The game “It Takes Two” is played exclusively for two and that’s good!

From its origins, and the forerunner Pong, the video game was played two, one against the other, one with the other, until the advent of the cooperative, the multiplayer, the MMORPG… But there are not two games like
It Takes Two, the new creation of Josef Fares and his studio Hazelight, available since Friday on PlayStation, Xbox One / Series and PC.

“There are plenty of co-op games,” says the Lebanese-Swedish director. But we’re the only ones doing them that way, although I want other studios to do it. The game is designed to be played in pairs, it cannot be done solo, and that impacts the whole process: the design, the gameplay, the challenges, and of course the story. Because it is above all about offering a narrative experience, an emotional journey to the players. “

Save a couple from divorce

Already with Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons in 2013, Josef Fares thwarted the usual gameplays and asked the player to control two brothers with the two sticks of the controller, and therefore the two hemispheres of his brain. A “cooperation” that he revisited and reinvented in
A Way Out in 2018, the escape of two prisoners and two players. It Takes Two uses this same concept, this time, to save a couple from divorce. You read correctly. Cody and May, a couple in crisis, announce their separation to their daughter Rose, who, in reaction, casts a spell on them. Here they are transformed into little dolls, forced to cooperate to survive in a fantastic world, in fact their home, their memories… and thus save their relationship?

A story to live together

The couple of players choose which characters they want to control, characters with different personalities, abilities, dynamics. Be careful, if the game is played in pairs, split screen, no need to buy it twice, the Friend Pass allows you to invite a woman, a neighbor, a friend or a child to play. “Yes, it is about characters on the verge of divorce, but that’s not the heart of the game, says Josef Fares. It’s more the fact that they have to collaborate that is interesting, to take characters and ask why they are doing this, where they are going. Writing a story, a real story, to live together, is the most difficult. Because often, together, you are less interested in history, you miss things. “

The meeting of Pixar and Nintendo

Yes It Takes Two evokes the adventures of a Honey I shrunk the kids, the designer admits not having thought of it, even if the reference often comes to his ears, and prefers to cite the Pixar films as an absolute influence on the universe, the tone and a real intelligence in the situations, the dialogues and the emotions. “The other source of inspiration,” he adds, “is our love for video games, and more specifically for Nintendo games. This way they think about games, without tutorial, always accessible, both very simple and very fun. We really wanted the game to be natural, because the mechanics can change from level to level, but you feel like it’s still the same game, the same spirit. “

Josef Fares, himself a character in his own right, likes to recall that this multiplicity and this duality of the gameplays allowed the teams of Hazelight Studios to explore lots of wacky and unpredictable ideas, and to push the limits in terms of creativity. It’s hard not to prove him right in front of the ingenuity of certain levels and mini-games, where cooperation is never a pretext, always justified, magnified. “Our games are a bit crazy, but in a good way. “A sweet madness to share side by side on the same sofa,” it’s the best way to play “comments the creator, or online:” the experience is very close if you talk to each other, if you maintain contact , whether it’s with your girlfriend, a buddy or a stranger. It’s all about communication ”.