BinaryMessiah It Takes Two Review

I'm not really a co-op person. I grew up with friends who weren't really into games, and if they were, it wasn't the ones I played. I was always a single-player kid. It Takes Two is the first co-op-only game that has pushed me to find someone to play this with, even if it took me four years to finally finish. I started the game out with my wife and finished it off with my youngest sister. Couch co-op is something that builds bonds and memories, and this is one of those games. The story takes a back seat to fantastic gameplay that is always changing with incredible level design. The story is the worst part of the game, and not for the reason you think. It's poorly written. Painfully written. The idea itself is fine on paper. You are a married couple (Cody and May) going through a borderline divorce when your child gets the bad news and uses her handmade dolls to act out her parents getting along again. You both fall asleep and end up in your house in some sort of Pixar reality where everything is big and the small things are out to get you. One of the most annoying characters ever conceived in pixels is a therapist in the shape of a book called Dr. Hakim, who is a racist Mexican stereotype. His dialog is cringy and awful, and he's just so incredibly annoying. Whenever he was on screen, my wife would use her phone, or my sister would walk away. I also don't like how Cody and May's relationship seemingly never evolves despite these harrowing acts they go through. Each level would normally see them changing in some way, and the need to have a monkey-in-the-middle remediator is just awful. This is one of my least favorite video game stories ever. It's just incredibly horrid. Outside of that, the game is a delight to play. Each level is unique and full of charm, such as the garden level with enemies that are different flora and the attic level, which has you walking on and bouncing on instruments that make real sounds. Each level gives Cody and May a unique ability they must use to puzzle solve and use for combat. Not every level has combat, but every level has a lot of platforming and puzzle solving. The first level's vacuum cleaner, for example, is a delight, and another level uses a honey cannon backpack. The game is played in split-screen, so you must work together to solve everything. Some areas only need one character to do something, but that character is needed to get both through an area. The puzzles constantly change, and each ability is used to its fullest. There are some mini-games spread out throughout the game that are more like "toys" and don't really do anything. They are marked with a tambourine floating above them. Some range from getting points by shooting cannons at blocks to long jumping off of swings to a chess game. They are interesting ideas, but they break up the pace of the game, and there are no rewards for doing them. These are interesting ideas, but it would be nice for the player who wins to get some sort of reward like a damage boost or something. Most of the time we would just play one time for a couple of minutes and move on. Combat, on the other hand, is really annoying and not great. Balancing is an issue here. Sometimes too many enemies will be thrown at you, and you will both end up dying, requiring a restart of the area. When one player dies, they can revive by mashing a button, but if both die at the same time, it's over. We died more in combat than any other time, and everything is too chaotic to monitor your life meter. I would get pummeled and wailed on as a passive ability character waiting for my partner to take out the baddies or expose the weak point of an enemy or boss while smaller enemies just annihilated us. This isn't a skill issue either. There's also no lock-on button either, which makes things more frustrating. The visuals themselves are fantastic. Each level feels unique while grounded in realism. The unique dreamlike and cartoonish visuals give a Pixar vibe, and they are a sight to behold. Everything being blown up, from everyday objects to skyscraper-sized buildings, is so cool to see. However, some levels overstay their welcome, such as the dream level at the midway point. There is a hub area, and you branch off to different sub-levels, but it seems to go on forever. Then, later on, I felt like a single character's ability was underutilized. The attic level had me barely doing anything for my partner. The balancing is just so off in this game, but it's forgivable. Overall, It Takes Two is a must-play for anyone remotely interested in co-op games. The story, characters, and writing are both awful and rote, but the gameplay is why you will stay. The visuals are incredibly charming and imaginative, and the combat requires each player to assist each other at every single turn and puzzle. Combat is too simple and chaotic to be very fun or engaging, but there's not a lot of it. The game is a pretty decent length, clocking in at 8 hours or so.