It Takes Two Review- I’d Even Play It With Someone I Only Kind Of Tolerate

Here’s the dirty secret about most games that feature and encourage co-op. Most of these games aren’t actually all that much better from a gameplay perspective because of their co-op features. Yes, there might be ways that the game lets you work together, but you generally don’t actually have to, as these games have to be designed around people playing solo as well. These games are co-op mostly through the design of ramping up the difficulty or upping the number of enemies. I’m not going to say that there is no teamwork at all, because there certainly is, but in the end, co-op features often enhance games more from a perspective of it being fun to hang out with your buddies over the actual ways the gameplay was designed.

It Takes Two is the incredibly rare video game that is truly built to be a co-op experience. There is no playing this game alone. Almost every element of this game is designed for you to collaborate with someone else. In a time where almost all major video game releases have some other games that are pretty similar to them in one way or another, It Takes Two is a game that makes me desperately wish there were more video games like this, as there is almost nothing else like it.

I was fortunate to play It Takes Two with a great friend, and I had an excellent time hanging out with them while we played. But It Takes Two doesn’t just rely on pleasant company to be a great time. This is the kind of unique experience that demands that you experience it, even if you have to play it with someone you only kind of like spending time with in order to do so. It’s that good.

I Didn’t Need To Use A Guide, I Just Asked My Friend “WTF Do We Do Next??”

It Takes Two starts out with one of the most devastating cutscenes that I could witness as a parent. Two parents break the news to their daughter that they are getting a divorce. As you can imagine, the daughter does not take it very well. She is so upset that she wishes upon a book about love that her parents stay together. This creates some weird magic that causes the parents to turn into wooden dolls that their daughter made of them. In order to turn back into humans, they need to work together to navigate all sorts of areas of their house that are now quite treacherous since they are very small. This “Book Of Love” also helps guide them in their journey.

From there, you go on a platforming/action/puzzle solving journey to get back into your real bodies. It Takes Two is essentially split into 12 linear levels that feature a nice flow of different gameplay loops as you go. In order to keep things fresh, each level has its own gimmick that it relies on. One level has the dad character, Cody, with a “sap gun,” and May, the mom character, with a matchstick launcher that detonates when it hits the sap. Another level gives Cody the ability to throw nails, and May a hammer ability. Things get increasingly wild as you go on, with abilities that get whacky and very sci-fi on a level that I didn’t anticipate.

The gameplay is consistently fun in large part because It Takes Two has tremendous level design. Each of the gimmicks and the ways they are used are so creative that I was constantly in awe of what I was doing. The levels play into these gimmicks perfectly. I also thought there was just the right mix between solo play and co-op moments. It might be a bit exhausting if you had to coordinate every little thing in the game with your partner. The game lets you do your own thing in spots, but then quickly makes its way back to its co-op magic. As you might have been able to tell from the abilities I discussed earlier, almost all of the special abilities in the game interact with each other in cool ways. This also gives the game a lot of replay value. I really enjoyed playing the game as Cody, but I could easily replay it one day as May and have a very different experience overall.

As is natural when a game tries to throw out so many different ideas, not every gimmick is perfect. There are definitely a few that didn’t hit as hard as others, and felt like they went on a little too long. I wouldn’t say any gimmick massively overstates its welcome, but there were a few that I was pretty glad to be done with by the time I was through the level. There were also several that I could have played with for even longer that helped offset that.

I had a hard time deciding which element of the gameplay loop was my favorite, but in the end, I think I loved the puzzle solving most of anything else. It Takes Two’s levels are linear, but it almost never tells you directly what to do when you get to an area. Your job is to figure out how to use whatever ability you currently have in order to progress. The game stretches each gimmick as far as it can, and comes up with all sorts of clever uses for all of them, and it’s a blast experimenting with abilities and figuring how to move forward in each level. One area in particular gives Cody the ability to manipulate time and May the ability to clone herself. This section really showcased the puzzle solving prowess of It Takes Two more than anything else. I loved how the game seems to almost constantly one up itself as it goes. I also thought these navigational puzzles had a perfect flow to them. Nothing in the game had me stumped for more than a few minutes, but the puzzles were just clever enough to make me feel smart when I figured out a solution.

I actually think the co-op element is what really makes the puzzle solving in this game more special than anything else. Being able to discuss the puzzles with my friend and bounce ideas off of each other until we came up with the solution was always so cool and rewarding. That co-op element is really what gives the puzzles such a nice flow to them, as you don’t always have to do all of the “thinking labor” on your own. Occasionally, I figured out what needed to be done to get us through a puzzle. Sometimes, my friend came up with the answer. Sometimes, it was a collaborative effort where we both came up with elements of the solution. I had a great time during these brainstorming sessions.

Oftentimes, after figuring out how to progress in an area, there is some platforming to be done. Much like the puzzle solving, It Takes Two features excellent platforming, with level design that keeps upping the ante in various ways. The platforming feels responsive and features tons of crazy scenarios that will have you on the edge of your seat. I really loved when the gimmicks and abilities in the game leaned in on the platforming, as that is when the platforming is at its best for me. My favorite ability in the game was probably when you get a fidget spinner that lets you fly through different areas and bounce on various objects in order to navigate. This was one of those gimmicks that made me go “hell yeah” from the second I saw it, and it filled me with delight the entire time I was using it.

Combat is equally solid, but probably the weakest part of the game for me. Generally, combat sections have you using a specific ability and nothing else, so they can get a touch repetitive. The boss fights tend to add a slight puzzle solving element to the combat, so these end up being a bit better, but I generally preferred the non-combat sections in the game. Either way, I felt like It Takes Two delivered in almost every way possible with its gameplay.

Couples Counseling Seems Like It’d Be Kind Of Boring After A While. Like, OK, We Get It, You Still Kind Of Hate Each Other

In between all of these gameplay segments, It Takes Two has a surprisingly heavy focus on its story as well. As discussed earlier, you play as Cody and May, who are a couple headed for divorce, and also trying to get back into their real bodies after getting turned into wooden dolls. They are also being slightly antagonized by “The Book of Love,” who wants them to work on their differences and get back together.

Early on, I was way more into this story than I expected. Watching the cutscenes with a friend is a lot of fun, because Cody and May are both pretty shitty in their own ways, which makes it really enjoyable to rip on them with someone else. The Book of Love is also a top-tier character, as he is extremely over the top, with an entertaining accent, and tons of cheesy one-liners. I don’t laugh super easily when I’m watching things, but the game actually got me to laugh quite a bit in the early going.

I’m going to keep things vague, as I don’t want to spoil anything. But for much of the first half of the game or so, Cody and May have a very clear plan as to how they are going to get their bodies back. The game builds to this moment and then delivers one of the most insane moments that I’ve seen in a video game. I don’t say this lightly. I’ve seen way too much crazy shit in video games for anything to shock me, but this moment legitimately had me appalled and disgusted. I cringed, I wanted to close my eyes, and I couldn’t believe the game was making me do this thing. I honestly think it is one of the most genuinely stunning video game moments in recent memory.

Not long after that moment, it feels like the game completely runs out of steam from a plot perspective. I felt like the game was written to get to a certain point, but then they had more gameplay ideas and had to draw things out longer. The plot goes from having a direction to feeling pretty aimless. The Book of Love goes from being entertaining and funny to very grating. He is so over the top and one-dimensional that his bit just completely falls apart and becomes legitimately annoying after you’ve seen it a dozen times. Cody and May’s character arcs also never really got particularly interesting from my view. You can kind of see everything that is going to come with them very early on, and the game never really diverts from that course in any compelling way.

It’s a shame because I genuinely loved the story in the early going. I’ve seen plenty of games have stories that fall apart in the second half of the game for a variety of reasons, but this one almost felt half-assed in a way I don’t usually see. Hazelight Studios put a lot of work into the first half of the game’s story, and it seemed like they almost stopped trying to find new ideas for the second half. It really wouldn’t disappoint me so much if I didn’t enjoy it early on, but unfortunately, I was invested and sad to see it continuously decline.

It’s Time to Introduce… MY NEW GAME OF THE YEAR FOR 2021!!!

Despite that, I am still incredibly happy that I was finally able to play It Takes Two. I only didn’t play it back in the day because I really didn’t have anyone who would play this type of game with me. The beauty of now being so ingrained in the gaming community is that I now have tons of people to play something like this with.

Now that I have played it, I would confidently say that this is my new “Game of the Year” from 2021, surpassing Halo Infinite. 2021 was a notoriously weak year for gaming due to COVID delays, and that year would have been much better for me if I had been able to play this sooner. Yes, there are a few gimmicks that drag on a little too long, and the story falls apart, but this still has some of the most creative and inventive gameplay that I have seen in recent years. The co-op element also means that there is almost nothing else like it out there. Now that I’ve played it, I can’t wait to experience the next game from Hazelight Studios, and hopefully, this games’ success will start to inspire more studios to make games like it as well. If you have anyone in your life who loves video games that you can even slightly tolerate, you should play It Takes Two with them.

Score: 9.0/10