A coop PvE game for two dads and three sons?
A shooter, preferably. Any recommendations, #mastodon guys? The youngest lad is 10, so as little violence as possible. Thanks 😉
Satisfactory could be amazing if everyone’s into that sort of thing – there’s enough to the exploration and pve that players don’t have to just be building factories all the time, but if they do get into the factory part it’s an excellent foundation for getting into engineering one day!
Good suggestion, there are a few in this genre. Dead by Daylight and Friday the 13th are two others. They’re made for 5 people, as long as you’re ok with one person being the monster.
I know you asked for as little violence as possible, but have you considered Destiny 2?
There are single, two, three and six person activities (and you can use group finders to help find a 6th and maybe make a friend on the way).
It is a first person looter shooter, but it also has a deep story as well as mechanics (eg platforming, solving puzzles, exploring areas to find collectibles). Ultimately though you do need to shoot and kill stuff. It’s not that gory however.
There’s also builds in the game, so you can spend a lot of time tweaking your builds to get it how you like it, aka theory crafting.
It’s also “free to play”, but in reality it’s “free for the first bit and then if you want access to heaps of other content you gotta spend money”.
A shooter might be hard, but I think you could make ORION: Prelude fit. It’s a little old now, but still fun. You get to shoot dinosaurs and run around big maps.
Other games that I’d recommend: Avorion (build your own spaceships and fight and befriend the galaxy) It’s not technically a shooter, but depending on whether you pick out lasers, electric tasers, machine guns, or rail guns, there is definitely some aspects of moving to avoid enemy fire while plunking them down. [but don’t be like me and just make lots of borg cubes… because cubes are the best!]
Ark: survival evolved (tame dinosaurs and fight the map)
Elden Ring with seamless Coop mod (up to 6 players at once)
War Thunder for plane sim, World of Warships for good ship battles
Valheim is also capable of being extremely frustrating, so I’d recommend one of the mods that removes the skill penalty loss when dying. It might not be necessary, but dad knows the kids’ temperaments better than me.
Palworld, rent a dedicated server, anyone can hop in or out as necessary. Guns, legally(?) distinct from pokemon monsters to catch. Cartoon violence. Tons of fun to be had.
Especially now with the expansion of “datapacks”. I hate to say it, but Bedrock version of Minecraft might be the way to go. Java would be fine too, but unless they’re a bit more technical it can be harder to get multiplayer going for mods.
I did this previously by using MultiMC (now PrismLauncher). Make a mix of mods, send them the zip of the whole game instance and ask them to drag and drop it onto MultiMC. The biggest issue I encountered was one family member having a black ingame world until they changed a setting in the graphics mod, otherwise it didn’t seem to be too hard.
By comparison Minetest is much easier for playing mods with family. Everyone downloads the server’s mods when they join. But the interest is lower.
A survival game is probably what you’re aiming for here. Someone has to host in those scenarios usually unless one of you pays for a dedicated server. I don’t have a ton of experience with the shooty kind. But Valheim, Vrising and Palworld were a lot of fun for about 20 to 30 hours each. Palworld had some shooter experiences.
I like these because it usually turns into a “let’s get things done together “ and everyone finds their tasks to do. Then you put it all together and you end up with a cool base you built together and have some pride in. Palworld again is the one with the lowest “violence” imo
I would definitely recommend some roguelike shooters like Roboquest, Gunfire Reborn, Crab Champions, etc. These are all 4 players, but you could always have a few different lobbies.
Maybe also consider something like Palworld, Grounded, Raft, and other Survivalcraft games. There should be a good few in that genre that will allow you all to play together!
Sounds like a fun group ready for some great memories! Good luck on your game hunt!
There are (modded) DRG lobbies with extreme player counts, and I don’t think it’s that hard to set them up. The problem I see with DRG is that it can be pretty spooky at times (similar to Minecraft or Subnautica), so it might not be suitable for a 10 year old.
I’ve played 12 player DRG. It’s a pretty good recommendation. Mods are pretty simple to install and work similar to subscribing to steam workshop listings.
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