Info about It Takes Two:

Official game description:
Embark on the craziest journey of your life in It Takes Two, a genre-bending platform adventure created purely for co-op. Invite a friend to join for free with Friend’s Pass and work together across a huge variety of gleefully disruptive gameplay challenges. Play as the clashing couple Cody and May, two humans turned into dolls by a magic spell. Together, trapped in a fantastical world where the unpredictable hides around every corner, they are reluctantly challenged with saving their fractured relationship.  
Master unique and connected character abilities in every new level. Help each other across an abundance of unexpected obstacles and laugh-out-loud moments. Kick gangster squirrels’ furry tails, pilot a pair of underpants, DJ a buzzing night club, and bobsleigh through a magical snow globe. Embrace a heartfelt and hilarious story where narrative and gameplay weave into a uniquely metaphorical experience.  
It Takes Two is developed by the award-winning studio Hazelight, the industry leader of cooperative play. They’re about to take you on a wild and wondrous ride where only one thing is for certain: we’re better together.
**KEY FEATURES**
----------------
*   **Pure co-op perfection** — Invite a friend to join for free with Remote Play Together\*\*, and experience a thrilling adventure built purely for two. Choose from couch or online co-op with split-screen play, and face ever-changing challenges where working together is the only way forward.  
*   **Gleefully disruptive gameplay** — From rampaging vacuum cleaners to suave love gurus, you never know what you’ll be up against next. Filled with genre-bending challenges and new character abilities to master in every level, experience a metaphorical merging of gameplay and narrative that pushes the boundaries of interactive storytelling.  
*   **A universal tale of relationships** — Discover a touching and heartfelt story of the challenges in getting along. Help Cody and May learn how to overcome their differences. Meet a diverse cast of strange and endearing characters. Join forces and go on an adventure you’ll treasure — together!
**ABOUT HAZELIGHT**
-------------------
Hazelight is an award-winning independent game development studio based in Stockholm, Sweden. Founded in 2014 by Josef Fares (film director and creator of the award-winning game Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons), Hazelight is committed to pushing the creative boundaries of what is possible in games. In 2018, Hazelight released the BAFTA award-winning A Way Out — the first-ever co-op only, third-person action-adventure — as part of the EA Originals program.
**ABOUT EA ORIGINALS**
----------------------
EA Originals helps shine a light on some of the most passionate, independent, and talented game studios across the globe. Discover innovative and unforgettable gaming experiences from highly creative game makers who love to enchant and inspire.

Release date: Mar 25, 2021

Categories: Cooperative Multiplayer, 3D Platformer, Puzzle Solving, Mini-game Collection, Narrative Adventure, Action-adventure


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Dynamic & Varied Gameplay Mechanics (weight 0.99): Players highly appreciate the game's relentless creativity, with each chapter introducing entirely new mechanics, abilities, and even mini-genres. This constant variation ensures the experience remains fresh, engaging, and never repetitive throughout its duration, offering immense replayability.
- Masterful Cooperative Gameplay (weight 0.57): The game is universally praised as a pinnacle of cooperative design, uniquely built around mandatory teamwork that requires constant communication and synchronized actions to progress. It is frequently cited as one of the best co-op games ever, perfect for couples, friends, and families.
- Highly Accessible & Socially Engaging (weight 0.44): Praised for its accessibility, including a 'Friend's Pass' and moderate difficulty, the game is ideal for introducing non-gamers to the hobby and for shared experiences. It's frequently recommended for playing with friends, partners, children, or family, fostering bonding and creating lasting memories.
- Heartfelt & Relatable Narrative (weight 0.43): The narrative delves into themes of relationships, communication, and personal growth, often resonating deeply with players, particularly couples or families. It effectively blends humor, drama, and heartfelt moments, making the story both thought-provoking and touching.
- Vibrant & Imaginative Visuals (weight 0.27): Players consistently commend the game's stunning and imaginative art style, vibrant graphics, and meticulously designed environments, often compared to Pixar animations. Each distinct world is visually rich, creating a magical and engaging atmosphere that enhances the gameplay experience.
- Abundant & Engaging Mini-Games (weight 0.22): The game offers a rich collection of competitive and interactive mini-games scattered throughout its levels. These diversions provide fun breaks from the main story, encourage playful rivalries, and add significant value and replayability to the overall experience.
- Polished Technical Performance (weight 0.14): The game receives high marks for its excellent optimization, running smoothly with stable frame rates even on older hardware, and being largely bug-free. This technical stability contributes to a seamless and highly enjoyable gaming experience.
- Immersive & Emotional Soundtrack (weight 0.09): The game's soundtrack and overall sound design are highly praised for their quality, perfectly complementing the game's atmosphere and enhancing emotional moments. The music dynamically adapts to gameplay, deepening player immersion and connection to the story.
- Responsive Controls & Satisfying Platforming (weight 0.09): Reviewers appreciate the game's smooth, responsive, and intuitive controls, which make character movement and platforming enjoyable and precise. This technical refinement contributes to an overall fluid and engaging gameplay flow.

Common complaints:
- Uneven difficulty, partner-dependent. (weight 0.18): The game's difficulty is inconsistent, sometimes too hard for casual or new players, and sometimes boringly easy for experienced ones. The co-op experience is heavily reliant on a partner's skill, leading to frustration or boredom if skill levels differ significantly.
- Disturbing elephant scene impacts players. (weight 0.15): The elephant scene is a major source of negative feedback, described as emotionally brutal, traumatizing, and unnecessarily cruel. This jarring tonal shift led many players to lose enjoyment, question the developers' choices, and even quit the game.
- Frequent bugs and save issues. (weight 0.12): Players frequently encountered critical bugs, including game crashes that often resulted in significant loss of progress due to unreliable or infrequent save points. Other technical glitches, like control issues and poor optimization, also detracted from the experience.
- Mandatory co-op limits accessibility. (weight 0.08): The strict requirement for two players and the absence of a solo mode make the game inaccessible or difficult for many without a readily available and consistent gaming partner. This design choice often means the game goes unplayed or becomes a frustrating experience for "lone wolf" players.
- Game strains real-life relationships. (weight 0.07): The game's demanding co-op, combined with its relationship-themed narrative, often led to arguments or stress between co-op partners. Many players humorously (or seriously) referred to it as a "breakup simulator" due to coordination challenges and differing skill levels.
- Annoying tutorial and NPC characters. (weight 0.05): Many players found specific non-player characters, particularly the "Book of Love" (Dr. Hakim) and the general "Book" character, to be annoying, preachy, cringeworthy, and overly intrusive. Their constant dialogue and personality negatively impacted player immersion and enjoyment.
- Disorienting split-screen experience. (weight 0.03): The persistent split-screen, even during online play, was frequently cited as disorienting and frustrating. It often made it difficult for players to follow their own character, read subtitles, or fully appreciate the game's visual design.
- Inconsistent boss battle quality. (weight 0.03): Boss encounters received mixed feedback, ranging from being overly difficult and frustrating for some, especially less skilled players, to being too easy and lacking impact later in the game. This inconsistency detracted from the overall challenge and reward of these key segments.

Gameplay feedback:
- Mandatory Two-Player Co-op (weight 0.32): The game is exclusively designed for two players, requiring constant cooperation, communication, and mutual reliance to solve puzzles and progress. It cannot be played alone, and the experience is highly dependent on the dynamic with your partner, potentially testing or strengthening relationships.
- Narrative of Relationship Repair (weight 0.13): The core story follows Cody and May, a divorcing couple magically transformed into dolls, who must cooperate to navigate a fantastical world and mend their fractured relationship. The narrative explores universal themes of communication, trust, and responsibility within a marital context.
- Accessible Difficulty with Skill Tests (weight 0.1): The game is generally easy to learn and accessible to casual players or those new to gaming, with a smoothly increasing difficulty curve. However, some sections demand operational skill, dexterity, clever timing, and patience, leading to varied experiences depending on player expertise and coordination.
- Moderate Playtime, Limited Replay (weight 0.1): The main story typically takes 10-18 hours to complete. While some players find replayability in experiencing the other character's perspective or revisiting mini-games, it is largely considered a one-time, immersive co-op adventure. Achievements often involve discovering secrets and optional mini-games.
- Free Friend's Pass Inclusion (weight 0.03): The game includes a 'Friend's Pass' system, allowing only one player to purchase the game, while a friend can download a free version to join online or locally. This feature significantly lowers the barrier to entry for cooperative play.

Performance notes:
- Occasional performance hiccups (weight 0.11): Despite overall good optimization, some users experienced stuttering during transitions, frame drops on less powerful hardware (especially when loading dual locations), or hardware running hot. While present, these issues are generally reported as rare or temporary.
- Wide PC hardware compatibility (weight 0.07): Many players report the game runs surprisingly well across a broad spectrum of PC hardware, including older machines, integrated graphics, and thin/light laptops. It is also fully compatible with Steam Deck, offering good portable performance and battery life.
- Online co-op requires stable network (weight 0.03): Online co-op functionality is highly dependent on a stable internet connection for both players. Some users reported frequent disconnections and FPS hiccups related to network instability, particularly on specific maps or due to potential EA server issues.
- Controller preferred with minor issues (weight 0.02): The game seems optimized for console-style play, with controllers generally recommended for a better experience over keyboard and mouse. However, some players noted weak controller vibration feedback and limited graphics customization options.
- Critical launch/save issues for some (weight 0.01): A notable subset of players encountered severe problems such as the game failing to launch, frequent crashes upon opening, or even save file loss. These issues significantly impact the ability to play for affected users.
- EA launcher integration issues (weight 0.01): Some players experienced problems related to the EA launcher, such as errors popping up or mandatory updates causing delays before playing the game. This points to external platform friction rather than core game issues.

Recommendations:
- Designed for Two-Player Relationships (weight 0.36): The game is universally praised and recommended for cooperative play, specifically with a partner, friend, or family member. It's highlighted as an excellent experience for strengthening bonds and creating shared memories, though some humorously note it can also test relationships. It is not intended for solo play.
- Strong Buy Recommendation (weight 0.21): The game receives overwhelming general recommendations as a 'must-play' and 'must-buy.' Many reviewers affirm its worth, frequently suggesting it's an excellent purchase, particularly when available on sale.
- Niche Negative Feedback & Cautions (weight 0.05): Based on limited feedback, a minority of players expressed caveats, mentioning occasional crashes, the plot being 'banal or predictable,' or the second half feeling like a 'slog.' The game is not recommended for solo play or those seeking deep narratives, and some very niche feedback suggested specific partner types to avoid.
- Optimal Play Conditions & Temperament (weight 0.04): For the best experience, players recommend playing locally on a large TV with gamepads. They also advise that both players have a good temper, patience, and some gaming skill, as the cooperative challenges can be intense and engaging. The game's high quality might make it a difficult 'first co-op game'.

Other player notes:
- Co-op gameplay deeply impacts relationships (weight 0.15): The game is lauded for its unique co-op experience, often played with significant others or family. It significantly tests and can strengthen communication and teamwork in relationships, with the co-player being the most crucial element for the experience. Some reviews humorously warn of potential relationship stress.
- Good value, often bought on sale (weight 0.06): Many players found the game to be a good value for its price, especially when purchased during sales. Discounts were a common factor influencing purchase decisions, with some feeling the full price was also fair.
- Solid 10-15 hour experience (weight 0.06): The main storyline typically offers a satisfying 10 to 15 hours of gameplay, though some players invest more time for exploration or additional playthroughs. While replayability is considered moderate, the unique first-time co-op journey is a significant draw.
- Players seek more from developer (weight 0.05): Players are highly engaged, with many completing achievements or replaying the game. There is significant anticipation for sequels or future games from the developer, and a desire for similar innovative co-op experiences.
- Friend's Pass highly valued (weight 0.02): The 'Friend's Pass' feature is a major highlight, allowing one player to buy the game and invite another to play for free. This significantly enhances accessibility and makes playing with a partner much easier.
- Director's unique vision (weight 0.01): Josef Fares, the game's director, is recognized for his distinctive creative approach, drawing from his film background and experience with previous co-op titles. His unique vision is a notable aspect for many players.
- No DLC or grinding (weight 0.01): The game is noted for its focus on a self-contained story experience, without additional DLC or any grinding mechanics. This allows players to fully immerse themselves in the co-op narrative without extra commitments.
- Hidden ending concept suggested (weight 0.01): Some reviewers pondered the impact of a potential hidden ending that could have provided a deeper resolution or highlighted character flaws, suggesting a desire for more nuanced narrative conclusions.

Emotions:
- Satisfaction (weight 0.27): Players felt satisfied primarily due to the game's high overall quality, encompassing engaging and varied gameplay, creative design, and excellent technical performance. The deeply rewarding cooperative experience, often shared with loved ones, coupled with an immersive story and strong visual/audio design, significantly contributed to this positive emotion, often seen as great value for money.
- Joy (weight 0.21): Joy stemmed from the game's fun and accessible cooperative gameplay, frequently shared with friends, family, or partners, leading to laughter and bonding. Players enjoyed the varied mini-games, humorous elements, and the positive atmosphere, finding the experience engaging for both seasoned gamers and novices.
- Excitement (weight 0.09): Excitement was driven by the game's constant creativity, innovation, and diverse gameplay mechanics that offered new experiences in every chapter. The engaging story, coupled with breathtaking graphics and the anticipation of new challenges, made for an exhilarating and dynamic adventure.
- Frustration (weight 0.06): Frustration arose from technical issues such as game-breaking bugs, crashes, and server disconnections, as well as unresponsive or difficult controls. Players also experienced frustration due to mandatory co-op limitations like finding a suitable partner, dealing with skill disparities, and annoyance with certain narrative elements or characters.
- Admiration (weight 0.05): Admiration was a response to the game's profound creativity and innovative design, especially its unique cooperative mechanics and clever level design. Players lauded the stunning visual and audio presentation, emotional depth, and the overall high production quality, recognizing the developers' talent and effort, particularly with features like the Friend Pass.
- Disappointment (weight 0.04): Disappointment largely stemmed from technical issues such as game-breaking bugs or poor performance, and perceived flaws in the story, character development, or narrative choices (e.g., the elephant scene). Players also felt disappointed by the game's short length, lack of solo play options, and limitations like the absence of crossplay or family sharing, or not meeting high expectations.
- Amusement (weight 0.03): Amusement often came from the humorous dynamics and playful arguments arising during cooperative gameplay, especially when playing with friends or partners. Players found humor in quirky characters like Dr. Hakim, unexpected bugs, and the game's satirical take on relationship challenges.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.03): Players enjoyed the game for its overall fun and engaging cooperative experience, featuring interesting puzzles, diverse gameplay, and a captivating story. The game's accessibility and suitability for playing with friends, family, or partners contributed significantly to a generally positive and entertaining playtime.
- Appreciation (weight 0.03): Appreciation focused on the game's innovative co-op mechanics and its profound positive impact on relationships, fostering teamwork and connection among players. The developers' creativity, thoughtful design (including the Friend Pass), engaging story, and overall high quality were highly valued.
- Engagement (weight 0.02): Engagement was driven by the game's challenging cooperative gameplay, which demanded teamwork, communication, and problem-solving, making players feel deeply absorbed. The compelling story, constantly fresh mechanics, and immersive world contributed to a highly engrossing experience where time seemed to fly by.
- Surprise (weight 0.01): Players were surprised by the game's constant novelty, with new locations, unique mechanics, and unexpected gameplay solutions introduced regularly. The game often exceeded initial expectations, offering unexpected emotional depth, clever design, and a magical, imaginative experience.
- Anger (weight 0.01): Anger was primarily triggered by controversial or disturbing narrative choices, most notably the elephant scene, which many found cruel or psychotic. Significant technical issues like persistent crashes and server instability, or perceived developer incompetence in optimization and game design, also fueled this strong negative emotion.
- Enthusiasm (weight 0.01): Enthusiasm manifested as strong recommendations for the game, often calling it a "must-play" or "masterpiece" of co-op gaming. Players were highly positive about the entire experience, recognizing its exceptional quality, emotional impact, and innovative design, often anticipating future works from the developers.
- Humor (weight 0.01): Humor was derived from the game's ability to create lighthearted, often sarcastic, observations about relationship dynamics and co-op struggles. Reviewers found amusement in quirky character interactions, the absurdity of certain situations, and the playful teasing or arguments that arose during shared gameplay.
- Connection (weight 0.01): Connection was fostered by the game's collaborative gameplay and its exploration of relationship themes, which helped players strengthen bonds with partners, family, and friends. The shared emotional journey and mutual understanding built through overcoming challenges together significantly contributed to this sense of closeness.
- Challenge (weight 0.01): Challenge stemmed from the high demands for cooperation, synchronicity, and effective communication required to progress through the game's difficult levels and boss fights. Players found the game tested their patience and tacit understanding with their partners, making for a mentally stimulating and sometimes demanding experience.
- Nostalgia (weight 0.01): Nostalgia was evoked by the game's cooperative experience, which reminded players of classic two-player games from their childhood. Reviewers often reminisced about fond memories of shared gaming experiences with family or friends, or found specific game elements reminiscent of beloved past titles.
- Hope (weight 0.01): Hope emerged from the game's potential to improve real-life relationships, inspire reconciliation, or introduce non-gamers to the hobby. Players also expressed hope for the future quality of video games, anticipating more innovative titles from the developers, or wishing for easier game modes to broaden accessibility.
- Thoughtfulness (weight 0.01): Thoughtfulness was prompted by the game's deep exploration of relationship themes, communication deficits, and personal growth, encouraging players to reflect on their own partnerships. The narrative's philosophical depth and the game's capacity to evoke strong emotions led to detailed evaluations and introspection.
- Amazement (weight 0.01): Amazement arose from the game's unparalleled creativity, the deep integration of co-op mechanisms, and the breathtaking visual design and attention to detail. Players were stunned by the incredible variety of gameplay mechanics, the magical journey, and the overall 'masterpiece' quality, often considering it the best co-op game ever.}