It Takes Two Game Review (PS5)

The latest game from writer/director Josef Fares and the rest of the team at Hazelight takes on co-op again, but this time what looks to be light hearted may be dealing with something heavier beneath. If the pitch of this game being the first ever rom-com video game is accurate then is It Takes Two rotten or is it certified fresh. For full transparency, review code was provided by EA.

In the first 48 minutes of a game, you should be able to know enough about the visuals of the game, the story, the mechanics, the gameplay loop and many other things. Even better, within the first 48 hours, you will know if the game has done enough to get its hooks into you whether or not you are going to come back, because we both know that if we don’t return or want to return to the game in the first two days, we likely aren’t coming back after that

It Takes Cute

The latest from Hazelight and EA Originals is quite the adorable game. Despite the heavy handed topics early on, once you’re past the first five minutes, the tone drastically changes and the fun gets unleashed. There’s something about seeing everyday items on a much bigger scale because in the first 48 minutes, I can’t count how many times we said the word cute, at least once the first five minutes had passed.

You play as a middle aged, married couple and by the power of their daughters tears, the parents souls are transported into the bodies of her small stuffed animals that she has made in the image of her parents. My only gripe with the whole scenario is that I wish Hazelight found a better mechanism for getting the parents into the dolls.

Despite the dark tone early on, the happiness and fun factor are on a constant trajectory upwards early on. You can easily see the change in tone with the couple working together, having less resentment towards each other and likely getting back to the people they were when they first met. My concern moving farther into the game is that Josef Fares and his games have a pattern. Clearly we can see his love for farms, we can see his fascination with people that need redemption or second chances but we have also seen his choice not to use happy endings.

In A Way Out, spoiler alert for three year old game incoming, only one of the characters lives at the end depending on who gets the gun at the end. It doesn’t end there, the prologue dives into the ramifications each death has with the people around and its hard to see families left without their father or husband. In Brothers from 2013, spoiler alert for 8 year old game incoming, one of the brothers dies at the end.

Josef Fares has shown that life isn’t always happy endings and this is reflected in his artistic choices. Despite how easy it seems for the couple to rekindle their love by fighting an old vacuum, battling a rusty toolbox and talking to a weird book to reignite the love, I have my reservations that the rug will be pulled out at the end. Although, maybe after two darker endings, Josef Fares is interested in challenging himself with a different ending, but it easily feasible to see a darker ending for It Takes Two.

Josef Fares must have something deep rooted with rural farm life because we begin the story of It Takes Two at a house in the country, similar to how A Way Out spent a lot of time in the country and around farms. Diving into the psychological aspect of farms, the country life is all about hard work and being as productive as you can be so that your crops can grow and in turn see growth yourself.

When looking at it this way, I don’t think it’s by coincidence that the last two games from Hazelight feature a heavy dose of farms being used in the metaphorical nature as the characters are in a desperate need of redemption.

Pixar

Although released on previous generations of consoles, It Takes Two does feel like a PS5/Xbox Series X|S exclusive due to its fantastic visuals, which are running at 4K/60 and this feels even more impressive when you consider the split screen nature of the game. One missed opportunity, specifically for the PS5 is that the game doesn’t take advantage of the DualSense at the moment. It might get patched in but using the haptic feedback and the adaptive triggers would have taken the “Honey, I Shrunk The Kids” immersion to an even greater level.

Co-op games could easily cause divides in friendship and relationships. Games like Overcooked come to mind that require all members of the team to pull their weight evenly even when many players aren’t at the same skill level. It Takes Two is very smart about how it manages the skills of co-op with death not being much of a penalty, although boss fights can be a bit more challenging.

During the normal game, you will instantly pop back into the game at the last checkpoint you passed and this game has very friendly checkpoints. During boss fights, if you happen to die, you will need to hit a button rapidly or else the other person will need to stay alive for a few seconds alone until you respawn. The boss fights are challenging and being able to maintain composure during these times with someone who might be less experienced in gaming is likely what It Takes Two is trying to accomplish.

These choices keep the game from pitting the two players against each other and pointing fingers. Instead it keeps the focus on the extremely clever level design, allows you to experiment while figuring out how to solve certain puzzles and keeps the fun going at a high level.

It Takes Two feels very tight, responsive and is never asking the player to do more than necessary. Sure, there are elements and sections during the game where stringing together multiple button presses will be the only way to progress but they are right at the edge of what the genre can comfortably ask the player without pushing further into hardcore platforming territory. Hazelight finds the line that keeps the player contstantly challenged but never frustrated that something is out of reach. It understands that It Takes Two is more about the destination than the journey.

Conscious Coupling

It Takes Two doesn’t support matchmaking, as Hazelight understands that to truly have a good time with this game you need to play with someone you know and be able to communicate well. You can either do that with someone very close to you via local couch co-op which is a form of gaming that is always welcome especially how Hazelight has shown their excellence in the field, but you can also play online with a friend using the friend pass, meaning that only one person needs to purchase the game.

About the only thing that we both don’t like about the game at this point is Dr Hakim who is “the book of love” During the early times in the game, it felt like the character overstayed his welcome and is universally annoying but maybe this is all part of the design for the couple to find common ground.

Near the end of the “First 48” there was one area that actually does turn the tables of the game and creates friendly competition between players with their mini-games. The first mini game is the equivalent of Whack-a-Mole, where one player pops up while the other player tries to use the hammer. Not only was this part of the game a welcome break from solving puzzles and fighting bosses, but the friendly competition lightened the tone in the game and in the real world.

Around every corner of It Takes Two is either something completely new that keeps the game feeling very fresh or something very clever. We were either saying how cute or how clever constantly during the game. It Takes Two seems to be another example of how hazelight is a one of the few remaining bastions of excellent co-op experiences. After the “First 48” minutes, we can’t wait to play more.