It Takes Two (2021)

played it with my boyfriend and for the most part it was fun and i liked the level of challenge in the levels and puzzles, the visuals are beautiful (i genuinely loved the art style) and it was quite creative with all the mechanics it kept adding as you progress, it helped to keep it fresh for me

however i found both characters completely infuriating and kind of stupid, i was not compelled at all by their story cause i did not want to help them. i didnt like them at all and i was secretly hoping that the ending of the game was a divorce (the only character i liked was the poor kid). this made the game partially kind of a drag, i was only interested in playing for the gameplay and the story made me not very eager to pick it back up after a session

Just finished playing this with my fiancee.

This is definitely my favourite co-op game I've ever experienced. I was genuinely delighted by the sheer amount of variety in the gameplay and puzzles - every level is drastically different both in functionality and aesthetics, with Cody and May receiving different powers/abilities in each location that do completely different things. Even the fundamentals of how you're playing change sometimes - in one level, you switch from a 3D puzzle-platforming adventure to a top-down battle RPG.

The writing skewed a little juvenile for me - it doesn't come across as 'for kids' or anything at all, it's clearly an adult-oriented game with its themes, but coming at it from the perspective of someone who generally enjoys more serious stories, it wore on me at first. The characters all have moments of insufferability, especially Dr. Hakim (seriously, fuck that book, I hated every time he showed up), and there are some story beats where if you're taking this seriously you're going to have genuine issues (I've seen a lot of people ranting about the Cutie sequence).

So I stopped taking it too seriously. Problem solved. I played it as a mostly fun, light-hearted, mechanically interesting multiplayer experience I could use to bond with my fiancee over, and had a pretty great time with it as a result.

My fiancee did, however, get far more into it on an emotional level than I did and absolutely loved it - she got a little teary at the end - so your mileage may vary.

The level of difficulty in the puzzles is just right for me - it was never frustrating, but there were still points we had to stop and think together. At one point, we got stuck badly enough that we had to break for the night and come back to it later, and I literally woke up in the morning with a flash of inspiration about it and pestered her until we could get back on the game. Moments like that were great.

There wasn't a single level where I had a bad time or just wanted to get it over with. At one point relatively early on, my fiancee said something like, "If there's an obligatory underwater level like in every video game, I'm gonna hate it" - and then there was an underwater level, and we loved it, because they'd done enough to make the gameplay fun and engaging that it wasn't annoying or frustrating at all. The whole singing shtick in the last level was a bit out of left field and silly to me, but I still enjoyed myself and it was a pretty nice way to wrap the story up.

I also loved that you could follow the evolution of Cody and May's dynamic, with them antagonistic and uncooperative at the beginning and then slowly beginning to compliment and thank one another, work together more seamlessly, take each other's feelings into account without prompting, etc. It felt natural and well-paced, which isn't always easy to achieve.

We'll definitely be checking out Split Fiction and A Way Out - maybe the writing in those games will be more up my alley, but either way this was a great start.

We never needed a couple therapy...

... and yet, my gf and I would choose to crash one every time if it was a trip in all kinds of gaming environment. It Takes Two dominates in this imaginary set of gameplay, challenging but fair with obligation to team coordination. But that's just a handful of what Josef Fares and Hazelight Studios throws together because, boy, do they ever run out of ideas they could throw into this co-op adventure potpourri? A stellar co-op entry that every loving (or disagreeing) couple should sit down to give a try.

Also, we finished this on a Valentine's Day.

This was really a journey. What a level variety, what a story, what a fun time. Just when I started getting annoyed thinking I knew where the story or style of the game was going, I was proven wrong in the best way. Iconic. Love.

However, why is Rose kinda creepy looking (on the Switch version) and also tries to wake up her mother while she’s asleep, inconsiderate much? 😆

It Takes Two, from Hazelight Studios, is a co-op adventure that's as heartwarming as it is exhilarating. Playing as Cody and May, a couple turned into dolls, you embark on a journey to mend your relationship through inventive puzzles and challenges.

What sets It Takes Two apart is its multiple different gameplay mechanics throughout the game, constantly introducing new ways for players to collaborate. Visually stunning and emotionally resonant, the game's message of teamwork and friendship shines through every level.

In short, It Takes Two is a must-play co-op experience that brings people together and leaves a lasting impression.

It feels dreamlike, that my wife agreed to try It Takes Two with me.

For someone who has never double-jumped in their life, she did so with determination. The excited yelps made my heart swoon with every passed obstacle. It was fascinating to see what controls came naturally and unsurprising how the right analog stick to control the camera is a highly dizzying manoeuvre to acclimate to.

Mostly, its soul lifting for her to share my love for video games. We could play pong for all I care. I just feel love for her.

After this game won the GOTY and The Game Awards in december, I felt curious and tried my luck with EA, asking for a ver delayed review code. To my surprise, they sent me one and I was able to play it with my sister (I was gonna play with my wife, but —just like A Way Out— she felt sick and dizzy after a few minutes).

What I wanted to know is why an indie game like this... well, an AA game like this... well, "a smaller" game like this was able to won 80 GOTY awards, a lot more than Resident Evil Village or Forza Horizon 5.

And as usual, I wrote about this in spanish.

But in case you're wondering. We loved this game.

Josef Fares is a little unhinged at times, but we really need more people like him and his team making games. This was amazing.

I'm not the biggest fan of platformers and definitely not a into games that require you to play with others in order to experience it, but It Takes Two became a high exception.

This game screams creativity and charm, excelling expectations when it comes to gameplay and variety! It's incredible!

Every level throws something surprising at you and it hardly ever makes it repetitive. Each new mechanic is simple to master, clever in its co-op execution and perfected by very well done level designs. You never know what to expect and once you discover something different, it always manages to feel fresh and imaginative.

Technically, It Takes Two is wonderful. Not only it plays great, with comfortable and responsive platforming controls, but it also looks beautiful. It's definitely not "net-gen-graphics", but it delighted me with nice textures, beautiful environments, good-looking monsters/characters models and high levels of charm.

As for the story, it's fine. It's not GREAT and most of the times it sounds quite silly, but it's sweet enough to keep you curious to see the end. I also love how the tale's pace transforms it into many other types of genres. For example, there's a boss fight mimicking Street Fighter and a Diablo-like level. Even the mini-games and the way you compete with your co-op partner ties into May and Cody's ordeal.

But I have to say that the writing could have been a lot better. It's fine, but it's just not remarkable and I blame the way it was told. I also felt like the game tried too hard to be funny and just failed. That annoying Book of Love, for example, is horrible. The worst thing about him is that he is crucial to the story and you're tied to him.

The ending is also quite hollow, in my opinion. It left me wanting more. Which is weird to say, because around the final two levels I felt like It Takes Two started to drag a little. Don't get me wrong, the fun-factor and entertaining mechanics were still there, but it started to get a little bit stale. And maybe one of the main reasons for that is the boss fights. Very few of them are actually cool. They are very gimmicky, lack any type of challenge and only end up breaking the pacing of the game's fantastic level design.

And one last thing that may come off as negative is the fact that you NEED to play this game with somebody. And not just anybody, you need to communicate and work well together to reach the ending. And I know that It Takes Two's entire foundation is built around playing co-op - and that's alright - but it sucks to know that many people won't play this game as it should be experienced or may never even touch it.

I didn't think I'd get to have time to finish any other game in 2021, but I'm happy that I finished It Takes Two. It was without a doubt one of the greatest co-op experiences I've ever had and definitely one of the smartest platformers I've ever played.

Just find the right person to play it with.

This game inspires me to start listing out superlatives: EA’s best release since Titanfall 2; right up there with Mario Odyssey and Galaxy 1-2 as one of the best platformers I have played (though it leans more to action-adventure at times); the most robust-feeling co-op experience I have ever seen; and definitely one of the very best releases of 2021. It is just that packed with fun ideas and energy, so polished and entertaining, and so fresh-feeling.

The game has you zipping between completely different cool settings pretty regularly, while maintaining a pretty fun core gameplay centered around platforming and solving environmental puzzles. Where it sets itself apart is in the changing mechanics of each level and how they meaningfully make use of a forced co-op experience. Each level has a unique co-op mechanic that is introduced and built up extremely smoothly. I found myself and my co-op partner to basically be totally in sync after no time, because the visual indication of what to do is so clear and these mechanics just work so well as an interactive experience for two people.

The pacing of the adventure feels amazing as it funnels you to totally fresh stuff every 45 mins or so at least. Where it somewhat falls short in this aspect is in two areas. One is the overall story, which starts to stagnate a bit at times—I will discuss this more in a second. The other is a later level that kind of devolves into a less inspired focus on combat for a while, but this is a tiny piece of a game that is otherwise overflowing with fun stuff. To break up the main gameplay there are also nice little breaks to play competitive minigames, race to the next objective with a fun new movement mechanic, etc. These people just get how to make a fun multiplayer game.

The story is a bit of a weird spot. I can say it could have no story at all and be an amazing game still. I think if you try to take it as a big statement about divorce, it falls up short with a pretty limited viewpoint. If you consider it just about pulling this single relationship back together, it works a bit better. It still has strange inconsistencies and shifts in characters’ behavior, and parts where it drags its feet. I found some parts really, really funny, but other parts to be trying a bit hard in that aspect—this is just a downside of humor based in absurdity. But what the game does consistently pretty nicely is making entertaining arcs for the individual levels, and I think this makes the story overall a fun time. Some people are just gonna outright hate the story and humor though, and I can understand that, but it is ignorable — I recommend just not taking it too seriously.

This is very much deserving of its Game Award for Game of the Year, a vibrant and polished experience that makes me excited to see what these developers will do next. The visual component alone makes it really awesome at times, but it’s accompanied by some really fun and varied gameplay as well. I would strongly recommend people to not miss out on this one.

PROS

• Features an astonishing array of cooperative mechanisms and ideas
• Highly-interactive levels turn the environments into playgrounds
• Charming visual design and animations
• Top-notch technical presentation and polished controls
• Pushes the limits of co-operative story games in new and exciting ways
• Narrative kinda works in a cheesy sort of way
• Strengthened the bonds of love between me and my girlfriend

CONS

• No shortage of groan-worthy attempts at humor
• Abrupt and unsatisfying ending

It Takes Two is Swedish-Lebanese film director Josef Fares’ third foray into video games following Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and A Way Out. My opinion on his work up until now has been relatively neutral. I played Brothers back in the day and enjoyed it, although I didn’t like it nearly as much as one Brad Shoemaker from Giant Bomb, or as much as my girlfriend who legit cried at the end. It had a very interesting gimmick with puzzles far, far too simple to truly explore that gimmick, and the story was good I guess, for the very simple thing that it was, but...meh.

I didn’t play A Way Out but I watched the game grumps play through the whole game. It was definitely entertaining in a trainwreck sort of way. The story is ridiculous, the writing is ridiculous, the dialogue is ridiculous, the voice acting is ridiculous. The whole thing is hilarious, I died laughing on multiple occasions, but that humor, at least as far as I can tell, is about as unintentional as The Room’s. And from a gameplay perspective it did not seem to have much to offer beyond a couple sections of poor third person shooting and walking around interacting with stuff like a glorified point and click adventure game.

It Takes Two is Fares’ first game that not only survives, but thrives on the basis of being a game. Not a weird story by a film director, but a capital V video game. It is one of the best feeling platformers I’ve played in YEARS. It feels every bit as good to play as any Mario game, or as my favorite platformer series Sly Cooper. It has an unbelievable, almost relentless amount of variety while simultaneously being three times longer than Brothers and twice as long as A Way Out. The puzzles are clever, much more-so than anything in Brothers. The bosses are incredibly fun and sometimes legitimately challenging. The graphics and art design are astoundingly good and can easily stand against any Mario game.

The writing strikes a nice balance in that it’s not a complete trainwreck like A Way Out, but it’s not completely buttoned up and self-serious like Brothers, either. There’s enough weirdness and quirkiness and wild shifts of tone to keep you entertained and laughing but it hits sincere notes often enough that you are able to maintain some investment in the core narrative. And in some sense it feels more intentional, almost like laughing at something brings people closer together, which fits the themes of the game? Me and the friend I played through it with were constantly shouting, “what is the tone of this game?!” at each other, which sounds like a criticism (and has been used as a criticism against the game by other reviewers) but is actually one of the best things about it, imo. One minute you’ll be skating through a whimsical miniature winter wonderland, the next you’ll be getting tortured by revolutionary squirrels in army fatigues or ripping the limbs off an innocent and adorable stuffed elephant to make your daughter cry. It’s a fucking weird game in the best possible way and the insane, breakneck variety in the gameplay in a certain sense applies to the tone as well, you just never know if the next scene is going to be wholesome or horrifying and I love that about it.

I....I think this game might be, like, a legitimate game of the year contender? From Josef fucking Fares. Who would've guessed.