Written by Sifan, 2021 Cohort
This week on Bootcamp we talked about everyone’s favorite game and analyzed its help section on Steam Games. This got me thinking about my most recent favourite game, It takes two. Today we’re going to talk about the game and its reviews in China.
Intuitively, It takes two has 7 chapters, but the best part is that It doesn’t go for the so-called “holistic” approach, but rather each chapter has its unique gameplay. Two players will control two characters with corresponding abilities. And it even is a mix of platform jumping, decryption, audio games, real-time RPG, action games, TPS, and even tower defence elements.
In other words, even though this game only seems to have a 13-18 hour process, the gameplay is pretty rich. Each type of game has its mechanics, and “It takes two” is certainly a bit of a “waste” of choice. When the player has passed the chapter, it just throws away the gameplay. No doubt, the experience is wonderful.
Moreover, even a Chinese game blogger with a lot of experience has published this comment:
“It takes two is a game that my classmates and I played during the holidays. And I liked it too much. It is not an uninteresting puzzle game that is easy to pass. My friend and I had a rich experience in the game, but it still took a long time to think about some of its chapters.”
As you can see, “It takes two” brings enough surprise even for senior gamers.
And many people say that the story falls a little bit flat. But I instead think that it completes the evolution of the narrative story. It takes two switches frames for the sake of gameplay, which is inevitable. But when we see the two arguing after the screen split, we can feel the co-op argumentative fun by design. And when the two of them overcome the level together, when the picture is blended into one, we can also see the two hearts together again. Although this design idea seems to be justified, it does bring a little personal touch to the player. According to several couples players I interviewed, they all mentioned an instant empathy felt in the game.
Many people resist the game and say “it would be nice if this game could be single-player”, but unfortunately, the “main point” is to cooperate. I hope more people can experience it to the fullest.