It Takes Two (PS5)

In Josef Fares’s game A Way Out, a serious dramatic narrative about forced cooperation unfolded across an action game about two men breaking out of prison to take down a crime lord. However, along this journey there were quite a few delightful moments where you could slow things down and engage in fun little activities like playing Connect Four together or even playing on a seesaw. These diversions were cute little breaks from the gunfights, puzzles, and chases, but that game was mostly about that core action experience. For his next directorial role It Takes Two, that kind of embrace of interactive and unusual fun actually becomes the heart of the adventure, the game constantly moving forward through so many gameplay types that simply calling it a cooperative 3D platformer feels like saying a dictionary only contains words that include the letter A.

 

In It Takes Two, Cody and May are a married couple who have grown apart over time and agree to amicably divorce at the start of the story. Sitting down with their daughter Rose though, the news doesn’t go over with her quite as well, Rose running up to her room to make an earnest wish. Looking at a pair of dolls made to represent her parents and holding The Book of Love she had been using to try and subtly repair their marriage, the crying young girl wishes her parents could find love again, and not too long later May and Cody find they have been transformed into the little dolls. While understandably baffled by their situation, The Book of Love by Dr. Hakim suddenly springs to life and begins barraging them with tips on how to fix their relationship, but May and Cody seem focused first on returning to their human bodies, eventually coming up with the idea that Rose must be the way to solve the problem since she was the one who accidentally transformed them. Getting her attention proves to be quite the task, not only because their reduced size turns every room of their large house into an enormous space that is difficult to traverse but the world around them has taken on a fanciful twist thanks to The Book of Love’s constant interference as he tries to repair their fractured relationship.

The main adventure of It Takes Two is definitely about whether or not this shared experience will bring the two playable characters back together in a functional marriage, and while the game is mostly light in tone, it can actually be hard to predict the trajectory of the plot at times. Along the adventure they do prove capable of working together well and will support each other when its needed, but at others old issues crop up, sometimes even taking the form of the trial they face ahead. A vacuum Cody broke and May slacked on repairing becomes a boss battle, but in the same way pleasant memories can be turned into playable spaces as the greatly expanded interior of a ski resort snowglobe souvenir reminds them of the early days of their love. At one moment it cam seem like they are beginning to reconnect and find that spark again only for them to mention things they can do with Rose after their separation, the player left wondering where the resolution of the story might go.

 

For the most part, despite having a looming divorce as a major plot point, It Takes Two is wonderfully fanciful and delightfully silly. Cody is a comedic character with overblown reactions to much of what they see but May is a sharper and more logical counterpoint who brings him back down to earth. While much of the adventure is meant to test their ability to cooperate, they don’t often bicker or drag things down with moments of intense arguing, the game instead focusing on little squabbles or issues that The Book of Love latches onto in odd ways. May feels like Cody wants her to be at many places at once with her split between work and home life, so for that segment of the game she’s given the power to clone herself. Cody feels like May expects him to have all the time in the world to take care of the home, so for that portion of the game he’s given the ability to manipulate time. All throughout the game, The Book of Love contrives lessons out of their issues and turns them into relevant game mechanics the two then use to navigate areas and solve puzzles, rarely settling into anything for too long. Having close ties to their lives not only gives a game that has all kinds of ideas to explore some sort of focus, but it ensures that more of the examination of Cody and May’s relationship is sprinkled throughout the story, the characters talking pretty often even during normal play. On the other hand, The Book of Love gives them someone who almost works like an antagonist, often stepping in to slow them down to try and push his message of cooperation or just generally bugging the pair with his eccentricities and unwillingness to tell them how to solve their predicament.

 

It Takes Two moves through many different areas that are loosely based on objects and areas around the shared home of May and Cody but balloons these spaces up into enormous environments based more on the interpretation and potential of a concept than reality. You might spend some time hopping around the branches of a tree only to be pulled inside where you’re roped into a war between squirrels and wasps and need to use a honey launching gun as Cody and a matchstick firing weapon as May to navigate through and fight the insect army. In Rose’s Room the small play areas made for her are expanded into an enormous kingdom that includes things that are definitely not found in the real deal like bouncy castles and oceans full of plastic balls. An area full of dinosaur toys can be shifted to more closely resemble a prehistoric landscape despite its lingering plastic appearance, and when a toy named Moon Baboon suspects you of being an enemy of Rose, you are taken to a location based on outer space that both embraces true cosmic imagery while still being composed of pillows, dolls, and science equipment.

It’s hard to predict where It Takes Two might take you next even when it directly tells you the next room you’ll be entering, and while you may spend an extended period in a specific space, your specific relevant abilities keep changing constantly. Cody and May almost never share the exact same skills, ensuring not only do they play unique roles in navigating the world and interacting with it but also meaning the play experience for both players will be inherently different. It Takes Two, even when its exclusively multiplayer experience is played online, always makes sure both characters are on screen with an often divided view since quite often you need information on what the other player is doing to time actions or set up your puzzle solutions. Almost every little tool and ability you are given has more than one purpose as well. The earlier mentioned time manipulation by Cody gives him the ability to reverse broken objects May can then use, but as things progress he can start moving time back and forth to change the placement of objects or impact the rhythm of shifting objects so that May can safely pass. Other times their special abilities link together constantly, May’s hammer head tool in the shed area letting her swing from nails Cody throws to embed in the wall. Coordination is certainly key to success at many points in the adventure as the capabilities of both players are so different, even moments where the pair are bunched together like when riding a beetle requiring one player to navigate it while the other blasts away upcoming dangers. Some baseline skills like a midair dash and the ability to swing from latch points with a rope stick around to make regular navigation easy but both the types of puzzles you encounter and the ways you can interact with them are constantly changing and evolving. Not every mechanic is as creative or flexible as the others, Cody’s size shifting at one point is particularly basic in its scope, but not only does the game move onto new ideas quickly, its use of area themes and unique interactive environmental pieces keeps the excitement and novelty coming no matter what your special skill of the moment is.

 

There is definitely a lot of humor to be found in seeing just what might lie around the next corner, watching the exasperated interactions between the book and the couple, and hearing them react to their situation themselves. Perhaps things do dip into a little uncomfortable territory when the pair briefly find what seems like a less morally sound way to possibly solve their predicament, but the mostly light-hearted journey not only throws every idea at the wall it can think of, it realizes them both as enjoyable gameplay experiences and as vividly detailed spaces that are sometimes enjoyable to just run around in and explore. The game has a few moments where a large space is simply there for you and your co-op partner to poke around and find interesting interactions and sights. Optional diversions can include things like interactive toys, the ability to paint your own picture or mix music, or even full on competitive minigames that are such enjoyable diversions the main menu even lets you replay them outside the story after you find them. Some are grounded in reality like a game of chess, others include wildly fanciful ideas like “laser tennis” where you step on switches to send dangerous moving laser beams to the other player’s side to try and zap them. Something simple like launching yourself off a swing set to try and get further than each other is a quick little contest but you can also do various challenges like a shooting gallery where a shot target only makes a point if it reaches the other player’s side or a game of whack-a-mole where one player is the one popping out of holes while trying to avoid getting hit by the other. Just like parts of the main adventure these can either be deeply involved with a lot of potential or quick ideas you dabble in and move on, nothing really outstaying its welcome and these minigames even give you the option to move on without indulging in them if they’re not your cup of tea. All of this is packed into a fairly long game that makes no visible compromises in what it wants to do or where it wants to go, the constant feed of fresh ideas and fun interactions almost making you wish it could have kept going to see where else the creative design can go.

THE VERDICT: An often hilarious and constantly imaginative experience, It Takes Two not only shifts its design around frequently but does so with all the care and detail you’d expect of a game that intended to fully embrace each new concept. You brush against idea after idea that not only give you a great new way to play for a while but it also takes place in an exciting new abstraction of the real spaces of the main couple’s house that gives them plenty to react to. This game is completely unafraid to suddenly embrace some new mechanic or way to play and pulls them off with style and professional execution all while laying out plenty of small and simple diversions that can be just as enjoyable as the story content. An idea here or there may be a dud, but in a game overflowing with them you never linger long on them and can instead embrace the many exceptional gameplay shifts that link together into consistently engaging cooperative play.

 

And so, I give It Takes Two for PlayStation 5…

A FANTASTIC rating. Creativity and variation are often aspects of games I love to praise and It Takes Two is an unrestrained barrage of both. It’s not too flighty, making sure to spend some time in a new area or with the new mechanics in play so you can appreciate them or see them take on interesting new forms, but there are surprises waiting around most every corner and it never settles into a rut. Any way to play that isn’t as exciting is often helped by having an interesting space to explore, puzzles that still require interesting interactions between both players, or diversions that keep you entertained rather than simply occupied. It was actually a bit hard to restrain myself in just listing out the many wild routes the game goes down as so many are not only wonderful to discover for yourself but engaging to play with even after that initial surprise fades. Exploration of a 3D space is still the kernel all the action is technically based around, but it is modified in so many different ways that it almost feels like the ideas of tens of different games were pressed together. A slower paced puzzle solving segment might have had the potential to be a full game on its own, but then the game moves onto something that can open up more potential for quick action or even combat. Having the universal movement controls as a grounding concept prevents the game from ever expanding so far out it loses itself in pure novelty, but the way May and Cody’s different area specific abilities intersect is constantly asking for new things from their dynamic and giving you new ways to think about the environment. Throw all of this atop a story that does a surprisingly good job exploring the complex relationship of the leads while still ensuring it is mostly lighthearted rather than some sobering look at the troubles of love and the generally exciting ideas are easier to embrace and enriched by the fact they have such personal ties to a couple that have a fun dynamic.

 

While far less dramatic than A Way Out, It Takes Two instead becomes a joyous exploration of imagination in interactive form. It’s a game unafraid to go everywhere it wants to while still making sure things tie back to the central idea of the married pair shrunk down and exploring the surreal changes to familiar locations. In some ways the player is on a similar ride, the familiar movement mechanics always relevant but the new mechanics and location gimmicks making them see exploring the game world in a new light. It Takes Two is a game that embraces doing new things because those things are fun and interesting to do, never trying to bog you down with work or diversions that demand your attention unless you find them neat enough to spend time with. It’s a video game happy to explore the many ways you can play while still applying a narrative over it that guides things and provides moments both emotional and funny. It Takes Two is a wonderful package of ideas that pulls most of them off expertly and with aplomb, a game that feels like it saw no limits in its way of providing exactly the kind of entertaining adventure envisioned by Josef Faras and his talented team of creators.