It Takes Two is the third co-op project of the former filmmaker and now one of the main eccentrics of game F95Zone and his studio Hazelight. After the fabulous entourage, but essentially tragic in essence, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and the realistic thriller A Way Out , he swung into the genre of comedy melodrama, which is still a curiosity for interactive entertainment. As a result, the split-screen adept came out with an insanely dynamic game designed exclusively for two and almost entirely consisting of fun. A side effect, however, was the lack of a serious challenge and a coherent story, but is this really such a disaster?
It Takes Two tells the story of Cody and May – a married couple on the verge of divorce and constantly fighting among themselves. For some unknown reason, the heroes turn into dolls and find themselves in a magical world, which is a phantasmagoric version of their own home. There, the powerful and stubborn Book of Love takes patronage over them, requiring the couple to improve their relationship, otherwise they will not see the way back to their real bodies. The laborious process is presented in the form of a kaleidoscope of bright, dynamic and very different cooperative mini-games, replacing each other every 5-10 minutes. Before you have time to turn around, you are faced with a completely new task, and in the arsenal of the heroes there are new means for solving it.
Over a 12-14 hour linear campaign, It Takes Two manages to be a platformer, fighting game, shooter, race, flight simulator, sports simulator, rhythm game, puzzle, slasher, runner and even a cooperative music sequencer! As a result, the experience of the players becomes like a high-speed race through a huge hall of arcade machines. The closest video game analogy is party games or WarioWare collections , in which mini-games did not last longer than five seconds. Game design, arcade by nature, comes in handy here with Best grenade spots dust 2. On the one hand, the rules and controls are constantly changing, but they are simple enough to master them once or twice. On the other hand, elementary gameplay schemes simply do not have time to exhaust themselves and get bored in such short intervals.
The most important creative decision of the creators that made the implementation of such a concept possible was the fundamental rejection of realism. Not being constrained by the logic of familiar reality, Fares was able to embody his wildest ideas on the screen: from a battle with a revived vacuum cleaner and a stealth segment in a wormhole to a hand-to-hand fight with a squirrel on the roof of an airplane made of family cowards and the ability to turn into a cactus machine gun shooting needles. The wizarding world works exactly the way its creators want it, and the scenery switches at the click of your fingers to the rhythm of the gameplay.
Did the authors want to make their own version of DJ Hero? Welcome to the miniature nightclub! Need a location for winter fun like snowballing and ice skating? With a wave of the hand, the characters are thrown inside a souvenir snow globe. At some point, the heroes find themselves in a toy castle, where they dress in a magician’s costume and knightly armor, and the game instantly transforms into a simple diabloid with a top view, even numbers with a damage indicator from enemies fly out – lovely! The greatest impression is left by local bosses. Whether it’s a plush monkey shooting a couple from a flying saucer or an animated toolbox constantly destroying platforms under the players’ feet – they all require an individual approach, concentration and clear interaction of partners.
The need to act in concert is far from the only reason It Takes Two is best played with a loved one. In order for the local amusement park to open up for you to its fullest, it is quite important to be on the same wavelength with your partner. You’re not going to Disneyland with a stranger, are you? Time in the Hazelight project will fly by with understandable jokes, jokes and friendly competitions . And there are plenty of beautiful opportunities to arrange a pod for your partner in the game!
It is also important to note that cooperative gameplay almost always turns out to be asymmetric, players are given different abilities and tools at hand, and only well-coordinated work will allow solving the next task. For example, at a level with spatial puzzles, Cody gains the ability to manipulate time, and Mei learns to clone herself and teleport. In another level, with a more platforming bias, Cody can create impromptu rungs of nails on the walls, and Mei gets a hammer with which to cling to them. This not only gives, perhaps, the only reason to replay the game, but also guarantees that every player in any situation will remain important, one for two will not be able to do all the work, even if he wants to.
Conclusion:
The buffet of game mechanics from Yousef Fares is crowned with occasional optional mini-games in which players can compete with each other in target shooting accuracy, the dexterity of controlling a toy car, and a sense of rhythm when playing a musical instrument. These small tests finally complete the atmosphere of the fair game, where even if one of the attractions does not catch the player, he will find new entertainment sooner than he has time to voice dissatisfaction. And if you are imbued with this atmosphere, then the frankly populist promise of Fares to give a thousand dollars to any person who gets bored with his new game will no longer seem so careless like in difficult person test. You can only get bored if you expect a severe test from the game. It Takes Twoit is extremely undemanding to the players, and in case of an error it rarely folds more than a minute ago. The ability to set Hard Mode in the settings would obviously not hurt.
