10 Must-Play Co-Op Games for Players Short on Time

Deep Rock Galactic has no campaign to fall behind on. Players are dwarf miners in procedurally generated caves, with up to three friends. They mine their target, then race back to the escape pod while the cave fights back.

Missions come in three lengths, so a weeknight can mean a short run and a free weekend a longer one. Four classes (Gunner, Scout, Driller and Engineer) give everyone a job. Six hazard levels let a tired group lower the difficulty.

Solo play is possible too. A drone named Bosco keeps a player company when nobody else is free.

Two-player and ship-crew picks

We Were Here Forever is built for partners with separate screens. Two players try to escape a castle while mostly apart. Each holds different clues and shares them over push-to-talk radios, so winning means describing what you see and listening.

That setup suits friends in different cities. If a partner bails, in-game matchmaking can pair you with a stranger, though you lose the familiar banter.

Orbitals sends Maki and Omura into space to save their home, in a co-op adventure styled after early '90s anime. About half the game is on-foot platforming and puzzles. The rest happens on their ship, where one player pilots and the other mans the turrets.

Each player wields one tool at a time, and the puzzles force the pair to talk things through. The game is co-op only and can be short enough to finish in one long sitting.

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime puts up to three friends in charge of a neon battleship in a galaxy menaced by the forces of Anti-Love. The ship has eight rooms with different jobs. Each randomly generated level has players rescuing imprisoned animals or surviving waves of increasingly dangerous enemies.