I recall a day when the idea of playing anything online was merely a pipe dream. The global internet infrastructure simply couldn't perform transmissions of this sort and in the early days of online gaming, it would be more frustrating than anything else about how much things could go wrong. Because of this LAN parties were still very popular and local co-op games were still all the rage.
Since I don't really enjoy playing online multiplayer with strangers I rarely engage in any sort of online multiplayer.
Local Co-op games aren't often made anymore and I can understand why. Gaming used to be a social thing but now it rarely is and by social I mean with people that are physically in the same room as you.
It Takes 2 kind of requires that two people be in the same room and this sort of game is very rare indeed today.
This game is definitely not difficult. In fact, you have to work pretty hard to lose. In most situations, even boss fights, the system is rigged so that you will eventually win even if you are doing most of it wrong.
For the casual gamer, this is pretty damn perfect and it would be a great game for parents to bond with their kids.
I don't know how far through the game we are right now, but I think we are about 70% of the way through. We are in a section called "Emily's Room" and we have to make our way through a castle that is made of children's toys. This is always something that appeals to me.
There isn't much indication of what you need to do but you have to get the toy train moving forward somehow. The puzzle isn't that difficult because it is pretty clear that you have to find some wooden figures to put into the spots on the board so that the train can carry on past the gate.
It can be a little bit frustrating figuring out which figurine is supposed to go where but you just keep swapping them out until you accidentally get it right and then the little train gets to carry on forward.
At least in my mind the graphics are pretty impressive as you speed through on the tracks but once again we are in a situation where you can't really do it wrong. It will let you through unless you simply didn't hit any buttons at all.
This appeals a great deal to me, a casual gamer, and my GF, who doesn't really game at all. The buttons you need to hit are normally displayed on screen and that is a great little reminder. I'm happy that they did this for people like me and her who are not going to memorize a bunch of buttons and have regular lives with jobs and what not so we can't be asked to remember 20 different buttons.
One of the puzzles that follows is one of the best aspects of this game. I was controlling a giant dinosaur crane sort of thing, any my lady had to run down the tracks to get to some sort of switch at the end. We found out what not to do by doing most of everything wrong at least once. But eventually, we did get to the end of it all because like I said, this is not designed to actually make you think a great deal. I believe this game is specifically designed for people who don't normally play games and that is just fine by me. If it was any more complicated than it is, my girl wouldn't want to play it at all.
Eventually she got to a stone or something that fell on the head of this sleeping turtle guy who then opened his mouth and allowed us to proceed forward to the next area.
it's visually appealing, the sound is pretty great, the controls are tight and easy to understand, and the best part is that you are sitting in a room with a person you hopefully like and you are laughing and working as a team to get things done. There really isn't much reason for anyone to get upset or start shouting "git gud" because this is a very casual and very fun game.
The title of this blog is "Local Co-op is dead" and I really believe that to be true. But the company such as Hazelight Studios that made this game and at least one other that functions similarly to it, have done very well for themselves. This game quickly gained in popularity when it was released and has gone on to sell 20 million copies globally.
I like to see things like this happen because I am not really all that pleased with everything being an online FPS war sort of game that functions very much like an MMO complete with a toxic fanbase who will not tolerate anyone who isn't exactly the best at everything.
In this game, I have zero expectations of my far less experienced girlfriend and we laugh and enjoy playing it would ever getting all that worked up about a "death" which is seriously temporary anyway.
it's also just really nice looking
There aren't many games made in this genre anymore and that's a shame to me. But at the same time if it was super popular, most of the games would end up being not that great or some features would be locked behind paywalls and DLC, which is one of the more irritating aspects of modern gaming IMO.
If you haven't play It Takes Two I highly recommend it. Me and my girl play it almost every time she comes over and we almost always end up staying up a lot later than we probably should because it is so engaging.
All non-credited images are from my own gameplay
