5 single player games to play with a friend

We’ve all been there right? A bunch of mates come round, or even just one friend and they want to play some games and you realise either you don’t have enough controllers or you just sold your only co-op games so that you could buy Arkham Knight on Steam. It makes you feel like a guy who invites everyone over to watch Game of Thrones then on the night it turns out you only have Freeview. So how do you turn it around? What single player games can you play with friends?

5. Tomb Raider

This is an odd one to start off with as most of the other choices in my list involve the silent ‘players’ performing some sort of role or job in aid of the main player, and while your friend might be able to point out enemies for you there’s little else that they can do to help you in Tomb Raider. However, Tomb Raider is one of the most cinematic games in my opinion and it’s probably on of the easiest games to watch someone else play as almost every encounter and objective is tied into the wider story. The death rate is pretty low in the game as well so if you and your friend swap with every death you will each get a decent go on the game. If you want to turn it into a drinking game (because why wouldn’t you) try drinking every time someone shouts someone else’s name in a desperate where-the-hell-are-you kind of way.

4. Final Fantasy XIII

Okay, we all know that this game is basically just one continuous hallway and it’s basically impossible to get through to the ‘good bits’ unless you have a couple of days to kill but there is one other way to make Final Fantasy XIII not just bearable but actually pretty fun. Grab your mates plonk them down next to you and each pick a character, then one of you works as the ‘driver’ and the rest of you scream at him or her what you want your character to do. With the real-time system and all shouting it gets pretty hectic and before you know it your thirty hours into the game.

3. Dead Space One or Two

I was going to pick Slender for essentially the same reasons here but Dead Space is probably the best game to play if you want to create a tense jumpy evening where someone is bound to block up your toilet. The great thing about Dead Space is that there is so much for people to mistake as an enemy so almost every two minuets someone will jump like a thousand bees have stung them in the back of the neck. It’s also a good game to pass the controller with every death as you will die. A lot.

2. Hitman

Hitman is a game about methodical planning and strategic assassination so get all your friends together and take turns at ‘who can run through the dense ticket of armed guards and live’. It’s a tonne of fun to be running through an enemy compound with a conga of pistol wielding security on your back, I call it the ‘stalker experience’. If you want to be boring, you can also go through each mission working out the perfect ways to execute the targets, but who wants to play the game like it wants to be played. That’s just weird.

1. The Sims

Every since the first Sims game this series has always been perfect for a group of people to play together. It’s amazing how quickly people viciously defend their Sim and their decoration choices from each other when one person wants the paint the hallway ‘Wimbledon Cream’ and another wants to paint it ‘Sandy White’. If you are lucky enough to survive the minefield of design choice you might be able to get your Sim to make a friend and then they might have a games night, then your Sim suddenly realises he only has one controller…and the whole cycle starts again.