I have a big problem with internal validation. This makes most singleplayer experiences pretty meaningless to me. Antidepressants help, but only to an extent.

As a kid/teen, I only wanted to do online pvp. As I’ve gotten a bit older, I’ve found a lot not enjoyment out of coop. There’s still some competition, like dps charts in a raid, but it’s mostly the feeling of overcoming a challenge as a team that I look for now.

And as others have said, online coop is king. Love me some asymmetrical puzzle games.

The whole We Were Here series is marvelous. Asymmetrical co-op puzzle games. My friend and I’s recent games list looks very similar to this.

We also do a lot of single player games with one of us streaming over discord. When it’s a slow-burn puzzle or mystery game, it doesn’t really matter who is actually controlling.

For those types, I really recommend Return of the Obra Dinn. We’re currently working our way through the entire Frogwares Sherlock Holmes collection. The old ones are so terrible, which is a greatness all by itself.