Cody will take charge of a gun that shoots explosive gel in one level, while May is in charge of detonating it. These see Cody and May being given different tools that, when combined, allow them to progress through the chapter. Going from carefully co-operating with my fiancée to raucously screaming at one another in an RC car race was never not hilarious.Įach new chapter also brings with it new abilities and equipment to utilize. The same rings true here, with over 20 mini-games scattered throughout the game’s 12–14 hour playtime letting players engage one another in snowball fights, endless runners, shootouts, and more. My fiancée and I - a risky co-op team considering the game’s divorce theme - were also encouraged to look around in order to uncover its various mini-games, which provide plenty of player-vs-player opportunities.Ī Way Out, Hazelight’s previous release, reserved many of its standout moments for when players were directly pitted against one another.
While it isn’t as open as the likes of Super Mario Odyssey, there’s an excellent mixture of both linear and large-scale environments players are left to jump around in, making full use of its impressively fluid movement and tight, precise platforming.
However, that’s not to say that it doesn’t welcome exploration.
It Takes Two’s director Josef Fares has spoken of his disdain for useless collectibles, and that’s evident from the game’s distinct lack of shiny things to pick up. Playing on PS5, each location looks gorgeous and runs at a smooth 60 FPS, and while I would have appreciated the forced split-screen perspective to be used a little more sparingly in moments where both players are side-by-side, it’s commendable that It Takes Two still looks as good as it does even with the screen divided in half. Rose’s hastily built cardboard castle becomes a sprawling environment to explore complete with dungeons, pirate ships, and dinosaurs, while her treehouse is home to a strange war between militarized squirrels and their rival wasps. While It Takes Two’s levels are set in familiar household locations - the attic, the garden, Rose’s bedroom - the various toys, objects, and critters who reside in each area are brought to life. This unique approach allows for an exhaustive and ceaselessly impressive barrage of ideas, with Hazelight dreaming up fun and exciting things for players to do at a rate that would make even Nintendo envious. However, developer Hazelight Studios also leans heavily into the magic behind its concept, with each of It Takes Two’s seven chapters being designed as though viewed through the eyes of a child. This sets the stage for a co-op adventure where two players work together, either via local or online multiplayer, in order to journey through a fantastical recreation of Cody and May’s real world.Īdvertisement Honey, I Shrunk the ParentsĬody and May have essentially been forced into a Honey, I Shrunk the Parents situation, where their doll selves must navigate through their familiar surroundings from a different, much smaller perspective.
After telling their daughter, Rose, that they plan to separate, she unwittingly casts a spell that sees the pair being transported into two of her dolls, with them being greeted by the enthusiastic Book of Love who aims to mend their relationship. It Takes Two centers around Cody and May, a couple on the brink of divorce. You know that existential crisis that sometimes accompanies playing a new game you’ve been looking forward to, where you feel like you should be enjoying yourself more than you actually are? When you remember what it was like to play games as a kid, when you could get lost in a world of 16-bit pixels and feel like you were actually a part of its levels, and how that part of you has been missing ever since you became an adult? It Takes Twomay ostensibly be a game for grown-up couples, but it recaptures that childhood magic better than any game I’ve played in years.