Test of It Takes Two: it takes two to be happy

Consecrated in 2013 with their first game, touching it Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons, former filmmaker Josef Fares and his studio Hazelight continue their playful experimentation in 2018 with A Way Out, a friendly cooperative adventure game hailed more for its variety and pace than for its writing. Still on the same niche, the Swedish studio is pushing this time, with It Takes Two, the knobs fully with a bubbling and generous title.

Test of It Takes Two: it takes two to be happy View PriceRead ConclusionIt Takes Two

Breathless rhythm
Ideas everywhere, all the time
Visually successful
Good lifespan

camera issues
Uneven and a bit stuffy
The storyline struggles to advance.

Great, my parents are getting divorced

A spell, innocently cast by their daughter Rose, throws Cody and May into a fantasy version of reality, the way Honey I Shrunk the Kids on Acid. He becomes a clumsy clay man, she an elegant wooden doll; both are high as two apples. This is an opportunity for the couple, who are about to divorce, to take stock of this relationship at the end of the race, whose bad times have definitively driven out the good ones from their common memory. Chaperoned by Dr. Hakim, a very intrusive and schoolboy love advice book once animated, the duo will have to brave adversity to recover human form and who knows, to mend the bonds eroded by time.

This scenario, rather light and largely diluted in an ocean of gameplay that we will cheerfully try to detail, ultimately serves as a somewhat coarse pretext for exploring a gaggle of shimmering and varied levels. Hazelight stacks, on its rather simple and widely accessible core gameplay - double jump, run, dash, stomp - a large number of different cooperative mechanics, highlighted by situations far too numerous to mention all. Through light puzzles, soft platforming sequences and somewhat lengthy action scenes, It Takes Two offers a potpourri of playful mechanics largely borrowed from other titles, which it sometimes agrees to quote. Wink wink Mario Kart.

A trailer just like the game, messy and adorable

If I had a hammer

Each level is an opportunity for Hazelight to offer different tools to our two characters: in one stage, May can for example explode the bubbles of glue launched by Cody, and in another drive in the nails that he will launch thanks to the hammerhead that she carries on her back. He can grow and shrink like Knack, when his sidekick abuses antigravity boots à la Prey (the one from 2006). It Takes Two multiplies the mechanics and the situations forcing the two protagonists to agree to progress, with a perfectly balanced rhythm which systematically renews the interest at the right time (a level takes about two hours).

The choice to stuff its title with different sequences - puzzles, action, chase, boss, underwater sequence, in the air or on the ice, open space teeming with small useless activities to explore, intimate and dreamy moments - has the deserves to throw players entirely into its frenetic pace, without giving it time to question anything. The sequences follow one another at such a speed that it is a little difficult to remember the less significant moments, which undoubtedly classifies It Takes Two in the category of games of which we have a better memory than the experience actually lived.

It's not really a criticism as the sets are amazing. Sometimes tight and magnificent, sometimes open and impressive, the environments benefit from both technical and artistic care that constantly encourages contemplation. The tree, the game room, the level of time or even the music particularly appealed to us, between perfectly animated complex mechanisms and sublime lights that strike the little ants crawling on a branch.

A constant headlong rush

We sometimes don't have the opportunity to admire the meticulous work of the artists since the game takes malicious pleasure in putting all the imaginable means of transport in our hands for crazy escapades: beetle, bird, owl, toad, bobsleigh, boat, ice skates, hang-glider, spider, jetpack pan flute, hand spinner, disco ball, bumblebee… Micromachines better watch out. A Way Out couldn't really free itself from the realistic shackles in which the two main protagonists were trapped. Hazelight completely unleashes the horses this time by making its latest title an abundant choral game, of unparalleled generosity at the cost of consistency and sometimes common sense.

It Takes Two summons far too many different imaginaries to permanently impose a single one, but it does so with a drive and a sincerity that commands respect. From improbable encounters to ubiquitous clashes, Hazelight constantly swings us from one discovery to another, as if the Swedish studio hadn't taken the trouble to clean up its initial brief of the least relevant ideas or the least effective mechanics. Come on, we put everything! The game is at its best when it lets the player appropriate its crazy universe, the time of a cute photo shoot or an improbable and ridiculous attempted murder on an adorable plush (incredible sequence, although quite toxic , especially for the youngest). Conversely, we politely hold back a yawn when the clashes drag on, or when yet another monstrous appearance comes to conclude an already eventful sequence. One does not go without the other in It Takes Two.

Playing in pairs, but with whom?

It Takes Two is exclusively for two, locally or online. We obviously welcome the initiative of the Friend Pass, which allows another player to join the adventure remotely without having to take out the wallet (but at the cost of 43 GB of disk space, all the same). Accessible, never really punitive and rather benevolent towards players less accustomed to the 3D platform, it is therefore aimed at everyone. If two inveterate players will roll on the adventure in a dozen hours, plus a few additional handles to go around the 25 rather unequal mini-games, the adventure takes another turn when the two participants have a heterogeneous level.

It is really pleasant to initiate a neophyte as It Takes Two is full of emblematic mechanics and sequences, often inspired or downright taken from the outstanding games of the last thirty years. The way in which the two players interact, just like their avatars at the heart of the action, offers an interesting parallel which is undoubtedly the quintessence of the experience imagined by Josef Fares. We therefore strongly recommend that you find a partner that you want to introduce to your passion. Locally, the quick exchange of joystick can solve the most problematic situations, in particular related to the recalcitrant camera whose mania to sometimes automatically recalibrate “to help” causes some frustrating failures.

Note that even online, the screen remains split. We regret not being able to take advantage of the visual richness of the universe in full screen, but the choice is understandable in view of the project: the game was designed for split screen, which allows you to know at all times where your partner.

JVFR

It Takes Two : l'avis de Clubic

It Takes Two is a magnificent whirlwind. The Hazelight title rattles you furiously from one level to another at a frantic pace, often favoring quantity over quality. As generous as it is perfectible, as exuberant as it is accessible and benevolent, this choral title is ideal for play sessions between lovers, between parents and children or between friends, of homogeneous level or not. It's hard not to bow before so much generosity and energy.

It Takes Two

Uneven, but eminently generous bag, It Takes Two is a nice cooperative fireworks whose good humor is widely contagious. Accessible, clever and damn rich, the Electronic Arts and Hazelight game is a hell of a trip to devour without moderation, preferably with someone you love.