Multiplayer games are more than immersive experiences to be enjoyed in a group — their utility and appeal lie in the often unspoken bonds forged over them: friends overcome limitations of distance and use them to connect and bond across borders, and couples experience each other in close contact, finding things about their partners the same way they would when they start living together for the first time.

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While some games are strictly designed as a multiplayer experience, like Overwatch 2, Just Cause, and nearly every other shooter out there, other games opt to craft different experiences for single player and multiplayer users, revealing other angles and details that lend depths to the original lore. Here are some single-player games with highly underrated multiplayer modes.

10 Ghost Of Tsushima: Legends

Ghost Of Tsushima is one of those games that went above and beyond with its multiplayer mode. Building an entirely different experience, Ghost of Tsushima: Legends is a free co-op DLC with four multiplayer character classes, allowing you to build a brand-new character and level it up across five different gameplay sagas that are heavily inspired by Japanese folklore.

It also fleshes out the game world with new maps, unique bosses, as well as different skills and loot that you can acquire by defeating enemies. Some of the gameplay modes are led by a storyline, while others focus on battling enemies to complete an objective. They also support three difficulty modes to match different gaming appetites: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and an additional Nightmare difficulty that gets unlocked after you make it to Level 90.

9 Assassin’s Creed: Unity

Assassin’s Creed: Unity's online multiplayer mode is more than just a different way to play this enduring cult classic. Its premise was uniquely built to tie in with the plot, featuring different assassins uniting with Arno to reveal the Templars' real ties to the French Revolution. As the first multiplayer mode to be released in the saga since Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Unity is doing a great job attracting players to this day.

The online multiplayer mode was also released with its own cutscenes, characters, and gameplay structure. This features missions, where you fight against time to complete an objective and unlock another piece of the puzzle, and heists, where a group of up to four players infiltrates a stronghold to acquire an artifact. This meant that you have to work together with other players, and in return, receive special group abilities.

8 Civilization

Throughout its many editions and updates, Sid Meier’s Civilization has grown to become a household name in strategy games, arguably going down in history somewhere not too far from traditional Chess as a timeless classic. In it, you choose a historical leader to represent you as you lead their civilization to a scientific, cultural, military, diplomatic or religious win.

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In the multiplayer mode, you replace your AI enemies with real live ones, made of flesh and blood. This allows you to experience the game differently, as you learn not to trust your friends, compromise your own treasury to bail them out, or put the needs of other leaders over those of your people, even if they happen to be your closest buddies.

7 Dying Light 2

People are torn over what exactly makes Dying Light 2 such an incredible online co-op experience. Is it the level of detail? Is it the brilliant game mechanics? Is it the fact that the game never explained how it’s meant to be played?

Dying Light 2 not only shows you what your friends are made of, but it also shows you what you’re made of, as you fight to survive a horrifying, zombie-infested, post-apocalyptic world with nothing to go on but your wits and ability to build a community. To unlock the co-op mode, you need to prove you really want it by getting through a two-hour-long intro and tutorial, and then completing the Markers of Plague quest in the city of Villedor.

6 Star Wars Episode 3: The Revenge Of The Sith

Star Wars Episode 3: The Revenge of the Sith is widely loved for its duel mode, a co-op experience that pitches two players against each other, and gives them a choice between some of the most iconic characters of the franchise, including Obi-Wan, Anakin, Mace Windu, Count Dooku, Cin Drallig, General Grievous, or Serra Keto. You can also unlock both Darth Vader and Ben Kenobi at a certain level.

The reason Star Wars Episode 3: The Revenge of the Sith has one of the best multiplayer modes out there is simple: one-on-one lightsaber battles! Undoubtedly the next best thing after doing them in real life at a convention.

5 BioShock 2

Like Conker’s Bad Fur Day, the co-op mode in BioShock 2 features seven different multiplayer modes throughout which you can explore what really happened during the Rapture Civil War, an event that takes place a year before the first BioShock. It offers a choice of ten playable, spliced characters across ten different maps, and you are caught in the middle of a corporate nightmare scenario, testing products for Ryan Industries and Sinclair Solutions.

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By playing online matches and completing trials, you can earn ADAM and level up, unlocking new Plasmids, weapons, and Gene tonics that prepare you for more advanced enemies and matchups.

4 Portal 2

Contrary to the single player mode, where you play as a trapped human subject attempting to flee a nightmarish facility run by an evil AI, the co-op mode in Portal 2 puts you and your playing partner in the robots’ shoes. Taking the uncomfortable roles of Atlas and P-Body, you are given guns and asked to shoot the portal entrances and exits.

This becomes increasingly more difficult as you progress through the game, made even harder by GLaDOS, the abusive AI presumably running the facility and your training. GLaDOS is also the main reason why this game is so incredible, as she plays mind tricks on you to make you hate and distrust your partner, especially when you do well.

3 The Last Of Us: Factions

The Last Of Us: Factions is the online multiplayer mode of Part One, the first edition of this post-apocalyptic zombie nightmare saga. You choose to play as either a Hunter or a Firefly, and cannot change your initial selection until the story is played out to the very end.

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Featuring three different modes — Supply Raid, Survivors, and Interrogation — The Last Of Us: Factions lets you experience the world at close range, forging your own experience with choices and playing along people you dislike, as well as against them, to survive terrible odds with no hope of change and little hope of survival.

2 Destiny 2: Lightfall

Destiny 2: Lightfall is a DLC for the online version of Destiny 2, including a PvP version that features a new narrative campaign with singular quests and a new location to explore with your friends.

As you dole out wits and strategy to protect Earth’s last safe city against hostile alien races, you can co-op with two friends online through Story missions, Strikes, Patrol Zones, and Black Armory Forges, play with four friends in the Reckoning, and six friends in the Raids and the Menagerie.

1 Halo Infinite

Halo Infinite’s single-player mode is the best in the whole series, but its many multiplayer modes are equally incredible, making it one of the most creative, and well-rounded, shooters ever.

Its multiplayer modes feature Slayer, a straightforward arena mode; Capture the Flag, an objective-based mode; Oddball, a unique mish-mash of different types; Strongholds, challenging you to control and defend an area; Stockpile, where you need to pick up power seeds and insert them into receptacles; Total Control, which is like Strongholds but harder; King of the Hill and Land Grab, which are self-explanatory; Last Spartan Standing, a battle royale mode; Tactical Slayer, a SWAT mode; and a range of time-limited modes.

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