Overcooked! 2 and Moving Out won't teach you much about preparing haute cuisine or loading a removal van, but these chaotic couch co-op experiences tell you everything you need to know about the people you play them with!

The couch is a place for self-discovery as much as it is for relaxing—just ask any psychologist what they uncover about their clients when they recline on that oh-so-comfy furniture item. While these games are definitely not relaxing, in the same way intense pressure creates diamonds, the stress and frantic cooperation of these games will help you discover your friend’s biggest strengths…or greatest flaws.

Despite their deceptively charming characters and whimsical music, the stakes are as high as they get. If you and your friends can’t overcome these co-op challenges by transforming into a lean, mean, grilling (or house-moving) machine, you risk watching your trust in each other vanish when your efforts collapse in bitter, resentful failure.
 

Under pressure

Moving Out tries to take the edge off its reckless removals with a 1980s soft rock soundtrack, comically frustrating object physics, and a toy-house aesthetic. You could even think the game gives you permission to goof around when it calls you all a bunch of FARTs—that’s Furniture Arrangement Relocation Technicians in polite company—but both your friendships and your customer’s household appliances are likely to shatter as you smash through windows to cram a houseful of belongings into an undersized van. 

Meanwhile, it’s all too easy to reach your boiling point in Overcooked! 2’s kitchens. Just ask any kitchen staff (or viewer of the TV kitchen nightmare drama The Bear), and they’ll tell you the all-consuming stress from a stream of fussy orders can drive any chef to picture their customers’ necks as they slice through onions. And that’s even before the game’s frustrations peak with complications like busy traffic between you and your order’s destination—with worse-designed kitchens to come, like baking pizzas in an active volcano!

However, gaining a newfound understanding of your role can get you through these challenges with your friendships mostly intact. Plus you’ll gain the valuable knowledge of whom to trust the next time you plan a dinner party or need help moving.

Here are some of the roles my friends and I fell into during our couch-co op journey of self-discovery.
 

Chef de partie

“What are you doing!?” “No no not like that!” Just like in any restaurant kitchen, the chef de partie has a plan, and you’re not doing it right.

We’ve all got that friend who’s just a bit, well, bossy—and if nobody comes to mind, I hate to say it’s probably you. Their self-image of authoritative confidence may not always match reality, but that won’t stop them from calling the shots anyway!

For some friend groups, your aspiring foreman or chef de cuisine assumes their role uncontested. The rest of you meekly embrace your roles as underlings, the battle of wills lost a long time ago. They pick what films you watch, what restaurants you go to, and, of course, they’re the ones saying how to best clear out skateboards and deck chairs from Moving Out’s Summer Chalet. 

Blindly following orders has some comforts. What you lose in independence, you gain in consistency. Not to mention the lack of responsibility; after all, if it all goes wrong, you know exactly whom to blame, and it ain’t you.

The line chef

Of course, the chef de partie is nothing without their trusty line chefs. Some of us are doomed to a humdrum existence that’s inescapable even in video games. The line chef knows this, and will say “yes chef!” to any order, and do it well enough…more or less. 

These dependable pawns are the glue holding friend groups together. In-game, they’re just as critical. They’ll reliably prep ingredients and vigilantly watch the frying pans. They’ll happily help you toss bed frames over a swimming pool (the game’s best time-saver). No furniture is too heavy to move, just as no hour is too late for their support after a tough breakup. 

They’ll turn over every stone to find Moving Out’s Hidden Consoles, no matter how many ghosts or guava-flooded obstacles stand in the way (the floor is guava, get it?). They simply won’t rest until you’ve dispatched the right dish to the restaurant’s waitstaff. But don’t take these hardworking friends with hearts of gold for granted, or a certain personality could turn them into someone very different.
 

The anarchist

Some friendships have a defiant streak. Any self-declared leader is merely a target to overthrow. Royalty doesn’t have the best track record in Overcooked! 2 after the hapless Onion King cursed his realm with a plague of zombified slices of fluffy white loaves. So who can blame the anarchists for feeling as if the last thing we need is more monarchs?

The anarchists will do things their way, or they’ll add an epic power struggle to your timed challenges. And they’ll invite you to ignore orders too, inspiring you to join their revolution and toss tomatoes at your bossy friends instead of making a salad! Join them in trapping your friends behind furniture barricades, and your revolution could be remembered forever. Or become a source of eternal resentment for your childish antics.

The choice of whether to rebel should be made with care. All effective revolutionaries need the support of the masses. So think before you declare war by binning the finest salmon cuts instead of assembling nigiri or turning every furniture move into a tug-of-war stalemate.
While this approach is sure to deflate any self-appointed leader’s ego, these struggles don’t come easily—or quickly. But it’s worth watching the stage timer tick down to zero to put your bossiest friend in their place, right?
 

The troublemaker

Unlike the anarchist, the troublemaker is a rebel without a cause beyond mayhem itself. And both Moving Out and Overcooked! 2 give ample opportunities to cause mischief for your more task-oriented friends.

The troublemaker resorts to all sorts of playground hijinks. They’ll let steaks burn to a crisp, block you off with their character’s body, or nudge you into the yawning abyss in Overcooked! 2 thanks to the dangerous dash move (and the kitchen’s fatal lack of guardrails, even when situated on a ship!). 

Moving Out embraces violence. All players can deploy a slap (with a meaty “thwack”) that you’ll all be sure to test to excess in the game’s tutorial. The game doesn’t have online co-op, so remember: Anyone you slap in the game can strike back for real!

The interior designer

The interior designer is the anarchist’s total opposite. This orderly personality is one of the most helpful characters you could ever share a couch with. Where others may sigh when they see hazardous kitchens without enough workspace or cramped corridors too tight to wriggle a bookcase through, the interior designer can picture the exciting possibilities of a well-ordered space.

If you’re lucky enough to know one, you’d do well to listen to their advice. Even if Moving Out’s Roundabout Mansion and its labyrinthine corridors needed their expertise when these convoluted homes were in their design phase.

The interior designer’s trademark understanding of spatial flow is utterly vital to hone your process. Whether you’re dealing with a haphazard farm, a dangerous dungeon, or a treacherous river, they can turn any workspace into a finely tuned conveyor belt to deliver food and furniture exactly where it’s needed.
 

The plongeur

Dirty dishes are as inescapable in Overcooked! 2 as they are in everyday life. Without washing the dishes, you can’t plate up new orders. Maybe, for some friend groups, cleaning up the mess is a shared duty. But maybe one of your friends has a martyr complex and prides themselves on doing what needs to be done. This is the inglorious but vital role of a kitchen’s plongeur. After all, someone’s gotta do it.

Their aprons covered with soapy bubbles, they muscle in and whisk away dishes in Overcooked! 2; they’re the first to rush to any conflagration, extinguisher ready to clean up your mess. In Moving Out, with no dishes to clean, they’ll diligently pick assorted items off the ground like they’re tidying after a toddler. Just as with a toddler, the mess reappears instantly, but you’ve got to appreciate their commitment to such futile efforts.
 

The slacker

This bumbling figure constantly lags behind. Maybe they aren’t as committed to providing excellent table service. Maybe they secretly wish you all were doing something else, anything other than navigating this needlessly complex obstacle course.

Or maybe they slave in a kitchen or carry boxes to vans all day, in which case you’ve been cruel to suggest this sort of game in their leisure time, haven’t you?

If you’ve had friends help with an actual move, you’ll recognize the slacker in real life too. Who holds the door open while you wrestle with a lumbering mattress? Who follows you up the stairs holding a single bag while you balance a precariously wobbly pile of boxes? They’re no better here. 

Hopefully, that’s not you.

Curious what roles you and your friends might be? Head to the Epic Games Store and get Overcooked! 2 or Moving Out to find out at your next couch co-op session.