I'm with alot of others on this Minecraft is a great game for young kids it does take a minute to get use to it but its extremely simple. Eventually they will need to adjust to 3D games because it's becomming very mainstream these days so start with a simple 3d then work your way up. Another one i still enjoy playing is Robocraft.
Need help finding "peaceful" multiplayer pc game
- Thread starter MegaMonkey
- Start date
I got roughly the same issues when trying to find a game to play with the wife. It's almost impossible, although violence is a non issue, she hates camera controls other then the one in WoW. Since we stopped playing WoW she only plays Overwatch, which I get frustrated with after 30seconds.
Here are some of my picks that were kinda successful (or unsuccessful but still worth a shot). All have single screen multiplayer options:
Non-violent:
Overcooked
It's 3d graphics but with a fixed camera that never moves (or we didn't get far enough to see it move lol)
It's a multiplayer coop kitchen-cooking-sim.
No combat, but very fast paced.
Only problem with that would be that it's a really damn hard game once you get through the first couple of levels.
Farming Simulator 2017 (or 2015, that's 5$ cheaper and almost the same game by the looks of it)
Great game, can be played in multiplayer although I don't think it has any single-screen multiplayer. Does he like big machines like tractors and such? then this could be fun!
You can do stuff like: one drives the harvester while the other drives alongside with a tractor and tries to collect the harvest dropping from the harvester, or just do a random race around town with some forklifts. You can even drive the train! There are so many things to do, if you are into this kinda stuff. Although I thought I wasn't into farming games, it pulled me in and I found it really relaxing and fun overall.
Pixel Puzzles Ultimate
Name speaks for itself, classic jigsaw puzzle game. It's "free", but you need to buy puzzles for it. There is a Starter Kit that looks promising. I don't know if it contains any in the free version as I got it bundled with 3 other Pixel Puzzles games, which integrated their puzzles into the Ultimate version, so I only had to start one game to access them all.
Although it's not "real" multiplayer, as only one person controls it at a time, it is as non-violent as it can get, and you can all play along by watching and calling out pieces that you think could fit somewhere. Also you can make a game out of taking turns, who can find the next piece the fastest, or fail the least attempts, and so on. It's very low-action though, so it might not be a good fit for an 8yo. Ofc it's totally 2D. It's oddly relaxing, with some limited options for backgrounds/themes/music, and you can never really run out of puzzles with the monthly challenge puzzle which is free while it lasts, and you can earn tokens to buy new puzzles in-game (although this takes quiet some time). You can also buy a boatload of puzzles as DLC, but that costs insane amount of money.
Sports Games!
The ones that support multiplayer, obviously. Are they interested in tennis, basketball or pool or something like that?
We played countless hours of CueClub (fully 2D top down pool and snooker, released for WinXP I think). I got Pool Nation now on my steam for some reason, we played a bit of that but the physics were crap, I wouldn't recommend it. Tennis games might be a good fit as it usually has a fixed camera and probably easy enough to control.
PS: just checked, there is CueClub 2 on steam which looks exactly like the old version, just modernized and should run on win7+ just fine.
Portal 2
As others mentioned, it fits the bill pretty well and it's an awesome game. But! I think it only works well for those who have already played Portal 2 a lot and know what they're doing, and can feel the platforming part well enough, otherwise it can be rather annoying for newcomers. Give it a try, just don't be upset when it doesn't work out at first.
I did play Minecraft but found that I'd rather spend the time doing creative building IRL, with all the junk I got laying around lol. It's a good game though, so if they have the patience, go for it!
(also, you could just buy a bag of random lego blocks off of ebay, getting creative with that might be fun)
All the LEGO games fit the bill really, with minimal cartoon violence.
Violent-ish Games:
Worms Armageddon (or Revolution is supposed to be not that bad, but i never played that. The older the better imo. W.M.D sux big time, avoid that one)
Cartoon almost-violence, some tiny bits of blood with certain weapons maybe? (amybe even that can be turned off), 2D side-view, but it's not coop. Your fiance might get upset after getting beaten n+1 times in a row though, so watch out with this one :D
Good Old Tomb Raiders (not the rebooted ones obviously)
It's not multiplayer in the usual sense, but hear me out.
We had tons of fun playing through all of Tomb2 and 3, with one of us on the right side of the keyboard moving with the arrows and using the space key for guns, and the other one on the left controlling running and stepping and hanging with ctrl shift and alt. You can ofc mix it all up, change places, etc...
The point is, it requires actual co-operation, patience, listening to one another, and all those things. It can either lead to a good time, build respect for each other and so on, Or it can end up in shouting and swearing to never ever do anything together again :D Still less destructive than playing Monopoly imho...
The 3D 3rd person part might be an issue though. If the kid can find the way with the walking, your fiance can do the jumping and other controls bit maybe? I'd say try timed runs through the garden course against each other, but with the 3rd person stuff that would be problematic...
Nevermind, this is something that worked for us, but might not work for you.
You can get Tomb3 on Steam and it should run fine, in case you still wanna try it.
Worms Armageddon (or Revolution is supposed to be not that bad, but i never played that. The older the better imo. W.M.D sux big time, avoid that one)
Cartoon almost-violence, some tiny bits of blood with certain weapons maybe? (amybe even that can be turned off), 2D side-view, but it's not coop. Your fiance might get upset after getting beaten n+1 times in a row though, so watch out with this one :D
Good Old Tomb Raiders (not the rebooted ones obviously)
It's not multiplayer in the usual sense, but hear me out.
We had tons of fun playing through all of Tomb2 and 3, with one of us on the right side of the keyboard moving with the arrows and using the space key for guns, and the other one on the left controlling running and stepping and hanging with ctrl shift and alt. You can ofc mix it all up, change places, etc...
The point is, it requires actual co-operation, patience, listening to one another, and all those things. It can either lead to a good time, build respect for each other and so on, Or it can end up in shouting and swearing to never ever do anything together again :D Still less destructive than playing Monopoly imho...
The 3D 3rd person part might be an issue though. If the kid can find the way with the walking, your fiance can do the jumping and other controls bit maybe? I'd say try timed runs through the garden course against each other, but with the 3rd person stuff that would be problematic...
Nevermind, this is something that worked for us, but might not work for you.
You can get Tomb3 on Steam and it should run fine, in case you still wanna try it.
Disclaimer: These are bloody games. As in, contains actual graphical depiction of blood, not as in the "British cursing" kinda use of the word. I'm guessing the violence is more of a problem for the fiance than the kid? Then you will probably avoid these, although I think an 8yo could definitely handle 'em, with supervision to catch the bad language and tell him why he should never ever use that kinda language. Hell, me and my friends played stuff considered much worse when we were 6-8 and we turned out okay-ish. Apart from ending up in Test of course. Remember the mess surrounding the original Doom? Me neither, I was too busy playing it! Good times... :D
Actually Violent games:
Borderlands 2
Violent FPS, but can be played in splitscreen, also it has the cartoonish graphics with kind of bright colors and inked outlines and all. You can turn off the gore, but can't censor the language language!
Neon Chrome
Top down twin stick shooter. It is violent, it has blocky "indie" graphics but still can get bloody, with loads of destructible environment as well. I checked and there is no option to turn off the blood sadly, so I guess this one is out of the running as well. It has a fixed camera angle (top down), and it has single screen coop multiplayer. It can be played okay-ish with one player on mouse and kb, the other on a controller, if you don't have 2 controllers.
BroForce
One of our favorites, and not for the excessive violence, but the constant lols at our fails!
Pixelart cartoonish but full of huge pixels of blood and explosions, 2D sidescrolling co-op shooter with platforming (4 player max I think).
Imagine Mario Bros replaced with RoboCop and Schwarzenegger holding a minigun, jumping around, slicing and dicing the mushrooms and mowing down the turtles. Literally.
This is what it would look like. (actually there are no Mario mushoorms to mow down, only "terrorists", and Aliens and demons in the later specially themed levels)
While it is really violent it is also hilarious and I don't think anyone could take it seriously, and going full on Rambo then missing a jump and dropping right in the middle of a pack of exploding barrels as they go off... That never gets old :D
There is NO option to turn off the blood!
It's been asked multiple times and the actual devs derailed the threads by asking if we wanted more gore. They say they can't get rid of it as it's drawn into the animations. Yet they are willing and could add more... Anyways the whole point of it is being a parody of overblown violence.
No camera controls needed, although you can move it a bit sideways to look at whats next. It plays well together on a single screen with 2 controllers or even with a keyboard + 1 controller.
With all the blood, you will probably have to give this one a skip.
(or just play it when the fiance is not around wink wink)
Actually Violent games:
Borderlands 2
Violent FPS, but can be played in splitscreen, also it has the cartoonish graphics with kind of bright colors and inked outlines and all. You can turn off the gore, but can't censor the language language!
Neon Chrome
Top down twin stick shooter. It is violent, it has blocky "indie" graphics but still can get bloody, with loads of destructible environment as well. I checked and there is no option to turn off the blood sadly, so I guess this one is out of the running as well. It has a fixed camera angle (top down), and it has single screen coop multiplayer. It can be played okay-ish with one player on mouse and kb, the other on a controller, if you don't have 2 controllers.
BroForce
One of our favorites, and not for the excessive violence, but the constant lols at our fails!
Pixelart cartoonish but full of huge pixels of blood and explosions, 2D sidescrolling co-op shooter with platforming (4 player max I think).
Imagine Mario Bros replaced with RoboCop and Schwarzenegger holding a minigun, jumping around, slicing and dicing the mushrooms and mowing down the turtles. Literally.
This is what it would look like. (actually there are no Mario mushoorms to mow down, only "terrorists", and Aliens and demons in the later specially themed levels)
While it is really violent it is also hilarious and I don't think anyone could take it seriously, and going full on Rambo then missing a jump and dropping right in the middle of a pack of exploding barrels as they go off... That never gets old :D
There is NO option to turn off the blood!
It's been asked multiple times and the actual devs derailed the threads by asking if we wanted more gore. They say they can't get rid of it as it's drawn into the animations. Yet they are willing and could add more... Anyways the whole point of it is being a parody of overblown violence.
No camera controls needed, although you can move it a bit sideways to look at whats next. It plays well together on a single screen with 2 controllers or even with a keyboard + 1 controller.
With all the blood, you will probably have to give this one a skip.
(or just play it when the fiance is not around wink wink)
Ah, yes, I can't recommend Broforce enough. It's a brilliant game, especially after a couple beers.
Also, FIFA is a good game for couch multiplayer, if mildly difficult to get the hang of.