It Takes Two makes cooperation necessary | Why I Love
Leo Fernndez Infante
Thursday 23rd June 2022
Why I Love is a series of guest editorials on GamesIndustry.biz intended to showcase the ways in which game developers appreciate each other's work. This entry was contributed by Leo Fernández Infante, producer and programmer at Retro Forge, which launched the 2D Metroidvania game Souldiers on PC and consoles earlier this month.
It Takes Two is one of those games that stays with you long after you've played it. Developer Hazelight Studios (A Way Out) crafted an outstanding production all around with their excellent mechanics, elaborate scenarios, beautiful graphics, and neat puzzles. It's a surefire 10 out of 10 in the "video game development good practices manual" and well deserving of the Game of the Year awards it racked up. But, for me, what's really great about the game is that it uses its mandatory two-player mechanics to tell a story in a way that couldn't be achieved through more traditional single-player means.
But first, a bit of context. The game puts us in the shoes of Cody and May, a married couple who have recently decided to get a divorce. When they tell their daughter, little Rose, she storms off to their shed. There, sheltered under a table, she makes an innocent wish to the old "Dr. Hakim's Book of Love": that her parents get along again. As she does so, her tears fall over two dolls representing her parents. And voilà! Suddenly we're playing as Cody and May, now embodying tiny dolls of wood and clay, unknowingly on a journey that could save their marriage. Along the way they'll be helped by the book itself, as a rather annoying NPC.
It Takes Two shows players the world from a different perspective
During the seven chapters of this odyssey where Cody and May seek
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