Palworld, rent a dedicated server, anyone can hop in or out as necessary. Guns, legally(?) distinct from pokemon monsters to catch. Cartoon violence. Tons of fun to be had.
Not FPS, but Valheim is plenty fun. Also, zomboid, but that ones a bit more violent
Valheim is also capable of being extremely frustrating, so I’d recommend one of the mods that removes the skill penalty loss when dying. It might not be necessary, but dad knows the kids’ temperaments better than me.
EpicLoot might also be good, if OP’s kids are keen to grind components.
A survival game is probably what you’re aiming for here. Someone has to host in those scenarios usually unless one of you pays for a dedicated server. I don’t have a ton of experience with the shooty kind. But Valheim, Vrising and Palworld were a lot of fun for about 20 to 30 hours each. Palworld had some shooter experiences.
I like these because it usually turns into a “let’s get things done together “ and everyone finds their tasks to do. Then you put it all together and you end up with a cool base you built together and have some pride in. Palworld again is the one with the lowest “violence” imo
My first thought was Borderlands 2, but 10 might be a bit young and it doesn’t really qualify as “as little violence as possible”.
Maybe Deep Rock Galactic, or Vermintide 2? (Or Darktide but that’s far more violent and it’s humans you’re killing.)
Earth Defense Force might be fun, too. It’s very silly, the humor would probably land with a 10 year old.
Risk of Rain 2, maybe, also.
He asked for a 5 player coop game and you listed exactly 5 games that are 4 player max.
You are awarded no points, and may god have mercy on your soul.
There are (modded) DRG lobbies with extreme player counts, and I don’t think it’s that hard to set them up. The problem I see with DRG is that it can be pretty spooky at times (similar to Minecraft or Subnautica), so it might not be suitable for a 10 year old.
Others have already mentioned RoR and DRG; VT2 and Borderlands also have mods that support at least 8 and I think up to 16 players.
I think EDF is the only one that definitely doesn’t; I was mis-remembering how many can play that, I guess. Thought it was 5 or 6.
If you can find it, Evolve. Four players fighting the fifth player as a monster.
Good suggestion, there are a few in this genre. Dead by Daylight and Friday the 13th are two others. They’re made for 5 people, as long as you’re ok with one person being the monster.
SvenEvils has a great list of local co op games. https://store.steampowered.com/curator/8485829-SvenEvils-Playground/
There are a lot of great 4 player games out there.
No love for five…
Don’t Starve Together - not a shooter though.
CoOp / PvE + Shooter + 5 players is a bit of a challenge to be honest…
Is one category less important than the others? Might help with suggestions.
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@janbartosik @gaming Bronzebeard’s Tavern is free, and 1-8 player:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2422870/Bronzebeards_Tavern/Not a shooter, but you can have a lot of fun in custom matches of Rocket League and the game is suitable for kids and free.
I know you asked for as little violence as possible, but have you considered Destiny 2?
There are single, two, three and six person activities (and you can use group finders to help find a 6th and maybe make a friend on the way).
It is a first person looter shooter, but it also has a deep story as well as mechanics (eg platforming, solving puzzles, exploring areas to find collectibles). Ultimately though you do need to shoot and kill stuff. It’s not that gory however.
There’s also builds in the game, so you can spend a lot of time tweaking your builds to get it how you like it, aka theory crafting.
It’s also “free to play”, but in reality it’s “free for the first bit and then if you want access to heaps of other content you gotta spend money”.
@janbartosik @gaming Helldivers
Ninja Turtles Shredders Revenge is up to 6 players. Technically it’s tons of violence, but it’s cartoony. You can do online or couch coop too.
Satisfactory could be amazing if everyone’s into that sort of thing – there’s enough to the exploration and pve that players don’t have to just be building factories all the time, but if they do get into the factory part it’s an excellent foundation for getting into engineering one day!
DRG can be modded to support 5+.
