The Unravelling of a Forgotten Purpose with It Takes Two
Written for LGND
Gone are the days when every video game was either a title in which you would share a screen to play or be relegated to back-seating while someone else adventures through a single-player experience.
Replaced with queues, and lobbies, and friends lists, and connection issues, the modern multiplayer experience may serve the fundamental purpose of playing games with others, but does the heart and soul of cooperative gaming come with it?
Hazelight’s founder and leader Joseph Fares doesn’t think so, and most of what fuels his disdain for 21st-century multiplayer games is wrought with truth and a yearning for “better times”.
It Takes Two is the latest game from the cooperative-focused studio out of Stockholm, Sweden, and it goes a long way to infuse trust and dependability between yourself and whomever you decide to play with.
Built on the back of the CEO’s “fuck the Oscars” moment, does this new multiplayer experience truly unravel the secrets of marriage, and pull down the walls cemented by modern online co-op?
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If you want to have an indelible conversation about the mutation of the cooperative experience in video games, it is difficult to start anywhere but the birth of gaming itself.
Developed by William Higinbotham, and Robert Dvorak, and officially released in 1958, the first “real” video game was Tennis for Two. Think early pong. At the core of the invention is the concept of playing these titles with other people.
Yes, a world pre-internet mass coverage meant that developers could ONLY focus on things like couch co-op experiences, but does that mean that the connection of the world via the web has to cannibalize the original joy of in-person shared gaming?
Travel back in time, and most of us have memories of sharing a couch, splitting a screen, or taking turns with those around us. I hesitate to call it a golden age -- because your opinions on which experience is superior may be different than mine -- but there is no ignoring that the nucleus of the multiplayer adventure has changed.
Before I continue to speak ill of the current environment in which we play video games with one another, let me just fly through all of the positives to come from an online gaming service explosion.
In the last year and change, our access to the world wide web has helped facilitate friendship maintenance, family connections, and even the keeping of one’s career or jobs in many cases. There is a foundation of good that comes from connecting things to the internet.
Through the intent and invention of the Massively Multiplayer Online game genre (or MMO), 21st-century gamers were united. New friendships were made, and distances were dissolved.
However, regardless of how much we have been able to grow and obtain through the use of the web, there is a particular sauce missing in comparison to an adventure with a partner sitting right next to you.
It Takes Two has multiple spots throughout the main story in which both players are pitted against each other in small mini-games, and this would have been satisfying to participate in even if we were online, but playing next to my significant other, allowed us to hoot and holler at one another, try to prod at their controller whilst they struggle to tap Triangle faster than I can.
Sitting down to finally get into It Takes Two, the Hazelight co-op journey is always a feat of inundation, making who you play them with practically more important than the how or why you take part in them. For their previous title -- a bro-op game featuring two convicts escaping from prison -- I played alongside my forever cooperator, my brother. It was fitting, wonderful, and our hyena-like giggling only paused long enough to concentrate in awe through the bigger, more cinematic moments.
For It Takes Two -- a game about two adults, parents, who have decided to get a divorce, only to be turned into dolls by their daughter, set to face trials that are led by a relationship self-help book in order to challenge their partnership -- I played is with my partner. My significant, insanely uplifting future wife.
And, it is going very well.
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Even the designation and choice of which character we chose to play, has worked out pretty well. All except for the part where the husband is more natural and fantastically inclined, and the wife is more logical. That reveal through dialog and cut-scenes made us chuckle.
Notably, the construction of meaningful and relevant gameplay elements continues to be Hazelight’s brilliant glory. It Takes Two changes what you are doing -- all involving working cooperatively with your partner -- depending on the level and setting. You go from using a telekinetic nail, and wielded hammer combo in the second level, to a flammable sap and igniting spark shooter combined to blow things up in the third level.
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It is astounding that Hazelight sustains their excellent gameplay mechanics while fundamentally perpetuating the idea that the entire game must be played together, while huge studios making billion-dollar franchises struggle to keep their single-player gameplay relevant and interesting.
Though the independent Swedish studio of only a few dozen members does sometimes lack the polish in writing, or voice acting, the It Takes Two cast does a fairly wonderful job throughout the nearly 20-hour playtime. The chemistry between the two leads wavers slightly here-and-there, breaking a bit of the believability of the universe where these two characters have had a relationship for years and are undoubtedly fairly familiar with one another.
Luckily, there have been no glaring holes or weaknesses in my own relationship cracked open through our journey thus far, and the entire It Takes Two experience has only gone to further our belief that we work well as a team.
Looking back at the fun and adventure, I would be remiss to ignore the fact that the emphasis on functional and emotional relationships and cooperation through life may make it difficult for some to find the right person to play with.
Where A Way Out makes for a buddy-action flick event that can (and should be) shared between yourself and nearly any member of your friends or family circle, It Takes Two strives very hard (and completely succeeds) to focus on the trials of a more mature and intimate relationship between two human beings.
Perhaps, I would even go as far as saying that It Takes Two should not be played with anyone but your partner. Though, a strong argument could be made for playing alongside your best, and closest friend. Evidently, those two Venn diagrams overlap in many cases. As it does in mine.
Taking the sensation of a truly cooperative environment to another level entirely, my time playing It Takes Two with my actual romantic partner, means I am working with someone that comes to the table with limited video game experience. In this realm, Hazelight strikes another fond and fundamental chord often overlooked in game design; the non-gamer (in comparison to the lifelong gamer) was able to observe and facilitate our coop just as well as I was.
Sure, there are a lot of “video game-y” tricks that have dug themselves into my psyche over the decades, giving me a leg-up in terms of noticing particular elements, but there was never a moment where skill came into play to divide us by any wide margin.
… Except for the mini-games … where I eventually thought about giving less than 100% effort in order for my partner to have a greater chance of taking a victory. However, my pride always seemed to get the better of me, and I maintain my undefeated prowess throughout It Takes Two.
It could have been easy to design the game to rely on a skill set developed by gamers over years, or even sway the actual reality of the game’s premise to prop-up a reason for one player to be more responsible for the technical aspects of puzzle-solving than the other. They never go there, in the end. It truly feels like an equal collaboration, and this becomes essential. In both the idea of the cooperative nature of the game, and the story-lines that are woven throughout.
Equally impressive, is that as a lifelong player of video games, I was never met with a moment of boredom throughout the evenly distributed duties in our journey.
What a magical ride that is.
My biggest gripe, and one that my partner said we may unlock later in the game, is the lack of celebration. Every time we narrowly avoided death or timed things perfectly to traverse a dangerous environment, I wanted to cue up an emote which would see my character celebrate with theirs. A high five. A hug. Even just a voice line or fist-pump. It would have been great to be able to display our real-life pleasure in our joint success, with in-game action.
Much like some of the reviews and impressions I have written recently, there is little in the actual experience that gets in the way of me recommending It Takes Two to anyone with a puzzle-solving mind, except that there is a very distinct, and immovable line in the sand.
If you do not have someone you care about, someone close to you, who you can relate or replace in the premise of marriage, then It Takes Two will lack nearly all of the potency and perfection that it serves up.
Yes, play this game, if you have the means to do so with a person that matters to you. But I have to strongly suggest avoiding it if those parameters cannot be met.
