So my husband and I take turns picking the next game we play together. I skew more toward survival, crafting and adventure games and he skews more toward turn-based and heavily story driven games. We make some effort to make sure our choices are as 'palatable' (lol) for the other person as possible.

We both enjoy RTS games and recently played SpellForce 3 and it was probably one of our favourite joint gaming experiences - it checked a lot of boxes for both of us. Currently we're playing Sunderfolk (his choice) and despite being turn based, I'm quite enjoying playing on the couch (Switch) with our phones for input.

Anyway, we're almost done and it will be my choice next. I'd like to choose another co-op open world survival/crafting game but one of the flaws of this genre is that they are often very light on story or in-game quests. Some recent ones we've played are Green Hell, Return To Moria (didn't like), Valheim, Icarus (Didn't like), Outward, Core Keeper. We have our eye on Subnautica 2 but would like it to come out of early access first. I'm on a Linux PC and my husband is on Windows.... so I figured this is a good forum to ask this in (we also have a Switch 2).

I feel like I've really scoured this genre but maybe I'm missing some gems. What should I look at for in co-op open-world adventure / survival crafting style games that have a good in-game story or quest system that keeps you engaged with WHY you should be exploring and crafting besides "don't die, get the macguffin"?? I think my husband would enjoy these types of games more if the impetus of exploring wasn't just "get to the next biome/boss".

(Note: we're not interested in MMOs.)

Thank you!