Multiplayer in 2025 is everything we hoped it would be, big, weird, chaotic, and deeply connected. Whether you're crushing monsters, building empires, or handing the controller off during a boss fight you swear is impossible, it's all better with friends.

Schedule 1 🌿

We had to start with this one. “Schedule 1” is the kind of game that crawls into your brain and makes you question how much time you've really got before that next meeting.

You start as a low-level dealer in the moody, fictional city of Hyland Point. Then you climb. Manufacture, distribute, launder—whatever it takes to build your empire and do your best Walter White from Breaking Bad.

And yes, it has a multiplayer option. That means you and your buds can create the Scarface dream together, minus the mess (and the cops).

“Look... I'm old. Started gaming in the 90s old. This is the easiest ‘trust me bro’ of my life. Buy this game.” – actual Steam review

TL;DR: Weed-friendly, wildly addictive, and full of strategic depth. Play responsibly and please don’t actually try this irl.

Monster Hunter Wilds 🐉

The storms are brutal, the monsters are bigger, and the gear is so worth grinding for. Wilds is everything we love about the Monster Hunter series, now with better gear swapping, real-time wound targeting, and birds that double as your mobile closet.

Multiplayer missions are where it shines. Squad up with three friends, fight something the size of a train, and build a tent when it gets too intense. Yes, you can set up pop-up camps now. No, you still can't skip the weapon sharpening.

Multiplayer tip: Story quests are still weirdly clunky to join. Make a Squad. Worship the Squad. Never abandon the Squad.

Civilization VII 🏛

You vs. the entire arc of human civilization. In 4X strategy style.

The latest Civ shakes things up, with more flexible leaders, crisis events that simulate civilizational collapse (current mood), and a new way to move from one age to the next. Philosophers and scientists now qualify as leaders, and “barbarians” are out, replaced by neutral factions that evolve into city-states if you don’t nuke them first.

Multiplayer is exactly what you'd expect: long, beautiful, and best played with snacks and at least one friend who really overthinks his moves while referring to an e-book version of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire on a second screen.

Best paired with: A clean bong rip and an unreasonably long explanation about why you're researching maritime trade routes in 600 B.C.

Split Fiction 🎬

If It Takes Two made you cry, laugh, or fall back in love with your gaming partner, this one’s for you.

Split Fiction follows Zoe and Mio, two writers trapped in their own chaotic stories. One’s all sci-fi lasers, the other’s fantasy dragons—and somehow they have to work together to escape. The game is full of wild one-off mechanics, heartfelt side stories, and that perfect level of co-op chaos that can either deepen your bond or test it entirely.

Word is Sydney Sweeney’s starring in the film adaptation. So yeah, this game’s having a moment.