Hazelight Studios and Electronic Arts, it’s now a rolling story. After revealing himself with his first Brothers A Tale of Two Sons game in 2013, Josef Fares finally founded his own company with a new title for Electronic Arts, A Way Out, which is only playable in co-op. This very cinematographic prison adventure was talked about when it was released in 2018, and the time has now come for the organization to offer its new experience: here is It Takes Two, a software that must be played for two. colorful adventure, furiously entertaining and still signed EA. The most accomplished work of Fares?
Cooperation definitely seems to be the element that interests the Lebanese-Swedish director. Already on Brothers A Tale of Two Sons. it prevailed at the center of the gameplay since it focused on two characters to be controlled simultaneously (but with a single player). A Way Out pushed the concept of mutual aid even further since the adventure was not playable in solo but only in two, locally or in multi, the split screen appearing in any condition. It is this last formula which is taken again for It Takes Two, a completely new game out of the depths of the imagination of the developers: here, impossible to launch the part alone since it is obligatorily a teammate to interfere in its universe. . Like A Way Out, the possibility of giving the game to a friend so that they can play with their owner is renewed, which is a decidedly laudable gesture these days. So much the better, because the soft is tasted particularly well.
HAKIM LE TOUR?
Cody and May are a couple in distress: their amorous health is no longer good enough for divorce to be visibly the only solution, to the chagrin of their somewhat disoriented little girl. Here is the starting pitch of It Takes Two, which will incite the fruit of their old love to cast a somewhat hazardous spell on his parents: here they are transformed into tiny clay dolls, left to fend for themselves in the stockings. -fond of their own home in a fantasy world. The two will then have to cooperate to cross a bunch of places: the cellar, the garden, the attic, the child’s room and we pass by will then transform into levels with level designs and multiple gameplays. All along, the tone is then deliberately fanciful, punctuated by a humanoid book, Dr. Hakim, who will act as a couple psychologist with the sole desire to reunite this lost and angry couple. A plot that focuses on reunification, understanding the other and their wrongs but also childhood, at the risk of sometimes insisting a lot: fortunately, humor is also recurrent to lighten the words that should speak, alas, to a some part of us.
INTERSTELLAR
Beyond an effective narration without being amazing – let us underline all the same the successful dubbing of the two protagonists – it is especially the myriad of proposed universes which really seduces. Sometimes tinged with black humor (and not so suitable for the youngest), sometimes borrowing from a genius fairyland, It Takes Two is a game that takes you on a journey and that manages to reconnect with our childhood desires. Some levels turn out to be totally lunar, even almost psychedelic, while others literally allow us to make childhood dreams come true with a really appreciable lightness. At the end of the ten or so hours of play offered to complete the campaign, we come out almost exhausted as the variety of scenery has turned out to be wide and engaging. This polished artistic direction, at the risk of sometimes not being very homogeneous, ensures a certain atmospheric spectacle pleasant to share with another player. Especially since, let’s not forget, It Takes Two’s gameplay is arguably its other greatest strength.
TWO, IT’S ALWAYS BETTER
Unlike A Way Out, which relied on realism and interventionism, It Takes Two is a game that dares the big gap in terms of playability. If there is a basic gameplay – jumping, dodging or even both combined – which will allow you to advance through the levels with classic platform phases, Hazelight Studios has racked its brains to establish a plethora of cooperative concepts: in each level, there will be ephemeral tools – magnets, a nail and a hammer, flammable wax and matches, etc. – with many “puzzles” to solve to advance. There are also real phases of action, sometimes even big tasty nods to the history of video games, always with the same watchword: cooperation. It Takes Two is not only extremely varied in its phases of play, it also requires constant thinking in pairs, which leads without too much length to solving puzzles. We thus find ourselves almost constantly in front of a new concept: it is sometimes even so that one wonders if one does not have in front of the eyes a succession of mini-games rather than a whole and true title. Truth be told, what does it matter since the software ultimately has multiple and unsuspected resources, both in its gameplay and in its environments. If all this noise is obviously welcome, some areas also lack a little control: we will notice some inaccuracies in the gameplay in the platform or small camera problems, but we will quickly get over it thanks to this good-natured atmosphere and this unwavering desire for variety. Truth be told, we don’t even dare to imagine the number of creatives who had to strive to write and conceive of multiplayer ideas: luckily, everything hit the mark and that’s what we ask of Hazelight Studios.
DREAMING TRIP
Now that we know that It Takes Two is undeniably a good game, it remains to be seen if its technical aspect follows the trend in 2021. For this test, we were able to rely on a particularly clean PS5 version, without bugs or latency with some nice lighting effects and appreciable panoramas. The graphic production is therefore efficient, but still takes the jaws off: despite the unwavering support of Electronic Arts, we remind you that Hazelight Studios remains a “small” studio of 65 employees in full expansion whose technical prowess remains to be proven. Finally, we will rely mainly on the successful artistic direction – extremely varied, sometimes even experimental – as well as on a soundtrack that is just as important to immerse body and soul in this 100% dreamy climate. In the end, our biggest disappointment lies in the use of the DualSense, which was completely neglected when there was so much to do, confirming us in the idea that it is more of a PS4 port. lazy hair than anything else. Moreover, note that the next-gen version is automatically included in the purchase of the PlayStation 4 / Xbox One version (and vice versa), another good point to take into account when we know that the title costs only one. forty euros. Moreover, note that it is quite possible to restart the game by inverting the characters and therefore enjoying a different gameplay – Cody will master more precision while May will focus on action – which guarantees some replayability. And to tell the truth, It Takes Two allows so much to cool off in the middle of what is currently being done that we go back to it with a certain pleasure.
