It Takes Two

It Takes Two is a cooperative adventure platformer from the Swedish studio Hazelight Studios (Stockholm), released on March 26, 2021. At The Game Awards 2021 the game won Game of the Year. It also took GOTY at the DICE Awards 2022, BAFTA Best Multiplayer and Best Original Property, and GDC Best Design, which makes it the most decorated co-op game of the decade. 60 people worked on the project, a small team for a result of this scale.

The main rule: there is no single-player mode. The game will not start without a partner, and the screen is always split in half, either locally (two gamepads, or keyboard and gamepad) or online through Steam. The whole story, all scenes and mechanics are built around constant interaction between two players who see different things and coordinate out loud.

The story: Cody and May are a married couple on the verge of divorce. Their daughter Rose makes dolls out of rags to represent her parents and cries, wishing they would be together again. A magical force turns Cody and May into these dolls. To return to their own bodies, they have to play through 7 main chapters set in a surreal version of their own house and garden, which takes about 10-12 hours.

Each of the 7 chapters is a separate genre. This is a deliberate decision by the director Josef Fares: "repeating mechanics is a failure, each chapter must play like a separate mini-game of a different genre." The game includes a three-dimensional jumping game with a nail-hammer, an action-RPG (role-playing game with combat) with a boss, stealth (disguise and cover), a rail shooter in the style of Star Fox, and an isometric dungeon crawler with spells. On top of that there are more than 25 optional mini-games inside the chapters, including PvP tug-of-war and chess.

Friend Pass is a signature Hazelight mechanic: one purchased copy is enough for two players. The owner invites a partner, who downloads the free "It Takes Two Friend's Pass" and plays the whole game without limits. Since May 30, 2024, EA App on PC is no longer needed, and Friend Pass works directly through Steam Friends. A free EA account is still required for online mode.

Official Russian subtitles and interface have been available since the first day of release in March 2021. The voice-over is English only. There are also two independent fan-made Russian voice-overs from 2024, GamesVoice and R.G. MVO / Mechanics VoiceOver, and both are installed with separate patches. Steam Deck: Verified (Valve, May 30, 2024).

By March 2026 the game had sold 30 million copies, the largest commercial success among games made only for co-op play. Metacritic: 88 (PC), OpenCritic: 88 "Mighty". On Steam it has held 95% positive reviews for five years. In December 2024 the peak of concurrent players reached 71,039, a viral surge four years after release.

It Takes Two: GOTY 2021 (The Game Awards, DICE, BAFTA), a cooperative adventure platformer by Hazelight Studios. Cody and May, a married couple on the verge of divorce, are turned into dolls and play through 7 chapters with different mechanics, only as a pair. Friend Pass: one copy for two players. Russian subtitles; EA App has not been required since May 2024.