It’s been a rather strange year for co-op titles, primarily because of the obsession with Halo 5: Guardians not supporting local split-screen co-op support. That strange bit aside, this year was as strong for co-op titles as it was for competitive multiplayer, even if some of the offerings didn’t quite meet our lofty expectations. For the first time, major franchises like Call of Duty and Halo began to build their campaigns around co-op. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six team returned to deliver some good ol’ fashioned terrorist hunt and Evolve presented a rather quirky mix of co-op and competitive shooting with its 4 vs. 1 dynamic. What eventually won our award for best co-op multiplayer in 2015? Let’s find out.

Nominees:

• Bloodborne
• Evolve
• Call of Duty Black Ops 3
• Halo 5 Guardians
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege

Winner: Bloodborne

From Software’s Souls games may not seem like it but they’re excellent co-op games when you’re down for some shared suffering. Bloodborne is no exception and its excellent campaign is only augmented by the number of friends that join you. To further add to this are the Chalice Dungeons – randomly generated dungeons full of all manner of beasties that test your mettle. What better past-time could you think of then hopping in with two friends and being scared by the villainous beings of the darkness together?

Though it takes some time to get used to the items required for co-op – not to mention the search parameters that take your level into account and setting up passwords and whatnot – Bloodborne is a rewarding, fun experience with friends. Heck, its co-op may very well be the best way to break your first-time friends into the game. And if you have no one to play with, you can randomly go about helping other players with their trials and tribulations.

Note: GamingBolt’s Game of the Year categories, nominations and awards are selected via an internal nomination, voting and debate process. You can check the rest of categories and the respective winners here.