The best open world co-op games with great player customization

The magic of games like D&D is undoubtedly the freedom they come with, and how a group of players can go on adventures together with wildly different characters and playstyles. This has been emulated in many different video games over the years, generally most prominently in RPGs or MMOs, where buildcrafting can be beautifully complex and even a bit convoluted.

Having these different builds, especially in a co-op game where players move around the open world with their team, is quite nice as it creates balanced parties. Someone can focus on support and healing, while another can crowd control enemies and tank all the damage. Finally, one player deals damage, perhaps as a powerful glass cannon. Building this synergy is something that the following games excel at, with a huge amount of customization options that will directly affect the way each player experiences combat and general gameplay.

War frame

Your frame determines your playing style

IN War framethe choice of your frame is what will greatly affect the choice of abilities and the general role you'll have, although even then you'll have a fair amount of flexibility and build freedom to shape your frame to best suit your playstyle and preferences. With 60 base frames available, there's absolutely no shortage of creativity.

Each frame comes with its own special sauce. For example, Ash plays into the fantasy of stealthy ninja powers with abilities like shuriken and invisibility. Then there's Kullervo, a frame known for her incredible melee abilities, or something like Protea, with turrets and shields and solid support for allies in the form of her Dispenzar skill. With how subtle and varied all of these frames are, they're a typical 4-person team War frame they must be diverse.

Veiled

A flexible customization system inspired by classic RPG classes

Although Veiled has a skill tree that names three different groups of classic RPG archetypes, from mobile rangers and assassins to magic-wielding wizards and healers, and finally to powerful barbarians and tanks, there's freedom to mix and match gear and skills from multiple archetypes to your heart's content.

Even if you never pick up any skills from the magic tree, you can still wield things like a wand. There is of course an advantage to creating a tighter and more efficient build as you can more easily minimize attributes and skills. There's also a selection of gear to figure out, as some gear is better suited for tanks and melee games, and others are best suited for any battle mages or wizards. Due to the size and variety of the skill tree and how flexible it can be, it's easy to create a group where each player specializes differently.

External

No classes, but skills greatly affect your role and affect survival

External is a combination of survival and RPG, and while it doesn't exactly have classes, the skills players choose to unlock will be the spice that determines what everyone's role and specialization is in the co-op party. Because survival is key and the world is unforgiving (and death is commonplace a la Kenshi), it's actually quite important to have the right skills and make full use of them.

Talking to teachers and trainers is the number one way to get new skills, although it is also possible to get them through rewards for completing tasks. As with all classic RPGs, there are skill options for mages (Rune Sage) and melee-focused characters (Warrior Monk) and everything in between, such as spellblades. In the co-op group, everyone will find something unique to suit their preferences, thanks to a staggering number of weapons from bows and arrows to pistols.

Race, class, armor, weapons, and guilds define your role in the party

Many of the games mentioned here focus on skulls, attributes, perks, items, etc. to customize characters, but The Elder Scrolls Online it goes a little further, with much of the game focusing on players who roughly fall into the tank, damage dealer, or healer categories. Depending on your race, you'll enjoy certain perks that fit those roles, specific classes, and builds.

Redguards will have a nice starting bonus to their stamina, while High Elves are a popular choice for anyone looking to build a powerful mage. All of this will be complemented by the choice of class you make. You can become a wizard, a templar or even a necromancer. Once you start leveling up and gaining attribute points and skill points, crafting becomes even more complex as more skill trees are unlocked and discovered through gameplay and quests. With all these variables and subclasses, it's pretty easy to have a party of four, each with their own flavor of play that complements the others.

Dying light

Robust skill trees determine each of Kyle's specialties

Everything in Dying light you can experience in co-op, from free-roaming the vast world to playing campaigns and side missions. It also comes with a commendable amount of skills, split into several trees from Strength, Agility to Survivor and later Legend and even Driver if players have the DLC.

These skills greatly influence your playstyle, determining whether you're an explosives expert, a crafting enthusiast, a melee threat, or a perfect parkour god that no infected can ever catch. Of course, some skills are more general and useful for everyone when it comes to surviving against the infected. However, there are also some really fun and unique options like jumping over enemies and stunning them, so it's easy for a co-op group to end up with friends playing completely different styles.

Valheim

How each person plays determines their skills

They are all Vikings Valheimbut the type of Viking you and your friends become can vary greatly depending on what you end up doing in the game. There is a solid list of skills and you level them up by completing tasks related to them. For example, if you enjoy fishing, you'll probably end up with a high fishing skill, which will increase your reel speed and use up less of your stamina.

The same goes for the weapons you use. There are swords, polearms, knives, crossbows, clubs, and bows to name a few, as well as magic such as blood magic and elemental magic. Whatever you choose to do, you can level up and in that sense you have a lot of freedom to define what class or job your character has.

Diablo 4

Different classes, different builds, different gameplay

Diablo 4 it allows players to venture into its world, and through the campaign and seasonal content in a co-op group and between friends, there can be a lot of different playstyles. Not only do the different classes from Barbarian to Warlock all play very differently, with strengths and weaknesses and their own unique gameplay and buildcraft flair, but there are also big differences within a particular class depending on which build players choose.

With a large amount of passive, active and legendary skills and unique gear, it's very easy for two players to have completely different play styles even if they come in the same class. Wizards themselves have a lot of flexibility depending on what kind of element they're targeting, for example.

Elden Ring

Classes and specializations greatly affect how you traverse the lands

Elden Ring co-op is available either in vanilla or through the Seamless Co-op mod. It's a game with a lot of buildcrafting available, and it all starts with what starting stats and class you choose when creating your character. You can respect it later, but if you commit to the build right from the start, it will be a little less daunting.

Because of how stat points are distributed, players will always have to make big decisions and accept that one stat is worse than others. A melee tank character will have to play up close and personal, with high energy and STR, while all magic users will basically be glass cannons that spew powerful Glinstone magic from a distance without armor. There are also builds that kind of fall in between, combining aspects from multiple archetypes to create some really fun and interesting combinations. It's the ultimate game with solid co-op where everyone in the party has the potential to experience the game in a completely unique way thanks to their different weapons, ashes of war and stats.