It Takes Two - An Essay On The Best Co-op Game In Years

it takes two the game of the year it's the one award that saved the entirety of the game awards show but it wasn't all frill and pomp this game actually really deserves it and i've been screaming it from the rooftops since it released this is one of the most creative games i've ever played my entire life now normally in these types of videos i would try to withhold my evaluation or opinion of the game at least for a little while keeping you in suspense while i make my argument i know i know i'm a sneaky boy like a snake i'm a slytherin but in this case i sincerely believe that this game is something special and deserved that award now this is co-op so if you're going to play it before this video you will need to have a friend but note that ea has taken some extremely pro-consumer moves here requiring only one of the two players own the game in order to play it it's amazing this game is so great i'm complimenting ea for pro consumer moves like what happened truly if you have anybody in your life who you could play this game with you absolutely should pause this video don't watch anything more on this game or what it has to offer and experience it for yourself still here okay i'll assume that means that you've either already played it have no interest in playing it or you want me to prove that this game is remarkable before giving it a chance so let's do just that many games in recent memory have fallen victim to an insidious infection that has permeated itself through the entire industry major publishers have shown little interest in cooperative games many of the largest shooters for example stripping couch co-op out entirely or delaying it so far after launch that it effectively becomes an afterthought everything has become so stuffed with microtransactions cosmetic optional purchases and even in some cases publishers are charging for experience point boosters which allow you to finish the game while you're still young because they bloat the game so much the only way a normal human being could play it without getting bored would be if they accelerated the progression effectively skipping large chunks of it because you know all great games have the player wanting to skip chunks of it and in recent months we've even seen the advent of gaming nfts something that a lot of big publishers seem excited about for some inexplicable reason i mean we do know why they're excited about it it's another thing that they can sell to people but you know i'm being facetious i'll just move on of course there's a few outliers here and there and some publishers are starting to show signs of relent when it comes to the over monetization of their products like ea seems to be coming to their senses a little bit at least when it comes to co-op they're still allegedly interested in nfts but we'll have to see where that goes the point is i think it's beyond debate that these things have become extremely prevalent in the industry if the game has multiplayer it's usually strictly online and it's justified by way of excessive monetization in the form of cosmetics loot boxes and soon-to-be nfts nobody's even trying to give gamers something that they can enjoy on the couch together except for small indie studios and party games it takes two is the ultimate response to an industry that's sick in this way it's cooperative requiring a friend to play with it's affordable and its pricing structure is pro consumer as we've already discussed and it possesses probably the most impressive assortment of gameplay systems and set pieces in recent memory and that's coming from luke stevens the guy that plays pretty much every major aaa game that comes out so he can pump out a video on it furthermore hastelite has been able to interweave these three elements so expertly that there really is no way to discuss them all at one time instead requiring us to tackle the whole game all at once so let's do just that but real quick i do want to say thank you to the sponsor of this video skillshare skillshare is the online learning community for every kind of learner whether you're looking to learn how to draw paint or improve your video editing skillshare has a ton of classes taught by industry professionals to help you achieve those goals i for one have wanted to learn how to use adobe after effects in these videos for years so after procrastinating for said years i decided it was high time to start learning how to use the software so i hopped on skillshare and i found this class in animating with ease by jake bartlett and hopefully you've noticed the improvements in my editing over the last couple of months but it's not just after effects they have classes on almost anything you can think of and the first 1000 people who click on the link in the description box below will get a free one month trial to try out classes on whatever they're passionate about check them out today when you begin the game you and your playmate will select which of these character dolls you want to begin with each time you load in to play you can change this but i found myself usually sticking to my initial selection throughout the entire run in the opening minutes of the game this little girl's parents who are actively bickering and contemplating divorce are transported into the dolls by way of magic and will begin exploring fantastical versions of places that exist within their world such as a shed the garden their daughter's bedroom and the play kingdom that they've built for her out of toys and blankets even eventually landing in a snow globe and also a cuckoo clock these two characters will explore these levels using tools that are specific to each in the opening sections you may have nails that can be thrown and recalled like kratos's axe and god of war paired with a hammer that can destroy things and swing off of the nails that are thrown or you may have a gun that shoots flammable sap that can be ignited with the other player's gun that fires matchstick heads that have been ignited every level will have a brand new pair of tools that can be used and they usually tie in with the broader theme of the level such as in the snow globe area where the book of love is trying to teach you about attraction giving each of the dolls half a magnet requiring them to work together to solve puzzles built around the idea of magnetic attraction it's a cool albeit extremely transparent analogy and this carries through the entire game just when you think surely the development team must have run out of ideas by now they introduce a new set of tools such as a pair of fidget spinners that act as parachutes that introduce a world of possibilities and this helps keep the levels interesting and prevents any one gameplay system or tool from growing stale over the course of the game's run time pair with this all the mini games that are introduced over the course of the game and you have a title that stays interesting through its entire 15-hour campaign thanks to constant introduction of new systems great level design and quirky banter between the characters it could be a tekken inspired boss fight with a squirrel who thinks he's an army general on top of a plane made out of your old underwear as you fly through a tree that's a sentence i never in a million years thought i would ever say out loud or a dungeon crawling diablo inspired minigame where you're escaping a dungeon that the father built for his daughter out of all of her toys or even just a calming game of curling there are so many of these little games and one-off systems that it would take me probably an hour to go through all of them and perhaps what's most impressive about it is that it takes two executes all of these very well i watched the documentary raising kratos about the development of the 2018 reinvention of the god of war franchise and in that documentary they talk about how difficult it was to get the axe throwing system working properly to the point where you could throw the axe somewhere and have it recalled back to the player realistically and obviously the system and it takes two with the nails is very simplified in comparison but it feels just as good as far as i'm concerned as does every other system that they put forward here in fact while writing this script i sat at my desk for 15 minutes sifting through the hours of footage i have of my two runs of the game that i recorded for this video to see if i could find a gameplay system that i thought was poorly implemented and i couldn't come up with anything the only criticism of the game that i could come up with is that the level that's built around space carries on for just a bit too long but it does conclude with a boss fight against a baboon who thinks he's an astronaut which redeems it in my mind and this is the thing about it takes two the more i try to poke holes in it the more i'm left utterly impressed i was going to spend the next few minutes going to how i thought the level design could have been improved but upon further investigation and contemplation i'm left with an increased level of appreciation the insane amount of attention to detail not just in the design of these levels but more importantly in the interactions you can have while exploring them creates a series of small universes that feel alive and extremely captivating it's the little details like here when you're in the castle village ruled by your daughter's toy elephant that you can come across a big pie that the citizens have made and you can jump in the pie splashing around in the filling ruining it and these little creatures are devastated that you've just ruined their dessert or how the vacuum who serves as the first big boss in the game is filled with all of the junk that the family vacuumed up in the house which inevitably broke it and here's where i come to the awkward bit my job is to criticize games for a living i am a video game critic this is what i do but i find myself struggling to come up with things that i would change in it takes two it is so masterfully put together well realized and genuinely creative and fun that i'm left in awe there's no other way to put it it takes two is one of the best games of the year certainly the best game hazelite has ever made and i think one of the most creative games in recent memory when other studios would have patted themselves on the back for coming up with one gameplay system that was engaging and enjoyable sitting on it for 10 to 15 hours of gameplay hazelite decided to continue working seeking out new systems more interesting mechanics new mini games all out of a simple desire to create they didn't have to do all of this they only needed a few systems to make gamers happy but they never stopped creating the entire time they worked on the game they worked their asses off and it shows and that's why it takes two is fantastically creative and deserves all of the loudations they've received well done hazelite i can't wait to see what you've got coming next if you enjoyed the video hit the like button make sure to subscribe and click the link on screen to head over to my twitch stream where you can follow and get notified whenever i go live who knows i might be live at this very moment that you're watching the video pop in and say hi thank you for watching i love you all more than you could possibly know and i'll see you in the next video

Channel: Luke Stephens

Views: 19,584

Keywords: luke stephens

Id: SPKtf-Nhu4Y

Length: 11min 51sec (711 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 28 2021