Highlights

• Open worlds are popular for exploration, side quests, story progression, leveling up, and meeting new characters in split-screen games.
• ARK: Survival Evolved
  combines dinosaurs, modern weapons, resource management, crafting and split-screen co-op for console versions.
• Gears 5
  introduces an open-world format for the first time and offers split-screen co-op for up to three players in campaign mode.

Open worlds are one of the most popular elements in a game as they allow players to explore at will, trigger exciting side quests, and try different methods to progress in the story, all while leveling up and meeting or recruiting new characters to their party. When developers add split-screen to this already wonderful concept, it creates a series of huge games that offer hours of fun through collaboration.

Over the years, many titles have been released that combine collaboration with limitless exploration, and while some of them have failed, most of them have received critical acclaim and are still loved by thousands of gamers, regardless of their age or era. Here are the best open world games that support split-screen co-op.

5 Ark: Survival Evolved

2 players cover more ground than one

• The gameplay combines dinosaurs, modern weapons and exploration
• Resource management is essential for survival

A prehistoric setting with dangerous dinosaurs, an open world concept and modern technology sound like they wouldn’t go well together, but they do. Ark: Survival Evolved In this game, players explore an island full of dangers. They must build a base, gather resources, and craft weapons to survive in this inhospitable place. Since Ark, the game’s fictional setting, is populated by about 194 creatures, it’s safe to say there’s a lot to explore.

The split-screen co-op mechanics for console versions are pretty simple. To access this mode, players simply need to start a game and have the other player press a few buttons to then be taken to the character creation window. For PC, it’s much more complicated, as there doesn’t seem to be a dedicated split-screen mode. However, players shouldn’t despair, as there are many ways to force split-screen play using brute force, one of which is Nucleus cooperation Software.

However, it should be noted that this program requires two different versions of the game to be running, so it may not be the best choice for lower-end PCs that cannot handle this workload.

4 Gears 5

Up to 3 players simultaneously

• Split-screen co-op campaign allows up to 3 simultaneous players
• First open-world title in the franchise

For many hardcore Gears of War Veterans, it was quite difficult to finish Gears of War 3 and came to the (at the time correct) conclusion that this would be the end of the series. Fortunately, in 2016, with the release of Gears of War 4and the continuation of 2019, Gears 5. The new titles in the trilogy took some risks and managed to make significant changes without losing the franchise’s fanbase – all under a new developer: Epic Games switched to The Coalition after Microsoft acquired the intellectual property.

Gears 5 is the first title in the series to follow an open world format, and as you’d expect when tackling a new gameplay mechanic, there are a few rough patches along the way. While the campaign isn’t comparable to the original trilogy, it’s still a lot of fun to slay The Swarm.

Gears 5 offers a split-screen co-op mode for its campaign, allowing up to 3 players to participate locally at the same time. Considering that fewer and fewer games offer a split-screen feature natively on PC and prefer to stick to consoles, this is a nice touch.

3 Diablo4

Strategic approaches are easier to plan in co-op

• No native local split-screen mode for PC
• Great world design and hundreds of new items

Since the first Diablo Game came out in 1996, players fell in love with the turn-based RPG franchise and always asked for further releases and additional content. With the release of Diablo4the latest game in the long history of the franchise, players were presented with another title that offers hours of gameplay, plenty of weapons, characters and items, and of course, hellish and challenging bosses.

Play Diablo4 Split-screen co-op is pretty straightforward on console, but there are a few things to keep in mind. It’s possible to play locally with a friend with a single copy of the game in split-screen mode, but to play online with someone who isn’t in the same location, both players will need to have their own copy in order to play together through the matchmaking menu.

On PC, things are a little more complicated as there is no native split-screen option. As mentioned, there are plenty of workarounds for this, but many of them require a sufficiently powerful PC.

2 Borderlands 2

Smooth split screen for its generation

• Smooth split-screen performance
• The cooperative game adds another layer to the already great combat mechanics

If the Borderland franchise, it immediately broke with convention and became one of the most popular titles among gamers worldwide due to its irreverent world design, unique art style, fast-paced combat, and mind-boggling amounts of unique loot. Thankfully, the torch was carried beautifully by the sequel, Borderlands 2with the introduction of new enemies, weapons and bosses to defeat.

It is important to note that Borderlands 2 was originally released for the PS3 and Xbox 360, which were powerful enough for their time and could run games at 30fps very well, but were also known to occasionally have problems with certain split-screen titles. Fortunately Borderlands 2 was not on that list and ran smoothly in both single-player and split-screen co-op modes, allowing players to explore Pandora while watching each other’s backs.

1 Divinity: Original Sin 2

The ultimate co-op experience

• Native PC split-screen co-op mode support
• Magical world with different player classes and interesting NPCs

Set in the medieval fantasy open world of Rivellon, Divinity: Original Sin 2 explores the years following the death of Lucian, a human of enormous power who was hailed as “Divine”. The game has a full cast of characters, NPCs and a wide variety of powerful abilities – the iconic RPG class system is also present and well developed. Unlike other titles on this list, Divinity: Original Sin 2 has a native PC split-screen mode; however, there is a limitation.

Players will have to use two controllers, as it’s not possible for one player to use a mouse and keyboard and the other to use a gamepad. All in all, that’s a small price to pay for a native feature that most other developers completely overlook.