Can two people who can’t stop fighting fall back in love? Is it possible to avoid divorce and salvage broken relationships? It Takes Two aims to tackle these questions in a lighthearted and fun co-op game. Hazelight Studios has been in the realm of co-op games since Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and A Way Out. They’ve refined all the elements of their previous games, which results in an emotionally engaging action adventure co-op. It Takes Two completely revolves around two players; there is no option to play the game by yourself. You have to either play local or online co-op. If you choose to play online co-op, Electronic Arts has given you (or your friends) a cheap option to play; as long as one person owns the game, the other person is eligible to download a copy of the game (called the “friend’s pass”) and play with you at no charge. You must be on the same platform (ie both on Xbox, both on PS5, etc), but only one person has to purchase the game for both of you to play. I chose to play through the game with one of my friends who lives overseas, and the experience was seamless. We are almost 6,000 miles away from each other, and we never encountered any lag; the game involves lots of timed events (as discussed below), and we could perform all of these without any issues.
It Takes Two tells the story of a husband and wife who have marital issues. The game starts with Cody and May arguing in their front yard as their 9-year-old daughter Rose watches from the house. She has two dolls of her parents, one made out of clay and the other out of wood. Distraught that her parents are “always arguing,” she devises a plan to get her parents back; Rose finds a “Book of Love” written by the fictional Dr. Hakim. As her parents start to explain the divorce to her, she goes upstairs to her room and cries. She clutches the book and wishes that her parents could be friends again. Suddenly, her parents fall asleep, and they get mystically transported to the dolls that Rose has. In their doll forms, most of the world around them seems to come to life; the “Book of Love,” their vacuum cleaner, and a plethora of other household items are now their greatest help or greatest enemies. May and Cody, already upset with each other, now have to find a way to get back to their human forms so they can take care of Rose. Along the way, we watch as their broken relationship is either shattered or mended.
It Takes Two is a puzzle game as much as a story; the whole game revolves around working together to escape various areas as the protagonists are attempting to get back to their daughter Rose. The game is played with a keyboard and mouse, or a controller. My friend and I chose to play the game with Xbox controllers, and the controls are very simple. In the first area of the game, on-screen prompts guide you along and describe what each button on your controller does. I found each action that I needed to perform to be intuitive and fluid; it did not feel like learning how to play a new game, but merely picking up an older game that hadn’t been played in a while. Each area you have to traverse involves puzzles that both players work on completing. There are simple switches that both players need to pull the lever for, to complicated puzzles where one player must direct the other player what to do based on what they control. For example, one person has controls for platforms used to get across a ravine, and the other player must time their jumps properly so they don’t fall to their doom. My internet is not always reliable, but this game didn’t seem to mind; I was never disconnected, and my friend and I never missed a timed event due to lag. Everything worked as it was supposed to, and it made me feel like I was playing local co-op even though we are nearly opposite of the globe to each other.

One of the most intriguing elements of It Takes Two is the environments you go through. You travel through various areas in Rose and Cody’s house, including their basement, music room, Rose’s bedroom, and Cody’s garden. All the areas are very detailed, and have a personal meaning to each person in the game; we learn that Rose is an engineer who brings home the money, while Cody is a stay-at-home dad who loves gardening. In each environment, the antagonists are crafted out of May and Cody’s household items: you end up fighting a vacuum cleaner, stuffed animal, and various other things found around the house. The areas generally consist of linear puzzles until you reach a boss. Boss fights are usually pretty easy once you get the hang of them, but require well-timed cooperation for each attack. Each environment you travel through consists of different mechanics and playstyles; there is never a puzzle that is repeated, and many different game modes are combined in this game. Some areas feature 2D platforming sections like Mario, while others are top-down, like Baldur’s Gate 3. Most of the game will play in the third-person, but none of it becomes boring because there is always a fresh environment or new style of gameplay to try out.
The graphics are very playful, and not too demanding. There are occasional areas that will dip your frame rate, but those are few and far between. The voice acting is stellar, and the game never crashed on me. I felt the story could have wrapped up quicker, but the variety of areas doesn’t make it feel like it drags on too long. My only complaint is that shadows and lighting could be more detailed, but that’s a small concern for a game that is focused on storytelling.

Unfortunately, this game’s primary moral concern is language. Language is not pervasive, but d**m is used and is paired with God’s name in vain. S**t, a**, and h*ll are also used infrequently but are present from the beginning to the end of the game. There is also one section that involves an “easter egg” with bleeped f-words, but I did not personally encounter this area. Violence is very fantastical, but could still upset younger viewers. Cody and May are required to destroy some of the household items; in one scenario they suck out a vacuum cleaner’s eyes, and in another, they tear apart a stuffed animal as it pleads for its life in a child-like voice. If you injure the protagonists, they will disappear into pixels with no blood involved. There is no gore or blood involved, but fantastical characters will scream in pain as they are destroyed for your progression in the story. In one area you are required to kill a plant, and “plant goop” is spilled as you do damage; this may count as blood, but I found it rather whimsical.
Sexual content is kept to a minimum; the “Book of Love” will dance and gyrate his hips suggestively, but that is about it. Heterosexual kissing is present between married characters. There are no sexual jokes in the game and no discussions about sex. Spiritual content is also relatively mild; it’s never revealed how Cody and May get transformed into dolls, but there is some unexplained magic behind it. In one area you fight “devils” in a heaven-like area. Cody is a wizard for one level, and casting spells are part of his attacks. It may be morally conflicting for some people that characters are required to injure/kill their household objects that are brought to life. Throughout the story, Cody and May talk about their disagreements with each other; in the beginning, it is more negative, but towards the end, the discussions become more positive.
I found It Takes Two to be a very enjoyable game; between the required co-op and emotional story, there is not much to complain about. The ending is not as satisfying as I’d hoped it would be, but there’s not much I can give away without spoiling it. The graphics are simple, but the textures are crisp and detailed. I found all the moral content relatively mild; the most concerning thing to me is the harsh language in an otherwise lighthearted game. It’s also worth noting that divorce gets discussed a lot, which could be a disturbing topic for some people. I cannot think of any other games that I have played that are similar to It Takes Two; it’s a very unique game that combines various types of gameplay. Will this game solve any relationship issues you are facing? Can you truly fix a relationship lost in arguments and fighting? It Takes Two doesn’t necessarily answer these questions, but instead asks you how much more we can accomplish when working together. And I think that’s something we all need to learn.