It Takes Two review for PS4/PS5, Xbox One/Series X

Here?s how good It Takes Two is: my wife wanted to play it with me.

Understand, that?s saying quite a bit. She?s seldom ever had much interest in video games. She doesn?t hate them or anything, and there have been a couple of exceptions through the years — Wii Sports, the Jackbox Party Packs, Wheel of Fortune — but generally speaking, she just doesn?t care all that much about them one way or another. So for her to actually proactively ask to play a game should tell you a lot about its quality — not to mention how it?s meant to be played.

I suspect that our situation isn?t all that unique. It Takes Two, after all, is designed to be a co-op game. In fact, you absolutely need two people to play it — no AI partners here. Further, pretty much every step of the game requires that you and your partner work together to move on, since you come across two-person puzzles almost literally everywhere. You could try and dash up ahead if you feel like going on without them, but you?d very quickly run up against something that requires your partner.

I?ll note, of course, that the puzzles are rarely very difficult. The same goes for the boss fights and other challenges scattered throughout the game. But if they were, that would defeat the purpose — It Takes Two is meant to be played with others, and it seems pretty apparent that the developers intended for those others to be people with less gaming experience.

I?m not sure if I?m reading too much into it, but I will note that, on top of the easy-ish puzzles, It Takes Two is also more story- and character-focused than many other games. I vaguely recall the game being described as a romantic comedy when it was first unveiled, and you can see that a lot of care was put into making sure the game flows not just in how it?s played, but in how the plot plays out. I?ll also note that the two main characters, May and Cody, are fully fleshed-out, which helps in terms of engaging people who may not be otherwise interested in games.

Though maybe that?s just me projecting from my own experience. However you want to look at it, though, between its solid story and its just-the-right-difficulty puzzles, It Takes Two is a perfect game if you?re looking for something that will interest non-gamer.

Electronic Arts provided us with a It Takes Two PS4/PS5 code for review purposes.