PS5 It Takes Two

[DisturbedSwan]

Started this over the weekend with the fiancée. I think we're about 4 hours in and just hit Chapter 3. 

 

It's a colourful co-op platformer, you play as either Cody or May, a divorcing couple who aren't happy with their lot in life. They have a kid called Rose, who is unsurprisingly sad about their nuptial break, from her sadness her parents' personas get morphed into tiny clay and wooden mini-caricatures (which you play as). You then meet a strange love book called Dr. Hakim who throughout the course of the game tries to mend your broken relationship. All the environments are very homey, you start off in a shed, then explore the exterior and interior of a tree before making it into the house and experiencing some kind of strange pillow fort (which is where we are at the moment). These environments are punctuated by strange and eccentric characters like the aforementioned Dr. Hakim along with militarised Squirrels, Wasps, Beetles and Bumblebees which aren't too dissimilar to Conker's Bad Fur Day. The homey environments are reminiscent to Toy Story too (there's even a reference at one point). 

 

I like it so far but it hasn't blown my socks off it's fair to say, I wouldn't say it has started off as strongly as A Way Out did either. It is good though, and can be a lot of fun, I was just expecting to be more impressed at this point than I am. 

 

During the first chapter, it was a fairly rudimentary platformer with some cliched co-op elements (pull a level to open a door then your partner crawls through etc.), after that things have gotten a little better luckily with different weapons and tools introduced. Each chapter seems to give you some kind of unique tools or weapons which work in combination with your partners, during the first chapter I (Cody) was given a Nail Gun and the missus (May) was given a Hammer. You use the nail gun to shoot into yellow coloured bits of board so May can then swing off them to get to otherwise unreachable areas. The second chapter gave me a nectar gun, you shoot the nectar onto surfaces and your partner can then shoot it with her rifle to make it explode, reaching previously unreachable areas. These mechanics are all used in puzzles and during the second chapter there is quite a lot of combat as well, with me shooting the enemy Wasps with nectar and Char then exploding them into little Wasp pieces with her rifle. 

 

The second chapter is far better than the first and features quite a few set pieces, one where I had to control a plane and Char was in charge of the gun, having to shoot approaching enemies from the front and rear, along with clearing obstacles in our path. There was another set piece where I had to control a rudimentary boat and Char had to clear the way again with her rifle as I navigated down the river. The coolest one by far though is when I was flying the plane and Char had to fight an enemy on the top of it fighting game style, replete with fighting game style health bars and attacks, a really great moment. 

 

I wasn't too hot on it in the beginning and a little bored but the second chapter has turned me around on the game already and if it keeps on going like this it will only get better, can't wait to see what's in store for us next time.

 

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[DisturbedSwan]

We're now about 13 hours into this on Chapter 5. 

 

Both of us are just a little bored with it now unfortunately and just want it to end. It's just way too long compared to Fares' previous games (believe A Way out was 8 hours, Brothers about 4-6 hours) and has already outstayed its welcome I'd say. The ideas and variety in the game have been consistent throughout but the basic platforming and lack of a decent story have just left it feeling like numerous tech demos stitched together. There's tons of innovation and originality in there, a lot of great unique moments involving time manipulation, magnets, tons of amazing set pieces but it just hasn't quite come together for us. 

 

The best way I could describe it is imagine Astro's Playroom going on for another 10 hours, that's pretty similar to how this feels to us right now. 

[DisturbedSwan]

Really pleased for them, it’s his worst game of the three for me but I’m glad it’s done well nonetheless.

[DisturbedSwan]

We both put another 3-4 hours into this over the weekend and thankfully had a much better time with it.

 

I think it was just those middle two chapters (Cuckoo Clock and Snow Globe) that we weren't too fond of for one reason or another, I liked the Magnetism mechanic in the Snow Globe chapter and the Time manipulation in the Cuckoo Clock but both those sections just kind of wore us down for one reason or another, not really sure exactly why.

 

Once we got to The Garden chapter afterwards things picked up considerably. I knew the missus would like this section as she loves plants, but yeah, it surpassed both our expectations and had quite a lot of combat (I had a whip, she had a sickle) in it for the first time since Chapter 2 which changed things up nicely. Just such a vibrant, lush area, like being in Honey, I shrunk the kids! or something, there was a great stealth section too where you had to creep along to avoid waking up an entire nest full of Moles who were sound asleep.

 

The Attic has been great too, initially I thought it'd be similar to the Rose's Room chapter - which was very Toy Story - but it's not like that at all and has focused on Musical overtures. The first place you go has a rock vibe and you're using a Guitar string as a rail to grind down, teaming up with May to take down Snake-like Microphones and create a music track at one point (which is then used in the section afterwards). Pretty damn cool. 

 

Should finish it off tonight, think we've probably got another 20-30 minutes left. Has been a hell of a ride, the best thing about it is the missus turning to me last night and saying 'don't sell the second controller, I want to play more games with you' which considering she was a complete non-gamer (aside from Candy Crush) before is a hell of a turnaround. Great to see. 

 

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[DisturbedSwan]

Don't have much more to add, but just thought I'd mention I finished this with the missus a few days ago and got the Plat.

 

Overall I think it's a better game than Brothers and A Way Out, but the story is nowhere near as good in my view. Well worth a play, highly recommended.

 

 

 

[Whiskey_chaser]

My youngest kid asked for this for his birthday yesterday so I got this and an extra dualsense so we could play through it together.

Have to say we're both loving it. It does the Nintendo thing where it throws a game mechanic at you for a brief period and doesn't go back to it which has led to some really nice puzzles (non of which have been too tricky) and third person shooting elements with a nice co-op twist.

We've just played through from the start up until the fourth boss and have loved every minute of it so far.

[Whiskey_chaser]

Think me and my boy are about half way through this now (we're at the Cuckoo clock). It's a great game and we're having a blast with it. It's got some of the best boss fights of recent memory and the whole thing is just packed with charm. Favourite bit so far has been the super trippy kaleidascope level. 

[DisturbedSwan]

 

[spatular]

played this with DANGERMAN. overall thought it was really good, but it was maybe a bit too long. loads of bits where you have to work together are really well done and it keeps introducing new stuff to keep things interesting. i liked moon baboon, mainly because of his name. and there were some really cool bits like 

Spoiler

when one of you is flying a plane while the other is fighting a squirrel or something streetfighter style on the wings.

 

[DisturbedSwan]

 

[DANGERMAN]

it's a good game. I didn't love it as much as the critics did, but it is very well made and really varied