the co-op games that actually saved our long distance relationship
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real talk: "we should call more" doesn't work. calls with no thing to do turn into two tired people saying "so… how was your day" until someone falls asleep on camera. what actually worked for us was giving the call a job, and that job is co-op games.
after way too many hours of testing (for science, obviously), here's the tier list.
the S tier, built for exactly this
It Takes Two. yeah it's the obvious one, but it's the obvious one for a reason, it's a co-op game about a couple, and here's the part people miss: you only need to buy it once. it has a Friend's Pass, so one of you buys the game and the other joins free. it's ~10 hours of "wait, YOU pull the lever while I- no not that lever" and it's the closest thing to being on the couch together that we found.
Split Fiction. same studio (Hazelight), same one-copy Friend's Pass deal, and honestly? even better. you play two writers trapped in each other's stories, so one level you're both in a fantasy world, next you're in sci-fi. if you finished It Takes Two and had the "what now" sadness, this is what now.
the A tier, the long haul games
Stardew Valley. the ultimate "we're just existing together" game. no pressure, no timer, just two people farming and arguing about whether the money should go on sprinklers or a barn. we've had entire calls where we barely spoke and it still felt like quality time. that's the magic, it's parallel time together, which is the thing long distance steals from you.
Valheim / Core Keeper / Palworld. pick your flavour of "build a little home together in a dangerous world." there's something lowkey therapeutic about building a base with your partner when you can't build an actual home yet. we know. we're in therapy about it. (jokes. mostly.)
the "this will test your relationship" tier
Overcooked 2. listen. this game has ended stronger couples than us. but if you can survive kitchen 4-2 without someone leaving the call, you can survive a visa application. genuinely recommend it because it's stressful, you learn how you two argue, and long distance means you need to be good at arguing over voice with no body language. Overcooked is training.
the quick verdict table
| game | copies needed | hours | vibe |
|---|---|---|---|
| It Takes Two | one (friend's pass) | ~10 | the LDR classic |
| Split Fiction | one (friend's pass) | ~12 | even better |
| Stardew Valley | two (it's cheap) | ∞ | parallel cosiness |
| Valheim / Core Keeper | two | ∞ | build a home early |
| Overcooked 2 | two | until someone cries | relationship stress test |
the practical bits nobody tells you
- timezone the sessions. we're Adelaide ⇄ overseas, so "evening" is one person's 6am. shorter sessions, more often, beats one big weekend binge someone's zombie for.
- one of you having a potato PC is fine, Stardew and Core Keeper run on anything. save It Takes Two for whoever has the better rig hosting.
- Steam Remote Play Together (one person owns, streams to the other) exists but over international distance the latency is rough. Friend's Pass games > remote play, every time.
- discord stays open the whole time.
the game is the excuse. the call is the point.
the actual point
every one of these games cost less than one flight to see each other. that's the maths that got us: date night infrastructure is cheap. it's the moving-in-together part that's expensive, and that one we can also help you with. run your numbers when you're ready.
See exactly what closing the distance would cost the two of you — free, about two minutes.
if this helped, tell another long-distance couple. pip's marketing budget is seeds.
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