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After playing A Way Out last year, it was very refreshing to play a pure co-op experience since there's not much of that on the market currently, and it left an itch that nothing's come close to scratching. So, I guess it's a good thing that Josef Fares and the talented folks at Hazelight decided to release another pure co-op game that expands upon the foundation laid by A Way Out called It Takes Two. And I'm happy to report that It Takes Two is an incredibly entertaining experience that is a significant improvement over its prison break predecessor that surprised me in more ways than one.


While I think most people are going to compare this game's visual style to something out of a Pixar film, I would say this game feels a lot closer to something like LittleBigPlanet. It's a delight, with so much variety in the environments considering that the story is basically contained to one house. The game also did an excellent job of not being too overwhelming with color, which on top of being paired with great character designs (especially in regards to the playable characters), made everything visually distinct enough that you could tell who was supposed to interact with what without getting in the way of the style that the game was going for. While I did play this game with slightly messy settings because I was streaming it, I could tell that this game is an absolute looker in terms of its style and environments, so the game absolutely succeeded in this regard.


As I said before, It Takes Two expands on basically all of the concepts laid by its predecessor. While it is still largely a puzzle platformer, one of the game's biggest strengths is in its variety, as it would switch up the genre very frequently. The parts of the game where I was witnessing my partner take on a boss structured like Street Fighter, or where we were tearing through a castle using fire and ice powers like a Diablo game were my absolute favorite parts. They didn't overstay their welcome, and were always a great way to change the pace as soon as the platforming/puzzle segments started to feel dull. Both characters had ample opportunities to shine, and I didn't feel like the power-ups were skewed in favor of one character at any point. While the game's on the easier side, I still found it incredibly engaging and didn't mind the difficulty since the game was meant to be accessible to as many people as possible. The boss fights were also very fun, and never felt mindless to beat since they all had different mechanics that felt like a proper assessment of your skills with whatever tool you're using. In terms of a pure co-op experience, this is arguably as good as it gets. It's balanced, engaging, and a constant delight from start to finish. I have nothing to negative to say here.


Where the gameplay was near perfect in execution, this game's biggest weakness is its story. The game tries to foreshadow a few things, (for example: Moon Baboon's parting words set him up to be an interesting recurring antagonist considering the players' intentions at that point in the game) but ultimately get disregarded as soon as they move on to the next setting. I also feel like the game was too lighthearted tonally, and should've leaned more into its Pixar-esque appearance by suddenly changing the tone to something heavier in order to drive home the game's themes and sticking to that tone for more than one scene. While I did like the characters, and the game was genuinely pretty funny, I thought they were the only redeeming qualities in a story that felt like an excuse to throw the players into different situations, when it had plenty of potential to expand upon its themes using player interaction. The story is funny and entertaining, but its unwillingess to take itself seriously makes it disappointingly shallow overall.


Not much to talk about here. The voice acting wasn't particularly remarkable, and there were a handful of moments that took me out of the game, but it wasn't noticeably bad. The music is also serviceable, though I'd say it is of a higher quality than the voice acting overall, outside of the final song which I found rather underwhelming. The sound design also works well enough, though again I'd say it's nothing to write home about. Overall, it's fine, though it's nothing I'll be talking about years from now.


In terms of value, I'd say it's worth it at full price just for the reason that you only need to buy one copy to play with a friend. But even then, I'd still say it's worth it simply because you'll remember your time with it because of how it constantly finds ways to reinvent itself. Sure, the story isn't anything to write home about, but it's still very memorable just for how good the gameplay is. You're not going to play it more than once most likely, but it's definitely fun enough to warrant doing another playthrough with someone else if you wanted to.


It Takes Two is an absolutely amazing co-op experience with a story that holds it back from being an all-time great. But even then, the story isn't going to significantly ruin your experience because the way the gameplay constantly finds ways to keep you engaged definitely makes up for this to a degree. If you have someone to play this with, it is absolutely worth your money just to help these types of short, story-driven co-op games become more commonplace. It's not the "perfect co-op game", but it comes quite close. I loved my time with this game and I cannot wait to see what Hazelight does next.

Graphics - 9.5/10
Gameplay - 10/10
Story - 5.0/10
Audio - 6.0/10
Content Value - 9.0/10

.:9.0/10:.
"Amazing"

**PERSONAL PICK**

+ Incredible gameplay variety
+ Beautiful environments
+ Humorous writing
+ Well-paced
+ Only needs to be purchased once to play with a friend

- Shallow story and themes
- Tonal issues

[u]Like my reviews? Go follow my [url=https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/curator/33012112-Gandhi-Talks-Games/]Curator page.[/url][/u] After playing [i]A Way Out[/i] last year, it was very refreshing to play a pure co-op experience since there's not much of that on the market currently, and it left an itch that nothing's come close to scratching. So, I guess it's a good thing that Josef Fares and the talented folks at Hazelight decided to release another pure co-op game that expands upon the foundation laid by [i]A Way Out[/i] called [i]It Takes Two.[/i] And I'm happy to report that [i]It Takes Two[/i] is an incredibly entertaining experience that is a significant improvement over its prison break predecessor that surprised me in more ways than one. [h1]Graphics[/h1] While I think most people are going to compare this game's visual style to something out of a Pixar film, I would say this game feels a lot closer to something like [i]LittleBigPlanet.[/i] It's a delight, with so much variety in the environments considering that the story is basically contained to one house. The game also did an excellent job of not being too overwhelming with color, which on top of being paired with great character designs (especially in regards to the playable characters), made everything visually distinct enough that you could tell who was supposed to interact with what without getting in the way of the style that the game was going for. While I did play this game with slightly messy settings because I was streaming it, I could tell that this game is an absolute looker in terms of its style and environments, so the game absolutely succeeded in this regard. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] As I said before, [i]It Takes Two[/i] expands on basically all of the concepts laid by its predecessor. While it is still largely a puzzle platformer, one of the game's biggest strengths is in its variety, as it would switch up the genre very frequently. The parts of the game where I was witnessing my partner take on a boss structured like Street Fighter, or where we were tearing through a castle using fire and ice powers like a Diablo game were my absolute favorite parts. They didn't overstay their welcome, and were always a great way to change the pace as soon as the platforming/puzzle segments started to feel dull. Both characters had ample opportunities to shine, and I didn't feel like the power-ups were skewed in favor of one character at any point. While the game's on the easier side, I still found it incredibly engaging and didn't mind the difficulty since the game was meant to be accessible to as many people as possible. The boss fights were also very fun, and never felt mindless to beat since they all had different mechanics that felt like a proper assessment of your skills with whatever tool you're using. In terms of a pure co-op experience, this is arguably as good as it gets. It's balanced, engaging, and a constant delight from start to finish. I have nothing to negative to say here. [h1]Story[/h1] Where the gameplay was near perfect in execution, this game's biggest weakness is its story. The game tries to foreshadow a few things, (for example: [spoiler]Moon Baboon's parting words set him up to be an interesting recurring antagonist considering the players' intentions at that point in the game[/spoiler]) but ultimately get disregarded as soon as they move on to the next setting. I also feel like the game was too lighthearted tonally, and should've leaned more into its Pixar-esque appearance by suddenly changing the tone to something heavier in order to drive home the game's themes and sticking to that tone for more than one scene. While I did like the characters, and the game was genuinely pretty funny, I thought they were the only redeeming qualities in a story that felt like an excuse to throw the players into different situations, when it had plenty of potential to expand upon its themes using player interaction. The story is funny and entertaining, but its unwillingess to take itself seriously makes it disappointingly shallow overall. [h1]Audio[/h1] Not much to talk about here. The voice acting wasn't particularly remarkable, and there were a handful of moments that took me out of the game, but it wasn't noticeably bad. The music is also serviceable, though I'd say it is of a higher quality than the voice acting overall, outside of the final song which I found rather underwhelming. The sound design also works well enough, though again I'd say it's nothing to write home about. Overall, it's fine, though it's nothing I'll be talking about years from now. [h1]Content Value[/h1] In terms of value, I'd say it's worth it at full price just for the reason that [b]you only need to buy one copy to play with a friend.[/b] But even then, I'd still say it's worth it simply because you'll remember your time with it because of how it constantly finds ways to reinvent itself. Sure, the story isn't anything to write home about, but it's still very memorable just for how good the gameplay is. You're not going to play it more than once most likely, but it's definitely fun enough to warrant doing another playthrough with someone else if you wanted to. [h1]Overall[/h1] [i]It Takes Two[/i] is an absolutely amazing co-op experience with a story that holds it back from being an all-time great. But even then, the story isn't going to significantly ruin your experience because the way the gameplay constantly finds ways to keep you engaged definitely makes up for this to a degree. If you have someone to play this with, it is absolutely worth your money just to help these types of short, story-driven co-op games become more commonplace. It's not the "perfect co-op game", but it comes quite close. I loved my time with this game and I cannot wait to see what Hazelight does next. [b]Graphics[/b] - 9.5/10 [b]Gameplay[/b] - 10/10 [b]Story[/b] - 5.0/10 [b]Audio[/b] - 6.0/10 [b]Content Value[/b] - 9.0/10 [b].:9.0/10:. "Amazing" **PERSONAL PICK**[/b] + Incredible gameplay variety + Beautiful environments + Humorous writing + Well-paced + Only needs to be purchased once to play with a friend - Shallow story and themes - Tonal issues