It Takes two was developed by a sweedish game developer Hazelight Studio. The studio behind a very popular escape co-op game A way Out.The game was published by Electronic Arts AKA
EA , and more specifically Under EA originals label for all available consoles in March 2021. The studio also announced that the next gen Consoles, the Ps5 and the Xbox Series X would ve received their free update
version of the game after the game initial release. According to EA, the game sold over 1 million copies on its first month of release and by October of 2021 the game reached 3 million sales. The game is a full
on multiplayer experience very similar to a way out and it can be experienced both locally and online. The online version of the game allows one of the players to purchase the game and then tell their friend to download
a free version of It Takes two friend pass. The friend pass allows a player who hasnt purchased the game to play the game with someone who did. The game was heavily praised by many and on December 2021 the game managed
to be nominated for six awards in the Game Awards and successfully won three of them. These being:
Game of the year 2021
Best Multiplayer Game
Best Family Game
The game also received two nominations for the Golden Joysticks and succesfully won the best multiplayer game.
Story of the Game
The game begins by introdusing the players the couple of Coddie and May, a couple that is seem to be on the verge of breaking up, as they re seem to fight over everything. They even agree on getting a divorce however, the main
and only problem is that they have a small Girl Rose. Rose knows that they dont get alone however, just like every child in a family, she does not want her parents to divorce. Rose Owns some figurines that resemble her family and
tries to pretend like they re fine. During a family table, they decide to tell her the sad news. Rose leaves the table, heads to her beddroom, graps the figurines and run to the storage where she starts reading the book of Love
by dr Hoakim and starts crying. The next thing that happens, is that the souls of her parents got transfered into the figurines themselves. The book appears infront of them and tells them that to solve their problem they ll need
to work together. This is where the gameplay begins. Without spoiling the game, the family will have to work together if they wish to return to their real bodies and their little girl. Needless to say they refuse to listen to
a talking book and they try to figure things out themselves. The adventure that follows is interesting as the player gets to know more about the family, from the beginning ,that first spark, to the ambitions the couple had ,
through the ups and downs and to the final downfall of their relationship. The game seperates itself in verious chapters that all take place during various times from their relationship, with the exception of the first chapter which
places the couple in the storage which was where the wish took place. To elaborate, there is a chapter that takes place in a snowgolbe that resembles a village that the couple went for vacation and fell in love.
Thoughts on Story:
The story of the game is very straight forward in an essence. A wish of a child forces the parents to be reincarnated as toys and work together to reach their daughter and their real bodies. It may be slightly cliche but cliche does not
mean bad in a way shape of form. Both Coddie and May have an interesting character development and in general feel like complete characters, with their ups, their downs, their dreams and their flaws. They both made dump decisions but
they seem to have a goal that tries to explain their acts. In general both were crafted fantastically. Rose on the other hand, is a mediocre character. Some actions are understandable but some others not so much. For example, her not
wanting the split of their parents makes absolute sense, her trying to get them back together once again does,Nevertheless, her getting upset for talking to each of her parents whilst they re asleep and not getting any response back
is simply weird. A small issue of the gamet comes with the pace. During most of the game the heroes go on plenty of adventures and they fail to learn their lesson or simply ignore it. They do accept certain parts and 're reminissing
of certain memories however, their mind is set, they work together and when all is set and done they ll get a divorce. Nonetheless the final chapters holds a few key elements that forces a 180 change of mind.
Gameplay
The gameplay of It Takes Two is by far the strongest aspect of the game. As prior mentioned, the game is a full on Action adventure Multiplayer experience, both local and online. The two players will then have to choose one of the two heroes
May and Coddie. By default both heroes play the same, they both move around in a 3D and 2D environments, both have jump and double jumb and all the other default abilities such as ground stomp, dodge, interactions with the map, wall
bounce sprint and usage of hook when available. The game does not belong to a specific genre as it always changes in order to keep the gameplay interesting, fresh and new. To elaborate the game begins as normal typical 3D platformer with typical platforming
difficulties. Eventually the heroes are given certain power ups. May obtains the head of a hammer that she can use to smash items and parkour around. On the other hand Coddie obtains Nails, that he can throw. The nails will stuck on a wall for May to platform
with her hammer or to even use them to keep a platform up for the heroes to move on an otherwise instand switch. In an other chapter, the game turns into a typical 3rd Person shooter where both of the heroes are given two different guns. May is given a riffle that
shoots Matches, whilst Coddie is given a minigun that shoots an orange linguid that can be set off with the matches. May's weapon can detonate enemies that have been shot from Coddie and cause them to explode. Coddies weapon efectively slowers down enemies but cannot
finish them off. The game's level once again is build to have puzzles that require colaboration. For example Coddies weapon has two functions outside of the standard combat, these are Filling boxes to allow platforms or obstacles to be removed or to appear for the
couple to proceed. It's other function is to be used as an engine for their boat to manuver in water whilst May is snipping away enemies. Once again, once the 3rd person shooter part of the game overstayed its welcome the gameplay changes yet again with Coddie flying
aan airplane whilst may is either shooting enemies or playing a 2D fighting game(No Joke). Other part of the game have the players experiencing a Dungeon crawl game where Codie becomes an ice wizard and May becomes a flaming knight.
The thing is, the game does alot, it combines Snow Skiing, shooting, magical powers and so many more that simply spoiling the fun of each chapter will take away from the magic of the game. The game has alot to offer it's players and every chapter is unique and memorable
for plenty of reasons. Whether, it was
The map design
the certain power ups of that given chapter
The puzzles solved with the given power ups
The minigames found (More below)
The story part of the game
The items used temporarily ( Fidget spinners, coloring machine swimming etc)
The gameplay will always keep things freshed and new. The developers did an amazing work, on keeping the balance of when to change things and when to introduce new elements. This is very important as a simple misscalculation could 've made part of the games become boring as
elements overstayed their welcome. Dying in the game comes in one form. Both players dying at the same time. If one of the heroes dies, the other has to survive a few seconds in order for the dead player to mash the respawn button. If the second player also dies then the team
will reset to the prior check point. Death can occur by receving damage from the enemies, touching surfaces that no human doll should touch (fire,spikes), getting crush between objects and finaly dropping of the map. It takes two, has plenty of unique interactable object in every
map that require interaction with the player's to unlock achievements or other dialogues. Last but not least the game has minigames that all change the gameplay during their time. Minigames like snowball war, snail racing ,chess and others introduce new rules that temporarily
change the gameplay into something more competitive.
Collectables && Post-content
Collectables.
The game doesnt have any collectables in the essence of moving around and collecting items, but instead it has plenty of minigames where May and Coddie go againts each other in order to see who is better. These minigames are innocent games whose
goal differ from each ohter. The minigames are scattered throughout the chapters and the players will have to keep an eye out in order to track them down whilst moving around. In order to locate them, the players should look out for a flying
tambourine. These tambourines upon interaction will cause a minigame to begin. If the minigame is not visually obvious then the players should always have an ear out in case one of the heroes yells about a game being nearby or even hear the
tambourine sound effe. All the mnigames found, can always be accessed through the title screen and at the same time minigames not found within a chapter can also be seen just not accessed.For example: In chapter 1 the minigame whack a Coddie might be
available for the player to play BUT the minigame called Flick the switch may not be. This translates to the fact, that the players succesfully located and played whack a Coddie but they failed to discover the flip the switch minigame. With that in mind,
visiting Chapter 1 again will have the players be aware that they missed one minigame in the progress. Theres a total of 25 minigames and all of them are completely different and might get very competitive ,they come in many forms and they always
keep score of who won which. Some of the minigames are chess, voleyball, racing, shooting and others. As mentioned there are 25 of them go outside and collect them.
Sum Up
Overall It takes two is a unique game that does its own original thing that will make it an instant classic for couch and online multiplayer. It will leave the players with a very satisfaying adventure and a pleasarable experience.
Grap a friend either online or local and enjoy. The animation of the game is smooth and it also runs smooth on the ps5 console. The maps are huge and gorgeous, with each of them feeling unique. Whether or not the players move in a town,having an adventure outside
in the garden or even exploring the old attic. The maps and the gameplay also allow for the game to introduce unique concepts for each map. Whether or not the heroes ride bugs out in the garden, skiing in the frozen mountains and visiting a spa in the back yard.
The design of the enemies is also worth commenting for, as they re plenty and all of them way different than the previous ones. Some enemies require teamwork to be defeated, others require platforming skills whilst others were made with the goal of using certain
chapters power ups. Their challenge though is pretty much calculated on the teams teamwork. If teammate play with the goal of of trolling the other, the team will most likely be stuck in an area. The levels require teamwork in order o efficiently proceed. For example
in the first level, the players receive Nails and a hammer head. The nail person will have to throw the nails in order for the hammer person to use them to manuver around. If the nail person keeps retrieving their nail, the other will constantly keep dying. The
soundtracks are not as memorable as the gameplay and the maps but there are a few good pieces that play in the background. The puzzles are simple in most cases and as mentioned if the team works together none of them should stop the progression of the game's story.
The minigames, re fun and competitive. As mentioned above they all keep score and this is where the game becomes more competitive.
