https://www.cybersport.ru/games/articles/obzor-it-takes-two-odna-iz-luchshikh-kooperativnykh-igr-poslednikh-let

The history of toys

Lampochko: It Takes Two is an exclusively cooperative game, and you simply won’t be able to complete it alone. This happens because of the plot: a married couple, Mei and Cody, are on the verge of divorce. Their daughter Rose has a hard time going through the constant abuse of her parents and dreams that one day everything will be the same. Having found the “Book of Love” by a certain doctor Hakim, the girl makes plans to make her parents feel good again, and accidentally transplants the souls of Cody and May into toys: a man gets into a clay figurine, and a woman – into a wooden doll. Revived and speaking with a strong Spanish accent, the book says that the heroes can return only after going through a therapeutic journey in which they will have to act together, despite all their hostility to each other.

Machinae: The story does not shine with novelty: the once happy married couple after the birth of their first child was drawn into a merciless whirlpool of “everyday life”. Now May practically lives at work, working overtime to provide for his family, and the creative unit of this union Cody has lost his passion for life, abandoned his favorite hobbies and dejectedly rolls forward on the rails of gray everyday life.

This rearrangement of traditional gender roles in the protagonist family came as a surprise to me as well. Initially, I was going to play for May: after all, of the two of us, it was I who previously wrote about the “agenda”, but my colleague managed to take it first – and he made the right decision, the heroine suited him much more. It turned out that it was the girl in this pair that acts as the classic voice of reason: she talks about the technical nature of things, tries to remain calm and look for logic even in the most insane circumstances.

I got a pretty close to me in spirit Cody – such a textbook humanist-romantic who is not able to fix a vacuum cleaner, but knows everything about magic, because in the evenings he reads fairy tales with his daughter. Cody easily accepts the rules of the game and is really fond of this adventure, often forgetting about the dangers that await the heroes. And although in the world of dolls these differences allow spouses to complement each other and overcome difficulties together, it is not difficult to guess where their differences came from in real life.

Lampochko: Gameplay, their dislike, however, is not felt: the characters joyfully and jokingly interact with each other, solving new problems that arise. What Fares really didn’t lie about was his approach to diversity: the gameplay changes on average every 15 minutes, throwing new mechanics at the players. Platforming is always the basis: in most situations, heroes can run, jump and dodge, slightly accelerating in the right direction.

On top of this, other mechanics are layered with enviable regularity, and each time the characters do not overlap: for example, at one of the levels, Cody will receive a cannon that shoots with viscous resin, which makes things heavier and burns well, and Mei – a device that shoots matches that can both ignite the resin and push light objects. Both the puzzles and the combat system of this episode are built on interaction: in order to defeat opponents, you first have to cover them with tar, and then set them on fire.

In some situations, however, the skills will be common: for example, both heroes during the journey will receive ropes that allow them to be attracted to certain points, and later they will be able to fly on the same mechanical birds.

Machinae: I have completed the game twice already and both times in the starting locations experienced the same feeling of strange awkwardness. In them, the characters do not yet differ in a set of abilities, and therefore one of them is forced to play the role of a kind of “support” – to press buttons and redirect pipes, while the second merrily flies through them and jumps along the walls. The problem here is that when playing cooperative action, of course, you forget about competitive habits and strive to equally share the “pleasure” with your teammate. To its credit, It Takes Two, just 15 minutes after the start, she gives May and Cody completely different gadgets that naturally share your responsibilities as you progress.

It was done really well: all levels are balanced in the sense that none of the players will feel like a useless member of the support group. Do not hesitate – even if at one moment all the exciting platforming went to May, it means that very soon Cody will receive his moment of fame. There are also enough opportunities to spoil each other’s life, which greatly brightens up the passage – once I accidentally hammered my partner into the ground with a hammer. Needless to say, after that, other possibilities of the game in my eyes faded for a long time?

Four hands

Lampochko: The variety of mechanics is the main feature of the game. Constant changes lead to the fact that she simply does not have time to get bored: you just played a semblance of a shooter, and then you run around the level with changing gravity or even fight in a strange isometric adventure in the manner of an action RPG. The situation has a downside – often you don’t have time to really feel the mechanics: as soon as you get used to something new, the game already slips something else.

Machinae: Such a kaleidoscope of mechanics and levels (Cody and May will visit completely phantasmagoric locations, which sometimes will be quite distantly related to the real world), as well as the genre of It Takes Two itself, unexpectedly give a pleasant flashback to childhood. Then, not yet spoiled by dozens and hundreds of different games, I enthusiastically spent time in Crash Bandicoot and Spyro, sincerely rejoicing at each new location. Now I can force that changing textures does not necessarily lead to gameplay variety. At the same time, the transitions from the fantasy castle to the desert oasis, and from there to the underwater kingdom, fascinated me.

It Takes Two awakens some echoes of this feeling in the soul. Comparison with a toy store seems very hackneyed, but this is what fits best here: as in childhood, you run between the shelves, grab everything, and then, not having time to really play enough, switch to something completely new. At the same time, the developers skillfully juggle not only the mechanics, but also the presentation, the mood, so that the output really turns out to be a diverse adventure – deliberately ridiculous action scenes are replaced by very cozy dialogues about family life, which until recently seemed so happy.

Lampochko: Due to the variety of mechanics offered, you want to go through the game twice: Cody and May are very different in the skills they use and give completely different experience. For example, at one of the levels, Cody is able to transform into various plants, each of which gives a new experience (a cactus becomes a mini-turret, soft grass drowns out May’s steps in the stealth section, and a potato can break the hard bark of harmful plants), but Mei at this time armed with a weed sickle and a miniature long-range watering can. On another level, the heroes get the ability to control time: Mei is able to create her own static clones, and Cody is literally rewinding time. Each device received usually has more than one use, which makes the game even more interesting.

As a bonus for those who lack a touch of competition, there is a collection of mini-games scattered across levels in which Cody and May can briefly become rivals. The mechanics never cease to amaze here: rhythm games are replaced by full-fledged chess, and snail races are replaced by shooting in a shooting range. How competitive games fit in with the story of reaching mutual understanding is another matter.

Machinae: If you decompose the game into separate elements, it becomes clear how simple it is in its essence. Most often this is a standard platformer, in which some two simple mechanics (one for each of the heroes) form the basis of each new level. The minigames mentioned by my colleague above are the only additional fun in It Takes Two, there are not even collectibles and notes here!

And yet, due to the very fast pace of the change of scenery, for some reason it works: the world does not at all seem like an artificial obstacle course, created in order to stretch the game. On the contrary, it is interesting to study, even knowing that interactive elements are rare in it. And therefore, when at last around the corner there is not a dead end, but a hidden mini-game, it causes the most sincere joy: “Hurray, now I will destroy this Lampochko!”

Ludonarrative dissonance

Lampochko: The main drawback of the game can be considered a somewhat strange elaboration of the story. The central storyline is quite clear and logical: a broken marriage is saved by traditional advice and unconventional methods. Dr. Hakim, a magic book that speaks exclusively to the accompaniment of a Mexican guitar, invites the heroes to follow three simple tips: devote enough time to each other, find lost passion (and not in relationships, but outside) and again remember what attracted them to each other. The three tips are divided into four major chapters (you will have to look for passion twice – for each of the heroes), which … for some reason, begin in the second half of the game.

In the first part, Mei and Cody will try to disenchant on their own, demonstrating their complete inconsistency in this matter. Realizing that the tears of their daughter transferred them to the bodies of the toys, the divorcing parents come to the only correct decision – they can also be bewitched by the tears of the girl. It’s only after doing the monstrous thing I got from the flashbacks from Spec Ops: The Line (“Do you still feel like a hero?”) That they finally begin therapy.

Machinae: By the way, there are questions for the latter. The concept of a therapeutic adventure in itself, in which the characters re-learn how to get along with each other, is quite good – I can accept that this is a working scheme that can return an extinguished spark to the marriage of the protagonists. However, as Dr. Hakim reasonably writes in his book, a relationship is a laborious process in which both partners must be involved. Cody and May, in principle, work together to get out of the bodies of the dolls, and the process of their inner reconciliation seems to remain behind the scenes. But there are no “behind-the-scenes” scenes in It Takes Two, and therefore it is quite difficult to believe in the story of the miraculous salvation of a marriage, especially considering that the therapist book in the game demonstratively gives the most clichéd advice: “You focused so much on the closed door that do not notice that somewhere else has opened. ” This, by the way, is almost a direct quote.

Lampochko: The gameplay often does not fit well with the plot: in the videos, the heroes can swear, but at the beginning of the game segment they will immediately interact with joy, jointly solving riddles. The video can show sadness on the faces of the characters – and the next minute they will go jumping on resilient mushrooms that work as springboards with a cheerful laugh. It is better to keep silent about the fact that individual situations are shown as important, but are completely forgotten by all characters.

No less strange is the fact that during their journey the heroes hardly remember about their daughter, who only does that for a couple of moments pops up in short video inserts. Here, however, lies a plus: for once, the story of the restoration of a crumbling marriage is not conducted through the prism “for the sake of the children” – rather harmful in its essence. It is Cody and May that restore the relationship, solving internal problems and arranging for themselves a therapeutic journey, even if not voluntarily.

Buffet

What cannot be taken away from the game is a good therapeutic metaphor. If at the beginning of the journey the heroes only do that they break everything that comes to hand, then in the second half they are more and more repairing and fixing previously broken things. Characters begin to mend broken relationships only thanks to the advice of the book, and in the second half, this is literally seen in specific examples, which, however, will be a spoiler to talk about. Having brought their daughter to tears at the beginning of the game, later Cody and May take the right path and correct the situation with available means, along the way, as expected, saving the marriage – this is not a spoiler, since no one expected another outcome.

Surprisingly, this expectation of a specific outcome works in such a way that you don’t feel any emotions from reaching the final. This applies to the whole story in general: in the plot plan, It Takes Two simply has nothing to offer, since it focuses on the gameplay. But even with him it turns out strange: in ten hours, players have time to try dozens of different mechanics, half of which immediately disappear from their heads. As a result, the feeling remains, similar to receiving a box with probes: I seem to have felt a lot of things, but I could not fully feel it.

Many publications outright called It Takes Two the best co-op experience in recent years, and it’s hard to argue with that. The reason for the “best”, however, is not at all that this is an ideal game – it simply has no major competitors. And to be proud of a victory in the absence of opponents is not an achievement.

Machinae: From the experience of playing A Way Out, I believed until the last that at the end there would be a twist that would turn the game upside down and turn It Takes Two from a fun duo ride into a complex story-driven game with a deep message. But my expectations were in vain. In fact, we were waiting for a kind of collection of mini-games, which, if not for the declared “adult” topic of difficulties in marriage, could be easily advised for passing, for example, in a cooperative with children.

The plot component seems to neutralize this quality: hardly anyone wants to let the child into the terrible secret that family life is hard work. But for an adult, the thoughtful passage of It Takes Two, on the contrary, turns out to be too superficial: the family history of Cody and May is not a touching drama that you want to follow, blotting your eyes with a handkerchief. This is a completely stereotyped story through which thousands of thousands of couples pass (from the point of view of relationships, not the puppet world, of course), and you will not find any revelations in the fight against the all-consuming routine in it. Take time for your partner, do not forget about your hobbies – exactly the same advice on saving your marriage will be written to you by another “superintelligence” from “Mail.ru Answers” in a minute.

At the same time, It Takes Two remains an excellent, if not a reference, attraction for a couple of evenings for all fans of cooperative games. For ten hours that the game lasts, I was not at all tired of it and immediately went to the second round, having already taken control of May – and the first levels have already started to play with completely new colors.