Friday night is my favorite night of the week. Not because I'm finally done with work. Or because it's time for the weekend to finally hit. It's because it's the night I get to get together with all my buddies and smash through some multiplayer games. While Friendslop is always a solid option, sometimes you want something with a little more weight to it. Especially if you've got more than one co-op partner waiting to join in with you.

That's why these two games have already provided my gaming group with countless hours of fun. And many more for the foreseeable future. It doesn't matter if it's the incredibly fast-paced and functionally flashy Deadzone: Rogue or the slower-paced and more methodical gameplay of Barony; these two games deserve to be a part of your weekend rotation with your crew, too.

Barony Has Quickly Become a New Favorite in Our Friend Group

Barony is the perfect example of not judging a game by its cover. On the outside, it looks like a slightly cozy, somewhat adorable dungeon crawler. But on the contrary, Barony is a hard-as-nails roguelike that, until you learn what makes it work, is going to kick your ass up and down its voxel-coated walls. Death isn't the end here, but it's a guarantee for many runs. Up to four players are dropped in the halls of a dungeon, searching for exits, grabbing loot, and beating up creatures ranging from rats to Trolls, and everything in between. It borrows heavily from your typical fantasy adventures, but has many tricks up its sleeves to keep runs feeling fresh.

Finding a class that jives with you is key to enjoying Barony to its full extent. They've got just about every subclass of fantasy that you can imagine here. Spell-casting Wizards, Healers, Clerics, and even Jesters are chooseable classes here, and each of them has their own survivability rating, complexity rating, and stats that you'll need to study like you're cramming for a college exam. It's a lot more in-depth than it may look from just the pictures on Steam, but it's also one of the most rewarding adventures that we've ever embarked on as a group.

Hack and Slash, Cast and Bash, or Just Hope That You Can Survive Another Floor (With Friends)

The thing that makes Barony so much more fun than I could have expected is how chaotic a run can turn at a moment's notice. One second, your Warrior could be venturing off from the group, fighting a singular rat to get some XP. Next thing you know, their ghost pops up next to you as they scream in your ear about the Rat Queen and her minions that popped out of nowhere.

Every run is different, and there is more than enough chaos to keep me happy. I mean, what fun would a dungeon crawler be if there wasn't some random bullshit waiting around a corner to bring your run to a close early? Not much, I can say that much. Plus, seeing as you get brought back to life if someone on your team can make it to the exit, you should be solid. Until the Minotaur comes around.

Diving Into Dungeons Has Never Been This Much Fun

Dungeon crawlers are already a fun enough genre. But adding in that chaotic multiplayer element, alongside real-time combat? That's where Barony shines. No matter how much you prepare, you never know how quickly a run is going to go south. That unpredictability keeps things feeling incredibly fresh, no matter how many times you have to restart a run in a night. Chaos magic is what makes games like this shine. If you could just memorize the layout of the dungeon, it would get boring quickly. By tweaking the rules as you see fit, it goes from a regular adventure into unmitigated wackiness in a moment.

We figured, at first, that keeping friendly fire on would be a good time. We always love wacking each other around (not like that), and figured a few hits with a mace wouldn't do anyone harm. Well, that was until our Wizard decided it would be a good idea to "accidentally" torch one of us to death using their magic. From that point, friendly fire has since been turned off, and their ability to be a wizard has been rescinded until further notice. Maybe we'll let him have another go at being a wizard this weekend, but it's not looking like it's in the cards. Regardless, if you're searching for an incredible multiplayer dungeon crawler to get into with friends? Look no further than Barony.

Deadzone: Rogue, on the Other Hand, Is as Fast and Furious as It Gets

Games like Barony are made to make you think about your next action. Deadzone: Rogue, on the other hand, wants you to shoot things, and shoot them real good. You ain't done there gotta be thinkin' bout your next steps and stuff like that, you just gotta know how to pull the trigger real fast. Okay, maybe I'm underselling it a little bit, since you still need to be smart about where you're going on a stage and everything like that. But as a FPS Roguelike, Deadzone: Rogue is a beautiful, bombastic blast and a half. It's even better with a couple of buddies tagging along for the ride.

I spent a fair amount of time playing Deadzone: Rogue on my own. The gunplay is smooth and satisfying, and enemies are delivered to Death's doorstep in droves. It's one of the most mechanically satisfying FPS games I've played in recent memory, with snappy and responsive gunplay, and plenty of exotic weaponry that I can use to my advantage. Now if they'd only add a slide when you're running, we'd be near perfect.

Mix and Match the Elements To Get Your Perfect Build

The one thing I appreciate a lot about Deadzone: Rogue is that even I, the person who is admittedly not the best at Roguelikes, can make a good build and make numbers go big. I don't need to sit and study a statistics menu to verify what I need. I pick one special Ammo ability, I get an elemental ability, and something to increase Health, Shields, or Critical chances, and build up from there. Builds are easy enough to understand, and you can absolutely build yourself up to break personal records every run you're on.

Like, if I'm lucky enough and RNG is on my side, I can unlock a 450-round Minigun that does extra critical damage, doesn't expend ammo if I miss, and gets an additional 40% less spread on hipfire. I can build up from there and make myself into an unstoppable machine of bone and sinew, and spread havoc wherever I may roam.

Enemies Are Varied, and There’s a Story Here if You’re Looking for More Than Just Shootin'

Variety is the spice of life. It's one of the most common phrases in the English language, but many video games forget that. They either give us too many things to do and lose focus on what is important, or are a little too afraid to stray off the beaten path. Deadzone: Rogue looks to games like Gunfire Reborn for inspiration on how to make an engaging FPS Roguelike, while also building a proper story on top of everything else. There's enough variety here for everyone, and that's what helps make this my favorite multiplayer FPS at the moment.

My crew and I have done countless runs at this point. And even when the RNG Gods aren't on our sides, we're having a blast. There's no worse feeling than getting all the way to the 29th area and screwing something up to put the whole run in danger. Even when it happens? We're eager to get back on that little elevator (or the secondary ship) to get into another run. Zone 4 has been the bane of us, but we're going to make it happen. I promise that.