Divinity: Original Sin 2

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is one of our favorite games, not only as a couch co-op but also played individually, because it has so much depth and so much control. This is the game that made us fans of turn-based combat again. We got lost for days, obsessing over our skill mix and the individual routes you can take.

The open world invites exploration, and you never have the feeling that the story is forced on you. In my opinion, it is the Skyrim of the app stores, with incredible depth and attention to detail.

I love that you build a whole team. You do not just skill one character, you develop several, and combining them is highly strategic. For someone who always preferred Guild Wars over World of Warcraft, this hits the spot. The level of customization is high.

The plots are well crafted, and it is fun to engage with them. Every conversation can take its own turn. Depending on your skills, you might convince someone, or provoke a fight. The characters have incredible depth too, because each of them has their own story. That makes replaying a great experience. The main quest stays the same, but the big side story of your main character is a completely different one.

To be fair, I prefer solo over split screen. I love that split screen is there, but especially on a tablet the screen is a bit too small for the amount of detail going on. To overcome this, you can connect your tablet to a larger screen.

Even though I personally prefer same screen co-op, split screen makes this one even more strategic, because you can split up the whole party. One player can approach a group of enemies from behind, while the other gets into position up on a cliff with a ranged fighter. Each player has their own camera and rotates it as they need. Like I said, the screen is a bit small, but it is really cool that this amazing game has split screen at all, and it is really fun to play it together.

Getting into split screen is easy once you know where to look. You do not need the party management, invite or connectivity options in the main menu, those are all for online play. Just connect both controllers and press Start on the second one. Player two picks a name, and you are in split screen.

I still wanted to list it here, because it is one of the best games on the App Store and definitely one of my favorites so far. As a game on its own it gets a 10 from me. Our scores are for co-op, though, and I prefer same screen over split screen, so here it gets a 9.