It Takes Two Review and Why Co-op Gaming Needs a Partner

My partner Dev and I finished It Takes Two over eleven evenings last winter, mostly between 8 and 10 at night, with a bowl of popcorn balanced on the arm of the sofa. By the end we had argued about a magnet puzzle, laughed so hard at a boss fight that we had to pause, and agreed that this was the best couch co-op game either of us had played in years.

That is not a small claim in our house. We play a lot of games together, from farming games to kitchen chaos, and most of them are fun but forgettable. It Takes Two stuck with us, and I think the reason is simple. It is one of very few games that cannot be played alone at all.

A game built for exactly two players

Hazelight Studios released It Takes Two in 2021, and it went on to win Game of the Year at The Game Awards that December. The setup is odd for a video game. Cody and May are a married couple about to divorce. Their daughter Rose wishes they would get along, and the two of them wake up shrunk into small handmade dolls. A talking book called Dr. Hakim insists on teaching them about love, like it or not.

There is no single player mode. One person plays Cody, one plays May, and the screen stays split the whole time, even when you play online. If you play online, only one of you needs to own the game. The second player can join with a free Friend's Pass. We played on one console and one television, which I recommend if you can, because so much of the fun is turning to the other person and saying "did you see that?"

A full playthrough took us roughly 13 hours. Some couples finish faster. We did not, because we stopped often to mess around in the side areas, which are full of little mini games you can play against each other.

Why the partner matters more than the mechanics

Most co-op games are single player games where a second person can tag along. You could clear them alone with a bit more effort. It Takes Two does the opposite. In almost every chapter, Cody and May get different tools, and neither set works without the other.

In the tool shed chapter, one player gets nails and the other gets a hammer. The nails stick into wooden panels, and the hammer swings from them. In the tree chapter, Cody shoots sap and May shoots a match that ignites it. Later, one of you controls time while the other is cloned, or one of you grows huge while the other shrinks. Each chapter changes the rules, so you never settle into one comfortable role.

What this does to the people on the sofa is the interesting bit. Dev is the faster player, but he cannot rush ahead, because his tool is useless without mine. I am the planner, but I cannot plan everything, because half the solution lives in his hands. We had to talk. Constantly. Our most common sentence was "wait, wait, I'm not there yet," which tells you something about how the game is designed.

The game does not care who is better at games. It only cares if you are listening to each other.

Our favourite moments, and one we skipped through

I will keep this light so I do not spoil too much. The garden chapter, with its plant powers, was our favourite. There is a short side game where you race snails, and we lost about 25 minutes to it on a Tuesday night. The early boss fight against a furious old vacuum cleaner made Dev cheer out loud. And the clock chapter, where one player rewinds time, is the cleverest bit of puzzle design in the game.

There is also a scene in the middle of the story that a lot of players find upsetting, involving a stuffed toy elephant. I will not describe it. It is meant to be dark comedy, and it does land as a story beat, but if you have kids watching, or you are sensitive to cruelty played for laughs, it is worth knowing it is coming. We both felt a bit uneasy afterwards and talked about it, which might be the point.

The advice I would ignore: pair a skilled player with a beginner

A common suggestion is that It Takes Two is perfect for bringing a non-gamer partner into gaming, because the experienced player can carry them through. I have seen this advice in reviews and heard it from friends. I half agree.

The game is gentle with checkpoints. If you die, you respawn quickly, often within 2 or 3 seconds, as long as your partner is still alive. That helps a lot. But the game also asks both players to handle a full controller with two analog sticks, jumping, dashing and aiming, often at the same time. A friend of ours who had never played a 3D game before quit after the first two chapters, not because it was too hard, but because she felt she was always the one holding things up.

The experienced player cannot carry the other one, because the game will not let them. That is exactly what makes it great for two people of similar skill. For a true beginner, I would start with something simpler first, maybe 5 or 6 sessions of Overcooked 2 or a few weeks on the farm in Stardew Valley co-op, then come back to It Takes Two once the controls feel natural.

The small practical stuff

A few things we learned that nobody told us:

• Pick roles before you start and stick with them. The characters play differently in every chapter, and swapping halfway can confuse things.
• If you play on one screen, a television of 40 inches or more makes a real difference. On a small screen, each half gets cramped.
• Plan sessions of about 60 to 90 minutes. Chapters break into natural stopping points, and we found longer sessions led to more arguing over platforming.
• Do not skip the mini games. They are some of the funniest parts and let you compete for a change.

If you finish and want more puzzles built for two, Portal 2 co-op is the natural next step, and it asks for the same constant talking.

Where it slips

The story is the weakest part. Cody and May are not very likeable for the first few hours, and Dr. Hakim can be grating. The ending wraps things up a little too neatly for a story that opened with a divorce. Some platforming sections also run long, and the camera occasionally fights you in tight spaces. None of this ruined it for us, but it is not a perfect game, and I would not trust a review that said it was.

Who it is for

Couples, siblings or close friends who can sit together for a couple of hours at a time and who are at roughly the same comfort level with a controller. Anyone who has ever wished a co-op game made the second player matter as much as the first.

Who should skip it

Solo players, since there is no way to play alone. Anyone hoping to teach a total beginner to game, at least as a first step. And players who want competitive multiplayer, because aside from the mini games, you are always on the same side, and that is exactly how it is meant to be.