Best cooperative board games to team up with in 2024

If you're not a fan of how competitive things can get around the table, cooperative board games will be a breath of fresh air. Besides emphasizing teamwork and good communication, they also have a wholesome vibe you'd struggle to find anywhere else. You win or lose as one, and that has a habit of bringing us all together.

The trouble is, there's a lot of choice. That's why the 12DOVE experts and I have gotten our heads together to form this list of the best cooperative board games. If you ask us, these should be on everyone's shelf. In fact, a few of them rank amongst the best board games overall – they stand out in a very crowded field, which helps if you're wondering how to choose what you should play next. Pandemic is still head and shoulders above the rest thanks to intense gameplay that forces you to think on your feet, for example, and it's my go-to suggestion.

Wondering how we settled on these recommendations? Our team and I have had hands-on experience with all of them, and I've reviewed more than a few for this site. Basically? If we don't think it's the best of the best (and we wouldn't be happy spending our own money on it), it's not getting onto the page. You can find out more about our process in the 'how we test' section later on.

Curated by

Curated by

Benjamin Abbott

Benjamin's been reviewing and writing about board games for more than five years. However, he's played them from the moment he was old enough to understand "collect $200 when you pass Go." He's currently trying to convince someone to play spooky sci-fi horror game Nemesis with him.

The quick list

Best cooperative board game overall

If you want the ultimate co-op experience, this is where you should start. Although the theme hits closer to home nowadays, Pandemic remains one of the best cooperative board games ever made thanks to how essential teamwork and strategizing are. Defeat is always a possibility, and victory hinges on your ability to communicate well.

Features & design: With four deadly diseases having broken out across the globe, your job is to cure and eradicate them before civilization becomes overwhelmed. Unfortunately for us, those illnesses – represented by little cubes placed on city spaces around the board – spread faster than you can say "hazmat suit." They also grow more dangerous with each passing turn, because too many will cause a domino effect. Pandemic then turns into a race against time in which every decision counts.

Speaking of which, the hardest choice you'll have to make from turn to turn is whether you research a cure (which eventually stops new cubes for that disease being placed) or removing those infection cubes to avoid an outbreak spilling over into the next space.

There isn't much to visually distract you from your task; Pandemic is to the point in how it looks. It does so with style, though. The board and cards feel like graphics you'd get on-screen in CSI shows where someone says something very dramatic before the scene cuts to black with a music sting. Sure, the movers representing your characters are basic by comparison (they're simple plastic pawns). But everything else is highly effective thanks to that restraint.

The only downside? Those disease cubes look all too delicious – they're like tiny, forbidden sweets.

Gameplay: Yes, this is a pressure-cooker situation. But luckily, the result is a blast from start to finish. With a laser-focus on strategy and coordination, Pandemic is the definition of good teamwork. There are no awards or pats on the back for individual players; it's all for one, and one for all.

It's true that the game is difficult, and a little stressful at times. Getting unlucky with the cards you draw can, on a rare occasion, mean early defeat that isn't your fault. Yet Pandemic is also engrossing in a way few other co-op board games manage to be. It keeps you on the edge of your seat at all times. It's the game I always come back to if I'm in the mood for something team-based.

Best cooperative board game for adults

If you want to make sure everyone stays on the edge of their seat, throw traitors into the mix. Unfathomable does this to great effect, and the result is good. Monstrously good, you could say.

Features & design: The year is 1913, and some very unlucky passengers have booked onto the SS. Atlantica for a voyage across the ocean. A couple of days from port, things go horribly wrong; bug-eyed sea creatures rise from the ocean and attack, directed by eldritch behemoths. Your objective is to keep the ship afloat, survive those monsters scrambling on board, and reach safety before it's too late.

Well, that's true for most people. Although the majority of players are bog-standard humans trying to fix damaged parts of the ship or fend off these 'Deep Ones,' others are secret human-Deep One 'hybrids' hell-bent on sabotaging their efforts. They do this by scuppering 'crisis' challenges that are randomly drawn each turn. All of these have a target number and consequences should you fail to meet said number, so players must contribute numbered cards from their hand to a central pool. Because this is done anonymously, traitors can add a dud card to tank the whole effort before playing innocent. The humans can't trust anyone as a result, and thanks to teamwork being your only hope of keeping this vessel running, it's a juicy dilemma.

The visual design is just as evocative. With moody artwork working alongside art-deco flourishes that make the board, rules, and cards seem as if they've been pulled from a 1920s shipwreck, Unfathomable knocks it out of the park so far as looks are concerned.

OK, so I was left a little cold by the horde of mono-pose Deep One models. Yet their eldritch masters make up for it in spades. These enormous figures are showstoppers in their own right, and they add a sinking sense of "oh crap" whenever they emerge onto the board.

Gameplay: This is the spiritual successor to an excellent, now-out-of-print Battlestar Galactica board game from the 2000s, and even though it's set in the Arkham Horror universe these days, Unfathomable keeps hold of the same fantastic gameplay. Traitors must stay undetected while they mess with rivals, and humans have to sniff them out as they juggle monster-fighting with white-knuckle repairs. Despite resulting in a ballooning run-time, it's a worthy trade-off if you've got patience.

For one thing, it's a thrilling test of nerves and communication as you juggle an eternally-growing to-do list. Plus, there are enough crises included in the game to keep things fresh and encourage return visits. However, the best bit is how Unfathomable balances the strategic depth of board games for adults with the cheeky glee of undermining your friends. Honestly, I'm always delighted when I get to throw a spanner in the works. It's a winning mix.

Best 2-player cooperative board game

Most of us have probably made jokes about how terrible Jurassic Park security is at one point or another. After all, how hard can it be to stop your star attractions from eating everyone? This team game lets you put that to the test by running the dino-park yourself. And even though it's still brilliant with more people, running it as a 2-player game is much better – you get more choice, and it's easier to leave your mark.

Features & design: At its most basic, Legacy of Isla Nublar lets you play through the story of each movie (along with a few scenarios set between them). Your aim is to do better than the characters on-screen, and the first priority is keeping guests safe if and when dinos run amuck.

Making sure they stay in line isn't easy. For starters, your prehistoric residents will do their best to break through any barriers you've erected. Secondly, predators will make a beeline for anything on two legs… and you've got to protect those poor saps while completing objectives that are probably going to drag you in the opposite direction. When combined with legacy mechanics that allow you to erect permanent structures on the board or create your own dinosaurs with gene-splicing, this Jurassic World spin-off elicits the same excitement you might have felt when seeing those park gates open (complete with that score) for the first time.

Actually, you'll get a whiff of that as soon as you open the box. This team board game is one of the few I'd describe as genuinely sumptuous. Its rulebooks and cards have been designed to look like pulp comic books from the 20th Century, and elements like the board sport 'wood-trim' effects along with a vibrant color scheme to bring the best classic board games to mind.

There are plenty of other flourishes, too. For one thing, the d20 die included here evokes prehistoric mosquitoes trapped in amber. Plus, those dinosaur tokens would look amazing on a shelf as is – they're miniature dioramas pulled straight from the movies.

Although you are paying for all this in a literal sense with the higher price tag, Legacy of Isla Nublar pulls overtime to make that investment worthwhile.

Gameplay: This is the kind of board game where things can go wrong fast, and it's gloriously chaotic. As an example, I was cornered once by a T.rex while organizing the gift shop as geriatric park founder John Hammond, and all I had to fight it off was a measly cattle prod. It was ridiculous and wonderful at the same time, and Legacy of Isla Nublar is stuffed with emergent gameplay like that. You'll always have to compromise as well, because your objectives deliberately make you choose between the mission and saving civilians.

No matter how you go about it, tackling Legacy of Isla Nublar as a pair makes for a more satisfying time. Because you'll be permanently altering the board with barrier stickers, buildings, and more, limiting head-count affords you greater agency when it comes to those decisions. This does mean commiting to a long-term campaign for the full effect, but sticking with it provides a unique board for use in an endgame mode you can revisit over and over again. Few other legacy games do this, and fewer still have mini-games to keep things interesting, so that's a tick in the 'win' column right away.

Best cooperative strategy board game

It's a well-known fact that Star Trek redshirts are doomed, but they're your only chance of survival in The Captain is Dead: Dangerous Planet. As the franchise's third installment, it builds on the existing formula in clever, compelling ways. But don't think you need to have played its predecessors (The Captain is Dead and The Captain is Dead: Lockdown) to enjoy yourself. Thanks to push-your-luck mechanics and a generous amount of depth, this is one of the best cooperative board games from the last few years if you're a fan of strategy.

Features & design: As the name would suggest, the commander of your away-mission has been killed in action. (Boo.) Now you've got to complete their quest and gather as many alien artifacts as possible before you're overwhelmed by the planet's bug-like inhabitants. (Yay?) Naturally, there's also a catch – those artifacts are hidden deep in bug-infested tunnels. Want to collect 'em all? You'll need to venture further into enemy territory.

Due to newly-hatched bugs scuttling toward you each and every turn, you'll have to set up defenses unless you want a particularly short match; they'll wound your characters and destroy your shuttle should they break through. This results in a ticking clock, especially thanks to bugs moving faster when you've collected more artifacts.

With all this Trek-adjacent tomfoolery, I wouldn't have been surprised for Dangerous Planet to ape that art style as well. But to the game's credit, it doesn't. Even though its heroes are deliberately reminiscent of archetypes or actual The Next Generation characters, they're rendered in an angular way that's totally unique. The Captain is Dead has an instantly recognizable style as a result.

Its components are equally well thought-out, and the use of clear plastic for movers should keep things in tip-top condition for years to come. It's true that there are issues (besides having a lot to set up, it can be hard to see the clear plastic discs you put on the board during play), yet these pale in comparison to the design team's bold choices elsewhere.

Gameplay: Dangerous Planet has plenty in common with the best cooperative board games, and that's no bad thing. It boasts a randomized board and objective placement like Betrayal at House on the Hill (albeit with less flashy tiles), so you'll always have to dream up new plans of attack. It gets harder the further you go as well, just like Pandemic.

And boy, can it get difficult. Thanks to 'alert' cards arranged by color and severity, these random events occur at the end of your turn and are designed to keep you on your toes. This means you'll be walking a tightrope-thin line between victory and defeat, so engineering a cunning strategy or outmaneuvering this devious game feels like an achievement. We'll admit that there are some stumbling blocks via hard-to-absorb rules and a few confusing cards, but these niggles are a small price to pay.

Best cooperative board game for families

Looking for good co-op board games that you can play en-masse? This is an excellent choice. Up to 20 people can take part in Articulate so long as you've got even team numbers, and plenty of gamers (not to mention non-gamers) have been enjoying the brain-teasers that follow since 1992. Better yet, it doesn't really go 'out of date' in the way its competition does.

Features & design: After dividing into teams, a representative of one will draw a card. They then have 30 seconds to describe the item listed on it as best they can without using those exact words. (So for 'potato' you might say "you make fries with it!") If their teammates guess what the original word was, whoever's reading them out can take another card – and so on – until their time is up. You then move your token that many spaces along the board.

That board is where things get interesting. Each space has a different category on it for you to tackle (from Nature to People), and some actually give you bonus moves… or let you push rivals back a space.

Well, the gameplay is interesting at least. The rather pedestrian visuals of Articulate let it down, and although they're perfectly serviceable, it feels basic rather than elegant. This is a co-op board game that could do with a makeover.

Gameplay: The biggest draw for Articulate is that anyone can play. There's no need to be a font of obscure facts here, because it's all about general knowledge (which is why it stays relevant, incidentally). That means everyone is able to get involved, no matter how much experience they have with board games.

You'd be right to say that it's not high-octane, or especially strategic. But Articulate's simplicity is in its favor. You can pick it up with ease at any point, and you won't spend an age setting things up. Additionally, it has so many cards with so many categories that you're unlikely to learn them all. I've been playing this for well over a decade, and I'm still not bored of it.

Best cooperative board game for kids

This cooperative board game might have one of the best elevator pitches here. Zombies have invaded your school, and you've got to fend them off to avoid eternal detention with the undead. Fun, right? The game is too. It's quirky, light-hearted, and keeps players hooked with a steady stream of secret upgrades.

Features & design: Zombie Kidz Evolution challenges you to lock down your school by defeating these shambling monsters and keeping each of the four entrances locked down. If all zombie tokens enter the board, it's game over.

This is basically a 'my first Legacy game,' too. Thanks to unlockable abilities that carry over from session to session (not to mention stickers for tracking it all), Evolution should stay interesting for the long haul. Considering how some of these changes involve 'Super Zombies' with gnarly powers and weird new player abilities, it shouldn't get boring any time soon.

In much the same way, it shouldn't spook your little ones. This is a very friendly apocalypse, and everything is rendered with a bubbly aesthetic that could be taken from a Dreamworks film. The component quality isn't good enough to match this, unfortunately, but there's no denying that the game has personality to spare.

Gameplay: The mechanics holding up this version of Zombie Kidz are easy and breezy. The core objective is always the same (defeat zombies and shore up your defenses so they don't overwhelm you), and that means young players should pick it up quickly. Indeed, the unlockable abilities are more of an enhancement than a breaking of the wheel; they keep you on your toes when the dust has started to settle.

It's not scary either, so don't worry about this freaking out your children. It adds some fun to the apocalypse with a cartoon artstyle and no mention of brain-eating anywhere. When you add in 'weapons' that are Nerf blasters and toy lightsabers, Evolution feels more like it's happening in the kids' imagination than real life.

It's a shame that the game's components aren't as sturdy as those toys (a must for all board games for kids), but that's the only complaint I have.

How to choose cooperative board games

Unsure of what you're in the mood for? Don't worry, it's easy to get choice paralysis when there's so much on offer.

To help point you in the right direction, I've listed a few questions below that usually help me when I'm trying to settle on what I should play next. Alternatively, check in with our guide to the many types of board games. It's filled with suggestions that could be a fit for you.

How we test cooperative board games

Our testing methodology is of tremendous importance to the 12DOVE team; we're in the privileged position of recommending board games for you to spend your hard-earned money on, so we take the matter seriously.

As mentioned in our 'how we test board games' guide, our experts have years of experience covering the industry and will spend as long as they can with a product to learn its ins and outs. They'll also run the game multiple times with different player counts too, just to see if or how the experience differs.

When it's time to put pen to paper, we then split the critiques found on this page into four distinct sections:

• Introduction: We discuss the game's 'elevator pitch' (e.g. what is its unique selling point?) here, and you'll find at-a-glance buy if / don't buy if advice nearby.
• Features & design: This is where we discuss how the game works, and what its components or visual style's like.
• Gameplay: Most of our writing is dedicated to a cooperative board game's mechanics, so expect the bulk of a review to discuss whether the product is actually fun to play.
• Should you buy: Seeing as co-op board games can be expensive, this section aims to give an honest overview of whether the item is worth purchasing. 'Buy if/don't buy if' boxes are also included here.

We also rank cooperative board games with a standardized set of criteria you'll find on this page and across our reviews. This includes everything from how accessible it is to the component quality. You can see an example below:

If you'd like to get a better idea of how our process works, be sure to visit the wider 12DOVE review policy.

Cooperative board games FAQ

If you're preparing for a get-together and aren't feeling like working as a team, don't miss our guide to the very best party board games. Want a different kind of co-op experience, on the other hand? Be sure to check in with the best tabletop RPGs.