When comparing Don't Starve Together vs Portal 2 Co-Op Campaign, the Slant community recommends Portal 2 Co-Op Campaign for most people. In the question“What are the best PC games to play with your partner?” Portal 2 Co-Op Campaign is ranked 1st while Don't Starve Together is ranked 5th. The most important reason people chose Portal 2 Co-Op Campaign is:
Co-op multiplayer offers a completely different set of puzzles from the single-player campaign, which keeps things fresh for those that finished the single player campaign. Almost all co-op puzzles require a high level of teamwork, creating a great sense of accomplishment for the players working together.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Couch co-op makes the game even more fun as you all learn together
Getting together a group of friends to play Don't Starve Together adds a lot of enjoyment to the game. If you're all first timers, learning how to survive as you go along is amazing, since you get to share in the learning process and the experience together. As you craft and build your own forts, farms, and more, you find more and more ways to learn how to survive, making things less daunting than if you play the game alone.
Pro Pleasantly twisted sense of humor
There's a dark sense of humor that pervades the game. There's a humanoid spider boy who can grow a beard of silk. There's a living chest called Chester who acts like a dog. There's also silly info text, werepigs, trees that retaliate when you chop them, and many other things.
Pro Deep and varied crafting system
The crafting system has a lot of depth to it and there are tons of items to make. Starting with the recipe for a torch and a pickaxe. You can also make weapons, armor, and various laboratories that enable new technologies. Building new stuff and advancing is the key to surviving the coming winter.
Pro Tweak the gameplay settings to fit any skill level
The game gives you a lot of customization options. You can change the length of day, weather patterns, and spawn rates for resources and monsters. This allows you to adjust the difficulty level to suit your skill and preference.
Pro Unique mix of 2D and 3D art offers a change of pace
Don't Starve Together has a very unique art style that places two-dimensional characters in a three-dimensional setting. Even the waves in the sea look like cardboard cutouts used in a puppet show. This look and feel to the graphics is a nice change of pace from ultra-realistic games.
Pro The further you get, the more you will learn
Starting out you'll only be gathering twigs and grass, maybe chop a tree. You'll also gather basic food such as mushrooms and carrots. Then you'll start building your encampment, learning how the day/night cycle and the seasons work. Later on you'll start building massive farms, refridgerators, fortifications, and many other things. All of this is done for the sake of not starving.
As the game progresses, you will encounter mechanics such as drought, forest fires, the rainy, season, the cold and many others. To counteract these you need to plan properly and will probably die the first time around. Once your knowledge reaches a certain level, you'll be able to survive indefinitely.
Pro Great replay value
Don't Starve Together has randomly generated (customizable) levels, unlockable characters, a story mode, and you can also play it with up to 5 other friends. All of this helps keep subsequent attempts/playthroughs fresh.
Pro Creates a sense of accomplishment through a high level of teamwork
Co-op multiplayer offers a completely different set of puzzles from the single-player campaign, which keeps things fresh for those that finished the single player campaign. Almost all co-op puzzles require a high level of teamwork, creating a great sense of accomplishment for the players working together.
Pro Challenging puzzles that require creative thinking
The game challenges your brain to use portals, cubes and other mechanics in order to solve simple and complex puzzles in interesting ways. Trying to figure out the best placement of entrance and exit portals in order to gain access to (perceived) inaccessible places takes a lot of thought, especially in the later game.
Pro Allows for harmless trolling
While Portal 2 requires focus and logic, it does not punish players for causing a bit of mischief. The instant re-spawn system means trolling your friend will affect almost nothing in the game. Except maybe your friendship.
Pro Well implemented tools that improve teamwork
In a game that requires perfect timing and teamwork, Portal 2 features many tools to facilitate said teamwork. One of the most helpful tools is a 3-second countdown timer that players can use to coordinate their actions – e.g., to ensure that you launch a portal or jump at the perfect time. There is also a marker that you can place on certain objects for your teammate to see, as well as a setting that shows your partner's view superimposed on the corner of your screen.
Pro Huge selection of user-generated content that should appeal to any use-case
The game has more than 60,000 co-op puzzles created by users through the Steam Workshop and through mods. Because it is user-generated content, the quality and size of these puzzles vary widely, including everything from simple, one-off chambers to full-fledged expansions with high-quality stories, voice-overs, and new gameplay elements (for example, Mel). By having such a selection of content, there should be something that appeals to just about anything someone is looking for.
Pro Unique 2 player online co-op campaign
In Portal 2, co-op is a completely different set of puzzles than the single player campaign. Almost all puzzles require a high level of teamwork that will leave you feeling proud of what you have accomplished.
Pro Witty and funny character driven story
Four major characters drive the single player campaign, and they are amazing. Three of which have explosive personalities, bring humor, suspense, sadness, and empathy. The other being Chell, who doesn’t speak but her interactions with the rest of the cast make her all the more mysterious and interesting. Most of the time you don’t even see or directly interact with the characters, but that just shows how great they are.
Pro Challenging puzzles but not unfair
The puzzles are really fun and feel rewarding to complete. They don't punish the player too hard which makes it easy for new players to learn the mechanics with time.
Cons
Con Steep learning curve
The first few attempts will last only a couple of in-game days. This is because the game has various punishing mechanics, which you can only learn through trial and error. One such mechanic is the darkness, which will kill you in under a minute if you don't have a light source. Followed by packs of hounds that randomly spawn to kill you. In most cases preparation is key and you can't prepare without knowledge.
Con Can get repetitive
You'll have to repeatedly collect a lot of basic materials like twigs, grass, and ore. This is because most of the starting recipes share the same required materials. Even later in the game you'll be doing many repetitive tasks. Gathering enough firewood for winter is especially bad because you have to chop down dozens of trees. All of this is made worse by the limited inventory space, causing you to make the same trip multiple times.
Con Main co-op campaign is short
The co-op campaign in Portal 2 is about 4 hours long for experienced players, meaning it could be beaten in a weekend. With almost zero replayability this makes the game feel incredibly short. Luckily, there's hundreds of hours of user-generated content available.
Con Steep learning curve
Although the single player campaign features a gradual learning curve, co-op gives no mercy. The puzzles start off hard and only get harder. It is very recommended that you play through single player first if your are not familiar with Portals mechanics.