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Split screen never left the PC, it just got hard to find. Steam files it under Shared/Split Screen Co-op and then buries the tag under a thousand online-only shooters. These fourteen work the way you actually need them to work tonight: one machine, one screen, two to four people in the room, nobody buying a second copy.
Two practical things before the list. Most of them expect a pad per player, and Windows will take four without complaining; a couple are fine with two people sharing a keyboard. Then think about the screen you own. A 24-inch monitor cut into four squares is a meaner game than the same four squares on the living-room TV, and it changes which of these is worth inviting people over for.
One distinction is worth making now, because it decides how a game feels in the room: only five of the fourteen genuinely cut the image in two — It Takes Two, Split Fiction, Human Fall Flat, QUAKE and The Escapists 2. The other nine keep everyone under a single camera, which means nobody gets to wander off alone. I have said which is which as we go.
Two players, no solo mode, no way round it
It Takes Two is where to start if you have a regular partner. There is no single-player option at all, and the split is not an afterthought bolted on late: it reshapes itself constantly, one half going wide while the other goes tall, because the level needs it that way. Some chapters hand each of you a completely different ability and refuse to move until you work out how they fit together. Two players, no more, no fewer. Steam sits at 9/10 across 218,383 reviews, and it costs € (with coupon Gocdkeys) as a Standard copy right now, which is the sort of number that makes the argument for you. If you want to compare sellers, buy It Takes Two key and see who is asking what.
Split Fiction is the same studio doing it again, and the same rule applies: two people or nobody plays. One of you gets a science-fiction world, the other gets fantasy, and the game keeps flinging you across the border between them. It is the newest game here and the price shows it — € (with coupon Gocdkeys) against a page where half the list is under three euros. Steam players have it at 10/10 over 23,536 reviews. If two of you are going to sit down together every week for a month, it is the easiest expensive purchase on the page: Split Fiction on PC.
The ones where you end up shouting at each other
Two to four players, almost always under one shared camera, and a friendship put under stress. This is the group to raid if you have people coming over and half of them do not really play games.
Overcooked 2 is the standard bearer. Four cooks, one kitchen, one camera for everybody, and the kitchen refuses to hold still — it splits down the middle, it slides around, it sets itself on fire. Critics gave it 81, Steam players 9/10 over 14,533 reviews, and it works with two as well as four, though two is calmer and less funny. At € (with coupon GCDKGamivo) it costs less than the ingredients for a real dinner.
PlateUp takes that same kitchen and asks you to run it for weeks. It is a roguelite: you serve a night, the restaurant grows, you pick an upgrade, you serve a harder night. Four players again, all on one screen. This is the one that quietly eats an entire evening because nobody wants to be the person who ends the run. € (with coupon GCDKGamivo) and a 10/10 from 12,306 Steam reviews.
Ultimate Chicken Horse has the cruellest idea on the list. Before each round everyone places a trap in the level, then everyone has to run the level you all just sabotaged. Four players locally, best with pads, and it plays perfectly well with people who have never held one. Critics were lukewarm at 78; the 14,679 Steam reviews sit at 10/10, and in this case the players are right. € (with coupon GCDKGamivo).
Human Fall Flat is the wobbly one. You control a soft, floppy person with no sense of balance and you solve fairly gentle physics puzzles badly, on purpose. On PC the sofa version is two people in split screen, while online it stretches much further. Critics landed on 70 and I understand why — it is not deep. It is also very hard to be in a bad mood while playing it, and at € (with coupon GCDKGamivo) you can find out for the price of nothing at all: Human Fall Flat on PC.
Chained Together is the newest bit of nonsense here and the premise fits in one line: two players, one chain between them, climb out of hell. If one of you falls, both of you fall, and you fall a very long way. It keeps you both under the same camera instead of splitting the image, which is exactly the point — you get to watch the precise moment your friend ruins it. Steam players have it at 9/10 across 20,321 reviews. We have no critic average for it on file, so that is the only number I can honestly put in front of you. € (with coupon GCDKGamivo), and after an hour you will either love it or have stopped speaking: Chained Together on PC.
When the point is beating the person next to you
Rivals of Aether is the platform fighter to get if you want a proper one on PC. Its critic average is a modest 68, the lowest here, and I would ignore it: what the reviews missed is that the game was built for exactly this situation. Four people on one screen with no split, small rosters, controls short enough to explain in a minute, and two people can share one keyboard without elbowing each other, which almost nothing else in the genre manages. 27,574 Steam reviews, 10/10, € (with coupon GOCDKEYS10).
QUAKE has the best critical reputation on this page — 94 — and the re-release is the reason it is here at all. It brought back local split screen for up to four, covering both the campaign and deathmatch. Four people, one keyboard-and-pads mess, brown corridors, a shotgun. It costs € and it runs on absolutely anything: QUAKE on PC.
Runs that fit in an evening
Spelunky puts four of you in the same cave on one screen, and that is the joke: the bombs, the ropes and the shopkeeper do not care whose fault it was. Critics gave it 90 and the design has aged extremely well. There is a deathmatch mode too, which is where most sofa sessions end up. € (with coupon GCDKGamivo).
Streets of Rogue is the anarchic one. Every character solves the floor differently — the doctor, the thief, the gorilla — and with four of you sharing a screen the plan survives about eleven seconds. 80 from the critics, 10/10 from 8,394 Steam reviews, € (with coupon GCDKGamivo). Good with people who like breaking rules more than following them.
Crypt of the NecroDancer is the one that asks the most of you. Everything moves on the beat, including you, and playing it with a second person means both of you are locked to the same rhythm. Two players on the same screen, and it takes ten minutes before anyone is having fun — then it clicks. 87 from critics and € (with coupon GOCDKEYS10), which is less than a coffee: Crypt of the NecroDancer on PC.
The two that survive past the first weekend
The Escapists 2 is a prison-break simulator and the only game here that rewards taking notes. You learn the guard rotations, you work out which job puts you near the workshop, you steal a fork, you file it into something else, you get caught, you start again on Tuesday. Two players in genuine split screen on one machine, and it also runs over the internet if the second person moves away. Critics gave it 75, which feels stingy for something this specific; the 11,291 Steam reviews sit at 9/10. It costs € and it will keep two people busy for weeks: The Escapists 2 on PC.
Children of Morta is the one to put on when you want something warmer. It is an action-RPG about a family defending a mountain, and every relative plays differently — the son with the sword, the daughter with the bow — so what you unlock is siblings rather than levels. Local co-op is two people under a shared camera rather than a split image, so you have to stay close whether you like it or not. That is a real constraint and it changes how you fight. Critics landed on 82, Steam is at 9/10 over 7,524 reviews, and at € (with coupon GCDKGamivo) it is the cheapest thing on this page: Children of Morta on PC.
What we would put on tonight
| If tonight is… | Put this on |
|---|---|
| Two of you, and you want a story | It Takes Two, then Split Fiction |
| Four people, two of whom never play | Overcooked 2 or Ultimate Chicken Horse |
| Someone has to win | Rivals of Aether or QUAKE |
| You have three hours and no plan | Spelunky, Streets of Rogue, PlateUp |
| You want something to keep coming back to | The Escapists 2, Children of Morta |
The spread on this page is wider than it looks. Eight of the fourteen sit under three euros, which means an entire evening of four-player chaos costs less than one new release. Split Fiction and It Takes Two are the exceptions, and they earn it in a specific way: they are the only two that were designed from the ground up so that the second person is not a guest.
I have been a gamer for as long as I can remember, and for the last 14 years I have been making life easier for other gamers. CEO and co-founder of Gocdkeys.
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