and so it ended up being a big pillar of the crazy-taxi-like I'm currently developing.
I wasn't intending this originally but I recently managed to get it working online too. So, now folks in all kinds of friend configurations can play together.
It's been a blast when doing playtests locally with people, so I'm excited to be able to have some of the mayhem of the game be shareable more broadly!
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u/Throwawaylikeme90 20h ago
Totally Reliable Delivery Service deserves its flowers, they were way ahead of the curb.
Still love to smoke a doob and run around, that game is so fucking goofy.
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u/crystal_buckeye 20h ago
If you liked It Takes Two you should check out Split Fiction! It's from the same developer and is better gameplay wise than ITT. I like ITT story more but SF is good too.
Also if you want a more FPS co-op, the borderlands games all have local co-op and are a blast. 1 and 2 are the best. 3 has best gameplay but mid story. I didn't really enjoy the open world aspect of 4 but gunplay was great.
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u/Moose7701YouTube 20h ago
I want another Cry of Fear type of coop game. We still play that game yearly.
We loved it so much I even attempted to make maps for it, but couldn't figure out the hammer editor enough and couldn't edit the base maps to change spawns/add spawns either.
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u/adorablebob 20h ago
It's anecdotal but I don't think these games are pulling people from big games like Fortnite, rather they're finally giving more options to people who have been begging for co-op games for years.
I grew up playing couch co-op games and hated when everything went online and competitive. Glad to see some dev's realise people want to play with their friends and not randoms.
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u/Cornage626 20h ago
I pretty much stopped playing pvp 10 years ago. Solo, coop, and pve since. I have never looked back. Except for Rising Storm 2 Vietnam. That shit rocked.
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u/Borat97 19h ago
I still miss a lot puzzle coop games like we were here series, where you are REQUIRED to play together and not like escape simulator where single person can finish whole level for team. Also games where you are connected together like chained together or friendly steps. There is a lot of games like this but you arent connect together so idk if i would call them coop if we cant help each other, if 1 fall you have to wait for him to climb back.
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u/Humiliatingmyself 19h ago
I kinda love the trend too, i have never been good at looter shooters/FPS games. It's mostly just not something i usually enjoy.
Since the "friendslop" trend took off, me and my friends probably pick up a new goofy co-op game a few times a year now. I don't need a game to re-invent a genre for it to be great at what it does. Lots of these games are really great at what they do, which is to give you and your friends a way to have fun on a sunday afternoon, or blow off steam after work.
How can you be mad you can run around smashing a castle up and casting spells at your friends? Or fucking around collecting shit so the big bad guy doesn't yeet you into space.
Someone bitter, i tell ya what.
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u/Burpmeister 19h ago
I'm so fucking happy we're getting tons and tons of games where the whole point is just messing around with friends. The "we're the next big esports game" era sucked balls.
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u/badillustrations 18h ago
Why call it a "silver lining"? The genre you're describing is directly targeting the need and fulfillment you're describing.
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u/Ralathar44 17h ago
Pretty much, friendslop games are mostly cheap and content thin games that just provide a platform for you and your friends to entertain each other.
The best ones are fun to play in and of themselves, but alot of them are 100% reliant on other people to be entertaining at all. Not a bad thing, but really does showcase the entertainment value of friends and the value of giving them something to riff off of.
If you haven't played it yet I also recommend Shift at Midnight. Like most friendslop games its a fun, if short, jaunt. But its pretty quality in and of itself too. Somewhere between a viable multiplayer game and a friendslop game because the game is genuinely entertaining, funny, and sometimes creepy in and of itself.
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u/Inherent0 17h ago
Playing and completing Big Walk with several of my friends is one of my favorite all time gaming moments.
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u/BootlegFC 15h ago
I haven't played many but I love the fact that co-op is making a comeback after the industry spent so long trying to milk every last cent out of people live service microtransaction machines and esport wannabes. Most of the time the people calling them "friendslop" are pvp sweatlords.
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u/FartsGracefully 11h ago
My husband and I are currently obsessed with abiotic factor is tou like crafting survival games
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u/Acrobatic_Cry9983 10h ago
Reminds me of how few friends I have because of my gaming time / timezone
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u/reddits_lead_pervert 9h ago
The most successful ones are games where the friendgroup can decide how serious they want to accomplish the tasks in the game making for a wider audience or re-playability of the game
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u/jmcgil4684 8h ago
Yea my wife and I like playing them too. We used to only play houseflipper and kind of trade controller back in forth, but she’s pretty bossy, so it’s more fun. At least for me lol.
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u/Hailruka 7h ago
We play alot of co-op games, the ones we've enjoyed recently and would recommend:
Cult of the Lamb - 10/10 half rougelite half town building sim. Although not for everyone as it's heavily satanic themed in a cutesy animal wrapper.
Spiritfarer - Sad, fun, very cosy and chill. Your the new boat[wo]man to the underworld and are fulfilling last requests before passing spirits on.
House Flipper 2 - Relatively simple, buy house, flip house, sell house, repeat. Nothing taxing but fairly fun, story mode is fully guided, so you don't have to flex your creativity if you don't want to.
Waterpark Simulator - A physics based simulator where you run a waterpark, although for most of the game your managing the chaos instead. Nothing strenuous, but it should bring a few laughs while not being difficult.
Go-Go Town! - City building, it's relatively simple but vibrant and fun. Like Sim City but your on the ground doing most of the work. Lots of running back and forth but it's a fun game, especially trying to optimise NPC paths and shops.
Non of these are big budget fancy games, but I'd recommend every one to someone looking for co-op games and most are split screen aswell.
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u/Plus_Ad_6495 7h ago
You should totally give Astro Burn a try. It's a simple side-scrolling bullet hell, has a competitive co-op mode, and it's just some mindless fun :) it's at most 5-6 hours and you're done with it. Pick it up on discount for 6 bucks next sale.
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u/BadBaneGames 3h ago
it sure is kinda blowing up. online co-op games will always be enjoyable in my opinion, always depending on if you like more grindy or casual games but the more casual ones get popularity now maybe because of the state and requirements of the more hardcore ones...
if the game is made with love and attention to the player then its pretty hard to not have a bunch of audience that enjoy it.
btw since you mention it takes two and you are looking for 2 player coop games, have you tried split fiction?
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u/mazzaaaaa 2h ago
Strong agree on the sentiment. If anyone’s interested, I recently wrote about how AI is making game nights with friends 100x more fun. We can now build in real time tools, mods, and games and have a blast AI made it worth building games for our game nights .
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u/Existinginsomewhere 1h ago
Me and my friends have gone from playing cs and things we can queue together to almost exclusively things we can drop in and out with 10+ players in our discords through the day. Currently on Zomboid but next could be like Big Walk or something else. It’s not like we don’t play other stuff like cs, we do but usually duos or trios. We’ve all got some single player game we’re looking toward and always share a stream to the guys. Love those boys they say goodnight to the homies and make sure we’re alright or else people get worried. I have good friends, we take care of each other when we can. I at least know I have a couch in several states and countries because of them.
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u/Cryogenx37 21h ago
I remember seeing a tweet that said: “what if there was a friendslop game but you all have to operate an AC-130 gunship”
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u/joestaff 20h ago
Jump Space isn't too far off from that. It's more Deep Rock Galactic than generic friendslop, but it's a lot of fun.
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u/rad-codex 21h ago
The reason we have friendslop is because coop is a neglected genre, currently only really serviced by Hazelight. Even Orbitals is directed by a Hazelight vet.
When a genre isn't serviced by the AAA space, indie will fill the space. The difference here is that so much of the fun of co-op lies outside of mechanics that it becomes much more feasible for just about anyone with a good idea, determination, and a bit of luck to build one. A similar thing happened with horror games. Not saying making these games don't require talent, they absolutely do, but you go much further with less than you would while trying to make a fantastic shooter or action game.
I don't think it's a trend, but it is a shift. Hazelight is doing great work but no so great that AAA will shift to emulate. Co-op only games will remain an indie thing, we'll just see more and more actual slop as time goes on, rather than what people call slop now
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u/phznmshr 20h ago
It's just a little bit of a bummer for those of us who don't have friends to see more people making them but that's my problem lol.
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u/phoenixmmz 13h ago
I like that we have more co-op games which are accessible, creative and easy to just pick up and play. Calling it friendslop is really lazy because people who say that don't have anything more to contribute. They'd rather overspend on the same sports titles that release every year, but somehow they're even worse than the last one (cough FC cough)
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u/Future-Turtle Switch 21h ago
I do love the resurgence of couch co-op titles lately. I'd be hard pressed to call it "friendslop" but my my wife and I have been loving Orbitals.