I don't believe It Takes Two is a game worth picking up if you're not looking for something casual to play with a friend. What I mean by this is the game is not memorable enough in either narrative or gameplay to warrant feeling left out by its co-op exclusivity.
It Takes Two provides a mixed bag of different pieces of collective gameplay nostalgia: most notably from 3D platforming, co-op puzzles, and arcade shooters. It pretty much never develops the ideas it throws in the mix beyond their rudimentary designs, relying instead on changing environments to keep attention going. To its credit, the looks of the worlds are entertaining cinematically, with side events to interact with that generally add to their charm. Overall, it has the feeling of an uneven licensed kid's game.
The best co-op games, in my opinion, have everyone playing doing an interesting role simultaneously and reacting to one another's inevitable shortcomings. It Takes Two is mostly horribly unwilling to provide these kinds of challenges. I can only think of a single part of the game - a boss fight around its halfway mark - that carries a remnant of the urgency a co-op game usually has, and it doesn't even use any special abilities. This makes a lot of the gameplay feel clunky and redundant, as most of it feels like you're just waiting for the other person to do something simple. If this is a metaphor for turn-taking, it's lazily implemented.
This is not to say that all the rest of the gameplay is bad, just that it frequently gets monotonous. I wish more of the gameplay was as absurd as the set pieces. For a game that aims to switch it up every chapter, it isn't consistently fresh. This doesn't pair well when it's so noncommittal to developing any mechanics, even the ones it recycles. It relies too much on the occasional quick novelty, which doesn't work for its runtime. It's low stakes in every respect.
The narrative of It Takes Two is uncomfortably bad, even disregarding its worst implications that border on parody. Plot developments are so abrupt, despite the game's length, it feels as though they were a dejected afterthought. Despite being a game about rekindling love, there is next-to-no romantic tension between the leads; the dialogue is almost entirely the two either bickering over nonsense or marveling at the scenery. When they eventually do communicate over their problems, it boils down to awkwardly exchanging "that's too bad" remarks.
This makes the theoretical cooperation you're building in the gameplay completely detached from what the protagonists are going through. It all culminates in a final chapter that should feel emotionally powerful, but is instead baffling. I don't understand why they bothered making this a game about divorce with such a shallow story; it seems like a waste of an interesting ludonarrative.
It Takes Two provides a mixed bag of different pieces of collective gameplay nostalgia: most notably from 3D platforming, co-op puzzles, and arcade shooters. It pretty much never develops the ideas it throws in the mix beyond their rudimentary designs, relying instead on changing environments to keep attention going. To its credit, the looks of the worlds are entertaining cinematically, with side events to interact with that generally add to their charm. Overall, it has the feeling of an uneven licensed kid's game.
The best co-op games, in my opinion, have everyone playing doing an interesting role simultaneously and reacting to one another's inevitable shortcomings. It Takes Two is mostly horribly unwilling to provide these kinds of challenges. I can only think of a single part of the game - a boss fight around its halfway mark - that carries a remnant of the urgency a co-op game usually has, and it doesn't even use any special abilities. This makes a lot of the gameplay feel clunky and redundant, as most of it feels like you're just waiting for the other person to do something simple. If this is a metaphor for turn-taking, it's lazily implemented.
This is not to say that all the rest of the gameplay is bad, just that it frequently gets monotonous. I wish more of the gameplay was as absurd as the set pieces. For a game that aims to switch it up every chapter, it isn't consistently fresh. This doesn't pair well when it's so noncommittal to developing any mechanics, even the ones it recycles. It relies too much on the occasional quick novelty, which doesn't work for its runtime. It's low stakes in every respect.
The narrative of It Takes Two is uncomfortably bad, even disregarding its worst implications that border on parody. Plot developments are so abrupt, despite the game's length, it feels as though they were a dejected afterthought. Despite being a game about rekindling love, there is next-to-no romantic tension between the leads; the dialogue is almost entirely the two either bickering over nonsense or marveling at the scenery. When they eventually do communicate over their problems, it boils down to awkwardly exchanging "that's too bad" remarks.
This makes the theoretical cooperation you're building in the gameplay completely detached from what the protagonists are going through. It all culminates in a final chapter that should feel emotionally powerful, but is instead baffling. I don't understand why they bothered making this a game about divorce with such a shallow story; it seems like a waste of an interesting ludonarrative.