Orcs Must Die! 3

This is one of my go-to games on PS5 for a short session with actual brain engagement. You play as a War Mage dropping traps and personally skewering orcs when things get close, and the blend works because neither side of the equation feels like a distraction from the other. Planning your killbox before a wave is genuinely satisfying. Running into the middle of it to plug a gap with your crossbow when three ogres slip through your archers is genuinely fun. The War Scenarios mode scales it up to enormous waves, which adds a different pressure to your trap placement planning. Pure TD purists will note the action layer, and they are not wrong, but the defense thinking never goes away.

Orcs Must Die! 3 is a two-player tower defense and action hybrid where the trap placement decisions you make between waves matter just as much as how well you fight during them. It's a style of co-op that barely exists elsewhere on this list, and the synergy between two players setting up different traps and covering each other's blind spots is legitimately satisfying once you get into a rhythm. Missions are replayable with score rankings, so there's more reason to go back than a pure campaign offers. No local co-op, no crosspla, this is strictly online with a consistent partner. If you're planning to play with someone you already know, that's fine. Random matchmaking is less ideal here.