It Takes Two
Apart from a prodigious Duolingo streak, my wife is not a gamer. I had a desire to share my hobby with her, so I suggested that we try the popular co-op title, It Takes Two. The Steam Deck’s ability to dock to a TV via a USB-C connection made it possible for us to enjoy a big-screen, split-screen couch experience.
We enjoyed the game’s story, which is about a divorce-bound couple mending their relationship, while they try to navigate their house after being transformed into dolls. There are plenty of comedic cutscenes featuring an anthropomorphized self-help manual called The Book of Love, who acts as a couples therapist and helps them rekindle their romance. Sure, you could argue that the narrative is a misguided fantasy—some families really are better off if they separate—but the tone is meant to be light and fun.
Due to characters’ shrunken size, the game’s levels are designed around ordinary things that you find in the home, scaled up to gigantic proportions. It’s like playing through the classic movie Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. What makes the game really fun is the variety of puzzles and gameplay styles. For the most part, it plays as a third-person action game, but for some chapters, it shifts into other genres, e.g. 2D platforming, Hades-like isometric action, Mario Kart racing sections, even a Street Fighter-like battle against a squirrel.
The most important thing I have to say about It Takes Two is how it manages difficulty level. They seem to have considered how two players with mismatched skill levels would progress through the game. As a novice player, my wife struggled with even the basic dual-stick 3D control scheme, something which I take for granted. The game is pretty generous with savepoints, so you don’t have to redo long stretches. For some of the tougher boss battles, as long as one player stays alive, the other one can die repeatedly without punishment. There are also opportunities to switch the two characters if one player has a harder task than the other. I won’t say that my wife was never frustrated at the game, but I give huge credit to the designers for making the game accessible to a wide range of players.