Baldur’s Gate 3, good for up to four player coop.
Borderlands 1 & 2, too.
I’d suggest Planescape Torment over BG1 or 2 - if you’re willing to work with archaic UIs, Torment is amazing.
Unfortunately Torment is not multiplayer :(
Oh darn - boo. So maybe BG1 & 2 are better. But still - play Torment!
If you’re into mmo, Old Republic have most story, and it’s even quite good.
It Takes Two. Phenomenal game, decent emotional story behind it
Played it with my SO, reached a certain scene that completely warped the tone of the game (I’m guessing you know which one I mean), and neither of us really have had the urge to play since.
Also, both parents are kinda unlikable as characters imo, lol.
Warframe aka, space ninjas
Warframe is great but you can’t do 95% of the story missions multiplayer
It Takes Two was fun time with 2 people. The story is a little corny but overall enjoyable.
Left 4 dead 1 & 2.
Back 4 blood.Portal 2 has a very fun co-op story mode. In fact, I’d recommend the solo story mode for both Portal 1 and 2 as well. One of my favorite video game stories ever.
I haven’t played them myself but I believe both It Takes Two and A Way Out were designed to be played in co-op only so both their stories should be good.
Borderlands, particularly 2
Portal 2
Serious Sam. Split screen 2 player was fun.
These are a bit more make your own story: Rimworld with Multiplayer mod (feels like its vanilla multiplayer tbh) and Project Zomboid :)
Project zomboid is great, and I’m super glad they added multi-player, but it’s more of a “make your own story” type of game IMO.
Left 4 dead 1&2, Halo 1-3 + Reach. Man I miss co op games with friends on split screen. Do modern games even have split screen options outside of Nintendo titles?
+1 for the Bungie Era Halo franchises, IMO they have one of the best stories, and they honestly all hold up well. Plus you have so much that you can burn through with friends, and it has such deep lore you’ll be chatting for hours.
1, 2, 3, ODST, and Reach are all great for this. 1 and 2 support 2 players. 3, ODST, and Reach support 4 players
Dungeons and Dragons. With the right group, you can do anything.
As a forever DM I reject your statement. All I want to do is play one character!
There are other RPGs that may scratch slightly different itches, if the fantasy + combat + resource management parts of DND don’t really appeal.
I really like Fate. it’s a lot more focused on story and is overall a lighter system. it does ask more from the players though.
In a similar vein, I picked up Marvel Multiverse RPG recently. My friends haven’t played DND picked this up really quickly.
I would think games like Divinity Sin 2, Balder’s Gate 3 have solid stories given their nature.
Theres also simpler games like Cat Quest II, Diablo IV (I thought story was very meh), A Way Out, etc.
You just have to look? No genre preference listed
Planet crafter.
