Best Open-World Co-op game with amazing player customization

The charm of games like D&D is undoubtedly the freedom they bring, and how a group of players can go on an adventure together with completely different characters and playstyles. This has been emulated in tons of different video games over the years, usually most prominently in RPGs or MMOs, where buildcrafting can get delightfully complex and even a bit convoluted.

But having these different builds, especially in a co-op game where players roam an open world with their team, is quite nice because of how it creates balanced games. Someone can be focused on supporting and healing, while another person controls a crowd of enemies and tanks all the damage. Finally, a player will deal damage, possibly as a powerful glass cannon. Building this synergy is something that the following games are good at, thanks to the huge amount of customization options that will directly affect how each player experiences combat and general gameplay.

Warframe

Your frame determines your playstyle

IN Warframethe choice of your frame is what will greatly affect the choice of abilities and the general role you will have, although even then you have a lot of flexibility and freedom to build your frame to shape your frame in a way that best suits your playstyle and preferences. With 60 base frames available, there is absolutely no shortage of creativity.

Each frame comes with its own special sauce. For example, Ash plays into the stealth ninja power fantasy with abilities like shuriken and invisibility. Then there's Kullervo, a frame known for her incredible melee abilities, or something like Protea, with turrets and shields, and solid support for allies in the form of her Dispensary skills. With how nuanced and varied all of these frameworks are, a typical 4-man team comes into play Warframe will be versatile.

Wrapped up

A flexible customization system inspired by classic RPG classes

Fixed Wrapped up has a skill tree that names three different groups of classic RPG archetypes, from mobile rangers and assassins to magic-wielding wizards and healers, and finally to strong barbarians and tanks, there's freedom in how you mix and match gear and skills from multiple archetypes to your liking.

Even if you never take any skills from the magic tree, you can still use a wand, for example. Of course, there is an advantage to creating a tighter and more efficient build, as you can more easily min-max attributes and skills. There's also gear selection to figure out, as some gear is better suited to tanky, melee play, and others are best suited for all-round brawlers or wizards. Given the size and variety of the skill tree, and how flexible it can be, it's easy to create a group where each player will specialize in different ways.

Outwards

No classes, but skills greatly affect your role and affect survivability

Outwards is a marriage between survival and RPG, and while it doesn't exactly have classes, the skills players choose to unlock will be the spice that determines what everyone's role and specialty is in a co-op group. Because survival is key and the world is unforgiving (and death a common occurrence a la Kenshi), it is actually quite important to have the right skills and to take full advantage of them.

Talking to teachers and trainers is the main way to get new skills, but it is also possible to earn them through rewards for completing missions. As in all classic RPGs, there are skill options for mages (Rune Sage) and melee-oriented characters (Warrior Monk), and everything in between, like spellblades. In a co-op group, everyone will find something unique to suit their preferences, thanks to the staggering number of weapons ranging from bows to pistols.

Race, class, armor, weapons, and guild all define your role in a group

Many of the games mentioned here focus on skulls, attributes, perks, items and such to customize characters, but The Elder Scrolls Online goes a bit further, with much of the game focused on players who roughly fall into categories of tanks, damage dealers, or healers. Depending on your race, you will receive certain benefits, appropriate for these roles, specific classes and builds.

Redguards will have a nice starting bonus to their stamina, while High Elves are a choice for anyone looking to create a powerful mage. These will all complement your choice of class to take. You can become a wizard, a templar or even a necromancer. Once you start leveling up and gaining attribute points and skill points, building becomes even more complex, as more skill trees are unlocked and discovered through gameplay and quests. Thanks to all these variables and subclassing, it's pretty easy to have a group of four, each with their own flavor of play that complements the others.

Dying light

Robust skill trees determine each Kyle's specialty

All in Dying light can be experienced in co-op, from free-roaming the massive world to playing through the campaign and side missions. It also comes with a commendable number of skills, divided into several trees, ranging from Power, Agility, to Survivor, and later Legend and even Driver, if players have the DLC.

These skills greatly affect your playstyle, determining whether you're an explosive expert, a crafting enthusiast, a melee threat, or the ultimate parkour god that no infected can ever catch up to. Certainly some skills are more general and useful to everyone when it comes to surviving against the infected. But there are some really fun, unique options too, like jumping over enemies and stunning them while doing so, so a co-op party will easily end up with friends playing completely different styles in no time.

Valheim

How each person plays determines their skills

All are vikings Valheimbut the type of viking you become with your friends can differ greatly depending on what you do in the game. There is a solid list of skills, and by completing tasks related to them, you level them up. For example, if fishing is your thing, you'll likely get a high fishing skill, which will increase your roll speed and use up less of your stamina.

The same goes for the weapons you use. There are swords, polearms, knives, crossbows, clubs and bows to name a few, and magic too, with Blood Magic and Elemental Magic, for example. Whatever you choose to do, you can level up, and in that sense you have a lot of freedom to define what class or job your character has.

Diablo 4

Different classes, different builds, different games

Diablo 4 lets players venture into its world and through the campaign and seasonal content in a cooperative group, and among friends there can be tons of different playstyles. Not only do the different classes from Barbarian to Sorcerer play very differently, with strengths and weaknesses and their own unique play and build style, but there are also big differences within a specific class depending on which build players go for.

The abundance of passive, active and legendary skills and the unique equipment makes it very easy for two players to have very different playstyles, even if they land in the same class. Wizards alone have a lot of flexibility depending on what kind of element they focus on, for example.

Fire Ring

Classes and specialization greatly affect how you cross the lands between

Fire Rings co-op is available either in vanilla or through the Seamless Co-op mod. It's a game with tons of crafting available, and it all starts with the starting stats and class you choose when creating your character. You can respec later, but committing to a build from the start will make grinding a little less daunting.

Because of how stat points are distributed, players will always have to make big decisions and accept that one stat is worse than the rest. A tanky melee character needs to play up close, with high Vigor and STR, while all magic users will essentially be glass cannons that spew powerful Glinstone magic from a distance without armor. There are also builds that fall in between, combining aspects from multiple archetypes to create some really tasty, interesting combinations. It's the ultimate game with solid co-op, where everyone in the party has the potential to experience the game in a completely unique way due to their different weapons, battle damage and stats.