![]() There’s a certain magic and thematic resonance to experiencing It Takes Two with your “other half.” The game is never overly difficult. I say the word partner again because that’s who I played the game with, and I wholeheartedly recommend the experience. Naturally, in classic children’s story fashion, the tears fall in slow motion and ominous music plays, and before you know it May and Cody are waking up as the doll versions of themselves. Sneaking away to her room and clutching the two small dolls she had made of her parents out of wood and yarn, she cries as she wishes out loud for them to rescue their love for each other. As often happens with children, Rose blames herself for her parents’ strife. It’s not long before they tell Rose the bad news: They are planning on divorcing. As the game opens, they are mid-argument. ![]() The three main characters in the game are a late-thirty/early-forty-something married couple, May and Cody, and their young daughter, Rose. It’s what drives the action and gives it its thematic heft. Unlike Overcooked, a game in which the story is absolutely minimal, in It Takes Two the narrative is all-important. It isn’t perfect, and it doesn’t reach the ecstatic heights that Overcooked can do at its best moments, but it succeeds far more often than not, and it has now become my go-to title whenever I’m asked about games that are fun to play with a friend or, in particular, a partner (the game can be played both online or in person). In It Takes Two, an action-adventure game developed by Hazelight Studios, the developers’ aim is to take that feeling of cooperative glory and stretch it out over an entire game. It’s not long-lasting, and you have to crawl through broken glass to get it, but occasionally–when two players manage to find the right balance, the right work pattern, or in short: When they get into the zone and the operation of the kitchen flows like water–the feeling of cooperative glory is potent indeed. Nevertheless, despite the stress, there’s a state of divine sort of cooperative Zen that can be achieved in the Overcooked games. Tenuous couples need not apply, for they will surely be rent asunder by desperate cries of “Cheese! Cheese! Chop the bloody cheese for god’s sake!” To play Overcooked 2 (and the same goes for the game that preceded it) with a partner is to test the bonds of love and patience that bind a relationship. ![]() A cartoony and charming package that masks a brutal simulation of the extreme pressures of a professional kitchen, that Team17 title is one that forces players to communicate at lightning speed and cooperate seamlessly. ![]() Up until recently, my go-to recommendation for friends that ask about good modern local co-op games has been Overcooked 2. ![]()
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