From the beautiful mind of Josef Fares and the talented developers of Hazelight Studios comes a game that’s just too darn charming to pass up. It Takes Two is a brand new co-op game featuring some incredible moments of true beauty, companionship, and overwhelming amounts of fun and shenanigans. Grab a friend, party up, and prepare yourself for an experience full of heart and unbridled creativity. 

I was lucky enough to see this game pop up in my social media feeds right before it came out. My buddy and I were looking for something to play during this early year lull in gaming. It Takes Two seemed like a perfect break from the slew of uber-serious and violent games we’d been playing for the past year. It was bright, colorful, and just seemed like good old-fashioned fun. 

Love, Happiness, and Making Your Only Child Cry

It Takes Two starts off with a familiar scene of two parents, Cody and May, fighting while their daughter, Rose, listens to them from a window. It’s not anything we haven’t seen before and the game kind of beats you over the head with the sadness of the situation. The opening scene closes with Rose taking out two dolls in the likeness of her parents and imagines they “stay friends.” As their daughter mourns her parents’ relationship, she sheds a tear on the dolls and they come to life as she walks away. Here the player selects one of the dolls to play as, and the game begins. The rest of the story is not particularly noteworthy but it’s sad and heartwarming at the right moments. There are some really odd choices in the character-building though. For over half the game your express goal is to make your daughter cry which paints Cody and May in a seriously bad light. They can seem downright cruel to their daughter in this situation. It creates a bad case of emotional whiplash as you weave through depressing cutscenes, strangely brutal boss fights, and extremely charming moments. 

Gameplay: Full of Surprises and Fun

I was pleasantly surprised by the controls. Platformers on PC can be pretty dicey with controls if you’re using a mouse and keyboard, but It Takes Two has a great setup. The controls were smooth and responsive. It almost felt like a regular third-person shooter with really slow aiming.  No controller required! They made the actual gameplay a ton of fun. The world of It Takes Two is filled with wonder and a plethora of activities to keep you engaged from start to finish. You can glide across a ball pit with a fidget spinner on your back or get into a dogfight with wasps in a plane made from boxer shorts. It’s always fresh and a joy to discover all the new toys the game gives you to play with. It never stopped being fun for me. The gameplay is the star of the show here and is the reason why I’ll be back for another playthrough. The sense of wonder and discovery is on an entirely different level and I can’t get enough of it. My co-op partner and I have never had as many laughs as when we played this game.

Graphics: Surreal Beauty

It Takes Two is filled with imaginative and jaw-dropping beauty that’s incredibly refreshing. Environments pop and make you want to hang back for a second to admire the obvious care that went into designing these levels. The colors are bright and vivid. The characters are delightfully cartoony and animated. One second you’ll be river rafting down a dark sewer fighting luminous wasp larvae and the next you’ll be riding on the back of a translucent fish that floats through softly glowing water flora. You can’t help but stare in awe as the environments envelop you in their raw beauty and sheer creativity. Not everything is perfect though. The “real-life” character models are a little bit off-kilter and break up some of the charm but thankfully most of the game takes place in the “fantasy” world.  It hardly detracts from the overall experience but it’s still present and noticeable.  

Technical Issues

It Takes Two is a great game, but it’s hampered down by some issues with cutscenes and super long loading screens. Over half of the cutscenes in the game were accompanied by stuttering that was both noticeable and annoying. This issue persisted for both my partner and me. He even experienced some audio issues where music would cut out completely and sound would momentarily stop altogether. Loading screens were few and far between, but they would take an entire minute or more, even when installed on a solid-state drive. Using Friend Pass was also a bit of a pain since the Origin client refused to show my partner as online. These issues were minor, but they do detract from the experience a little bit. 

Is It Takes Two Worth It?

This game is an easy purchase. If you have a friend to play it with, you’ll have an incredibly fun time. The best part is you only need to buy it once since your buddy can use the Friend’s Pass to hop in your game. It’d be a shame to miss out on it. The lush environments suck you in. The gameplay keeps you involved and entertained and the level design is so wildly creative. It has some technical issues, but just they become unimportant as you lose yourself in the game world. Most importantly, it’s just a big box of fun and laughs.

Rating: 8.25/10