Most Recent Platinum

[IzunaGaiden]

Mortal Kombat X 

Difficulty : 2/10

Time : 50 hours

 

 

 

[XIIDoomsdayIIX]

#117 - A Plague Tale: Innocence.

 

 

 

 

[Crzy Minus]

#88

Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!

Ripto's Remorse

[RedRodriguez87]

 

#351: Maestoso

 

Fresh off my Ace HiQ Unlimited Experience, I was in the mood for another puzzle game, and I thought, well, multi-colored platinums are always nice, and the banner is pretty cutesy, so why not?

 

 

#352: Platinum Pals

 

Bought on a whim, and like most Ratalaika-associated games, it's a game I ended up liking quite a bit despite being done within the hour. Granted, I haven't 100%d yet, but I just may.....

 

Anyways, I liked it enough that I wish whoever was in charge of them got more creative with the trophies; they could've at least done Brad Erkkila a solid by requiring that the game at least be finished (which I ended up doing) for the platinum. But oh well, Platinum Pals forever! 

 

Edited December 6, 2021 by RedRodriguez87

[Squarevii87]

#171 

 

 DARK SOULS

 

[x7251]

 #59 - Mortal Kombat X 

 

[cr1s]

 #587 - Motorcycle Club (PS3)

 

 

Motorcycle Club
Win every Motorcycle Club trophy

 

Game Enjoyment: 5/10

Platinum Difficulty: 3/10

 

This feels like the Need for Speed: Undercover of motorcycle racing games where technical performance is subpar and there's just not much to enjoy. It has a neat concept where you can switch between the 3 different types of bikes (Superbikes that focus on speed, Roadsters that focus on handling, and Customs that are made to be driven on broken roads) while racing, but with its poor execution and the lack of a challenging A.I., it ultimately feels needless. The A.I. can't switch between the different types of bikes, which gives you a major advantage over it. Hell, you can even stick with the starting bikes and just switch between Superbikes and Customs (thus forgetting about Roadsters altogether) and still win very easily almost every time because of how bad the A.I. is. If they wanted to compensate for A.I. rubberbanding in many racing games then it feels like they overcompensated instead...

 

Besides being easy, the trophy list features one missable trophy. It's quite simple though because what is required is getting a Gold Medal on enough races to unlock the next championship and then immediately switching to that championship after unlocking its corresponding bike. Rinse and repeat until the last championship is unlocked, and then complete the remaining races and get their Gold Medals. Some miscellaneous and online trophies are also featured, but the majority of the trophies are obtained while getting all the Gold Medals.

[sealightbreeze]

 

 

 

 

[locutus442]

Platinum #66: Pic-a-Pix Classic (Vita)

 

Pic-of-the-Bunch

Collect all the trophies

[Jamescush147]

  Platinum 284 

Platinum
Obtain all other trophies

43.88% Uncommon

 

Maneater

Platinum in 1 second

 

Autopop from my PS4.

[Moridin83]

 #180 Miden Tower

 

Pretty standard Kemco JRPG. Nothing exceptional about it, but a fun little game. Difficulty is maybe a 2 of 10, and the heroine's gimmick is the most unique thing about it. Nice palate cleanser if you've been playing difficult/grindy games or just need a change of pace.

[Tactical-Uav]

 #75 - GTA: Vice City - Definitive Edition

Vice City, probably my favourite of the OG trilogy.

 

Even though the remasters have received a lot of criticism (deservedly so) I enjoyed replaying this game so much.

So many memories from playing on the ps2, and I finally finished it for the first time!

[Amonares]

Hope you guys don't mind but I'd like to post some of the older games that I platted but never reviewed here on PSNP:

 

Tekken 6

Enjoyment: 8.5/10

Difficulty: 4.5/10

 

 

Yakuza 3

Enjoyment: 8.5/10

Difficulty: 8/10

 

 

Mafia 2

Enjoyment: 8.5/10

Difficulty: 4/10

 

 

Far Cry 3

Enjoyment: 8/10

Difficulty: 4/10

 

 

Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time

Enjoyment: 8/10

Difficulty: 3.5/10

 

 

Hitman: Blood Money

Enjoyment: 9.5/10

Difficulty: 4/10

 

 

Dishonored: Death Of The Outsider

 

Enjoyment: 8/10

Difficulty: 4/10

 

 

Dishonored 1

Enjoyment: 9/10

Difficulty: 5/10

 

 

Fallout 4

Enjoyment: 9/10

Difficulty: 4/10

 

 

God Of War 3

Enjoyment: 9/10

Difficulty: 4.5/10

 

 

Mini Ninjas

Enjoyment: 8/10

Difficulty: 5/10

 

 

Far Cry Classic

Enjoyment: 8/10

Difficulty: 4.5/10

 

 

Assassin's Creed 2

Enjoyment: 8.5/10

Difficulty: 4/10

 

 

Assassin's Creed 3

Enjoyment: 8/10

Difficulty: 5.5/10

Edited December 7, 2021 by Amonares

[mackenzie129]

Viking Legend

Assassins Creed Valhalla
Non Trophy hunting great game, going for the trophies pretty boring slog. 
For ever 2000th trophy I've done some random Assassins Creed Trophy but for #10,000 I had to go big

[percy547389126yv]

#1,019 Space Elite Force 2 in 1

[Redgrave]

 

#233: One Last Time - Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

 

And so ends the journey of Nathan Drake, and of course it ends on the classic and timeless "hunt for pirate treasure" type of adventure. ? But yeah, playing the series back to back was quite the experience and I would be lying if I said I didn't get choked up at the call backs from the previous games whenever there are scenes where Nathan reminiscences along with the bit at the Epilogue. I feel like it would have hit me harder had I played the games when they came out on PS3 but it was still nice to see. I also really like the idea that the final boss is a sword fight with pirate cutlasses, but I feel like the lead up to it was kind of weak and that might be because the main antagonist didn't really feel as memorable as the previous games. However I really liked Sam along with the back and forth between him, Drake, and Sully so I think that made up for it.

 

There's not much to really say about the gameplay since it's almost similar to the previous games but the movement, climbing, and shooting felt more refined which is good enough I think. I did feel like the combat arenas weren't as big and hectic as the ones from Uncharted 2 and 3 but again I think that's fine since in those they could get a bit too hectic with the armored enemies and in this it felt like they eased up on them. I did think it odd they didn't keep the "throw back grenades" mechanic from Uncharted 3 though along with the way the melee combat was done since I thought the grenade thing was cool and I liked the melee since it made me think of it as an easier Arkham style combat. The grappling hook was neat though and it made flanking enemies fun.

 

As far as everything else goes the graphics are pretty great and it was pretty surprising to see how lifelike everyone looked but they didn't look "too lifelike" like some games do. When it comes to the trophies it was pretty standard but this time around there are more collectibles which I did have to replay a few levels for because I wound up missing one. Otherwise there wasn't really anything that stuck out to me as difficult. I guess the speedrun was kind of close but I feel like part of that was because of the quasi-cutscenes that don't stop the timer and I feel like there was some delay in getting some scripted segments to happen like when Sam or whoever goes "Hey look at this" or something since it felt like it took longer for them to initiate it but maybe that's just because I was in a hurry for the speedrun. The cheats you can unlock the collectibles were fun to mess with too. I think my favorites were bullet time and Xenon Audio since I just find it really funny hearing characters talk in a low pitched voice. ? But the bullet time made the shooting segments feel cooler and it makes me wish more shooter games would add bullet time in again.

 

But yeah, I can think of a lot more adventures Nathan Drake could do but it's probably for the best that it ended off on the note it did instead of dragging it on and this was probably the best way to end it and he kind of earned a rest after getting shot at countless times, crashing into things, nearly dying from collapsing structures, getting nearly blown up, and so on. In the end I'm glad I could experience this series.

[NullRay85]

Batman: The Telltale Series (PS4)

 

 

I'm Batman  

 

[Darghel]

#125 The Witch Who Holds the Truth (Dragon Star Varnir)

Difficulty: Even on hard it's pretty easy, just the occasional spike

Time to Complete: 25 hours

Recommended: It's an easy and short platinum, otherwise it's skippable

Total score: 6/10

 

Another down from my backlog, this one having a 2 year overdue. Honestly I wasn't sure what to expect but from time to time I like their games and experiments, so I thought this might be good enough. Well let's just say that I don't think anyone will be missing this game and that if they plan to make a sequel, they should really focus on what's fun, and less on gimmicks.

 

Okay first the positives: the game setting is interesting, not because it's original but because it's depressing and very...uncomfortable. You only know that witches are bad, but you later realize that they have a terrible fate: witches either die devoured by a dragon inside their own womb, or by going insane. Either eat too much and become a dragon, or don't and become crazy. It's a bleak, very sad destiny witches have and it's a constant remark during the game. Heck you even see one of the young witches dying because of this (no spoiler, you literally see this the first hour of gameplay), and that kinda sets the mood for what is going to be. Too bad we barely even knew the little girl dying from her own dragon: would've been nicer if we had met her before!

 

The characters, while kind of the usual stereotype (Minessa the good girl, Karikaro the tsundere, Laponette the composed, Charlotta the B and Faria the...the kid?) they are not totally badly written and I actually enjoyed their scenes a lot: Minessa tries to be nice but she's scared of doing a bad job and fail where her older sisters did, especially when you're reminded of a bad accident, Karikaro is a tsundere but because she has nothing to lose and is always suspicious of everyone, and Laponette has a gift that allows her to see death of people nearby (not exactly a spoiler but it's also not really relevant for the plot, but there is a scene that kinda surprised me). Plus it's important to remember the setting: these are girls who are always running away from humans, have never seen a man in their own life, and probably die very young either from madness or being devoured by their own dragon. It's...chilling to say the least! And the main protagonnist, while also being the generic "good boi", he's not bad either and he at least tries to get into the family. It's common for these male characters to be just super horny or always unable to talk to cute girls, but Zephy (yeah that's his name) is pretty eloquent, is patient, and very mature. Again, not bad honestly for a tropey jrpg!

And at last, the story is not totally bad either: there are some scenes that aren't well explained, some bits that aren't done at all, and the main villain, while awful at first, gets a nice redeeming arc at the end if you get to the true ending. I can't go in detail without spoilers but it's not completely bad, and it definitely kept curious until the end.

 

But unfortunately when the story stopped, the gameplay returned and that was the problem: the gameplay sucks. 

 

Correction, the gameplay sucks because it's unnecessary gimmicky: as a witch you're supposed to eat dragons, and eating dragons you get their cores which gives you passive bonuses, magic, spells, and more eating skills. It's not bad actually and reminds a lot of FFX spheregrid system, which is enjoyable and satisfying. But the problem here is twofold:

1. You need to eat a dragon with ALL 6 CHARACTERS in order for them to get the core (boss dragons don't count)
2. Eating a dragon requires to weaken it and then eat, which has a higher chance the lower their hp is

So what you'll be doing in each fight is checking if every single witch has the core from the dragon (thankfully shown with a handy V near the name), weaken them so that your bite will instakill them with a hopefully high percentage, and then fail dozens of times even if the dragon is at 50-70% of success....yeah, it's not fun and gets tiring really quick, and having played the whole game on hard makes this even more annoying because you might need some of the spells. Yeah I know i didn't need to fully play on hard, but I wanted to make my efforts more important!

On top of that you're extremely limited on what skills you can use: you can put a total of 5 skills in each category (melee, magic, bite, passive), and there are so many magic spells, attacks and everything that kinda makes you wonder why they limit you so much. Like there are trap spells that you can use to push enemies onto it but you'll never use it because you might want to use an aoe spell that attacks all 3 ranges.

OH YEAH, the combat: a very interesting take on the grind system, where you have 3 levels of flight and enemies might be on one of them...except it barely matters as you can just attack them regularly and if anything it's funny to see enemies just...floating in midair. 

 

It's sad to say, but this game felt like they wanted to experiment a lot of things but just...didn't experiment enough: there's a lot of good put into it and it reminds me of DERQ (I think this was released after DERQ, at least in japan, according to google) except they made a combat that is very tiring because of the constant requirement of devouring, the fact that you can't take your time or else your sisters will turn (and landing you into either normal, or bad ending, depending on your madness level), and the fact that the game has some missed plot points that does make the whole experience underwhelming. Heck I even forgot Elixirs exists. What they do? They let you fight dragons...would've been a great way to let you devour dragons without moving from your den, but alas they're only used to grab loot. Which you won't need if you pick the free dlc...or abuse the inferno exploit.

 

Bottom line....it's not bad but not a good game either. I definitely played worse jrpgs (Dark Rose Valkyrie comes to mind...I'm coming back for you someday, just you wait!) but this could've been much better if the combat was better made, and the timer was more lenient. It gets better once you reach the true ending path (your girls won't need to be fed anymore) but beyond that It's hard to recommend this game...well at least trophies are easy, and if you manage to get enough madness in one playthrough and save at the right spot, you can get all 3 endings with ease without restarting (personal tip: make 4-5 bad choices throughout the 10 chapters, and try to never die, since you need one sister dead for the normal ending). But in the case you restart the game shouldn't take longer than maybe an hour or two, if you skip everythinig.

 

Nothing else to say I guess, I just hoped this game could be a little more enjoyable and not frustrating. Too bad really: with some more tweaks and a more enjoyable combat this could've been a little gem. Instead it's just a gem...inside a big rock...and requires too much dynamite to get to the core of it. If you want an easy and doable platinum, this one's good. Otherwise just skip it.

 

Edited December 7, 2021 by Darghel

[Squirlruler]

 #104 Dead Cells - Platinum (GG)

Well hello there. It's been a while since I posted here. My latest platinum is Dead Cells! What a game. I really enjoyed this game. So much so, I made it my 6k milestone, I mean, just look at that plat trophy image! How perfect for a milestone lol. Little story about that, I knew I wanted this games plat to be my 6k milestone. So I started setting it up. At about 5900 I got all the trophies but the last three (BC4/Cursed Sword/Plat). So I play the game, beat the Hand with Cursed Sword, make a save file and leave it to pop for 6k. So I earned more trophies and finally got to 5997. I boot up Dead Cells and start walking to finish the run, AND THE DAMN HAND FIGHT STARTS AGAIN. So, the only thing I can think that happened was that an update messed with my save file, resetting the fight. So I had to beat him AGAIN, WITH the cursed sword. Luckily, it had only been a few months since the last time I beat him, so it only took me about 30 minutes to beat him again. (Yes, I save scum because I am terrible at these kinds of games lol). Beat him again and got the plat First plat in a really long time. My favorite weapon is the electric whip. I would just stand on a ledge and whip all the enemies lol. The magnetic grenade was really useful as well. AND you can use that with the Hand to gather all the dumb little balls he throws out, AND it's considered a reflect so they start damaging the Hand, which is really nice. Anyway. Great game. Go play if you like these kinds of games, it is incredibly well done.

Enjoyment: 9/10

Difficulty : 8/10

Estimated Time to Complete: ~70 hours

Edited December 7, 2021 by Squirlruler

[JusttJD]

(First post on this thread, so hopefully I'm not messing anything up)

My latest platinum is Final Fantasy X.

 

I played this so many times on the PS2, and completed the story so many times, that when it finally came on the PS3, and later the PS4... that I just had to have the platinum.

A platinum that I struggled with for many, many years... over multiple gaming accounts.

 

All because there was one section of the game, one small mini game... that I never managed to do.

I am off course talking about the infamous chocobo 0.00.00 race, a race that I've done at least a thousand times, yet never was able to complete it... till last week that is.

And now, now I finally have the one platinum that I've wanted for so, so many years, and maybe even the one that I'm most proud of as well.

 

The game itself, it will always remain to be one of my favorites.

Maybe because this is THE game that got me really into RPG's and gaming in general, or maybe because it was always somewhere in the back of my mind, because I couldn't 100% it.

 

The characters are amazing, the story is amazing, the game-play is... maybe a little bit slow to today's standards, but that is just the way that I like it. Old school turn bases RPG'S.

Although, completing all the sphere grids was a little bit tedious, spending an entire day fighting Tonberyy, Kossos, and spending hours and hours just mashing X in the sphere Grid.

 

And there is a good chance that I will play it again next year, but this time... just to enjoy the game, and not worry about the mini-games or 100%.

 

Enjoyment : 9/10  (6/10 when thinking about the chocobo race)

Difficulty : 2/10 (10/10 when thinking about the chocobo race)

Time needed for platinum on this run : 116 Hours

[Lightsp33d1987]

 

[EverythingOnFire]

Platinum #32

 

Decent little first-person stealth game. Runs kinda janky (flickering issues, stupid A.I.), the voice acting is fairly bad (but not so-bad-it's-good), and the presentation of the  exposition really could have used some more thought. Having said all that, the premise/story was still interesting and crazy enough to keep me engaged, and I don't regret my time spent with the game. It's a pretty fun way to kill a few hours. Recommended, but only if you get it for $2 like I did (90% off). In the last year, it's dropped to that price a half-dozen times.

 

[da-Noob123]

@JusttJD Congrats on the FFX platinum! That one was my first FF game and likewise got me into RPG's. It was oh so satisfying to complete it once more and earn the platinum in it.

 

My most recent platinum was for Assassin's Creed Origins. I enjoyed it more than Odyssey but the best part of it was the Hidden Ones DLC. You actually start engaging with a group of people instead of just being one man out for revenge. You also get to see some of the formation of the Creed which was really cool.

[DrBloodmoney]

 - 482

? - 616

 

Gods Will Fall

 

Gods Will Fall, the latest game from small UK developer Clever Beans (of When Vikings Attack! fame,) is a curious little game.
Part dungeon crawler, part Souls-Lite, the game is probably most aptly characterised as a Rogue-like, though is takes the existing rogue-like formula and adds quite a few specific nuances to it. The game feels brimming with smart ideas, and while almost all of these ideas work, and translate to benefits to the game, the game does have some issues, generally relating to the fundamental template those ideas are draped upon.

 

The premise is relatively simple - in an ancient, Pagan world of old Gods, humans are tired of being mere pawns and playthings of higher powers. A group of warriors set out to the island of the Gods, to slay the ten Gods, one by one, freeing Humanity from their bondage. After their ships are hit by storms, however, only a few survivors wash ashore, and band together to complete the task.

What this boils down to is, essentially, a group of 8 warriors with randomly selected traits, weapons and strengths / weaknesses, are controlled, moving en-masse across an island with 10 available, unique dungeons to traverse, each of which contains one of the Old Gods, along with their specific worshippers and acolytes. At the entrance to each God's domain, a single warrior is selected by the player, to delve into the dungeon, and try their hand at defeating the God within. Once all ten Gods are defeated, the run is complete.

 

That seems simple, (and it is,) however, the game does a good job of making each run feel quite distinct and unique. The warriors available at the start are randomly assigned, and each has a multitude of possible variables - there are three 'sizes' (types), different weapons, different traits / fears / relationships to other warriors, and different health and strength stats. 
The difficulty of the different dungeons is random each time - in one run, one God's domain might be the easiest, and in the next, the hardest - and so there is a benefit to poking and prodding at different areas, rather than simply bashing ones head against the same one over and over. However, there is a smart push-pull to this. Completing a dungeon results in a smattering of changes to the group as a whole - some warriors gain stats, some lose stats, some gain new abilities, and each God defeated brings a smattering of new weapons and items to use. However, if a warrior fails in a dungeon, they are rarely 'perma-dead'. Instead, they are 'trapped' within the dungeon. If the player manages to then defeat that God with another warrior, that will 'rescue' the lost warrior too, meaning if they have lost 3 or 4 warriors in a single dungeon, there is a real benefit to sticking it out there, rather than moving on, with a vastly reduced party. The game does some smart stuff with this mechanic too - certain warriors will receive buffs if a close friend is 'lost' in a dungeon, making the party feel dynamic and different each time - as if they have genuine history with one another.

There is also a pretty smart thing done, in the sense that, even if successful, the warrior who kills a God is generally exhausted, and gets some temporary nerfs applied. This means the player needs to become familiar with multiple warriors over a run - simple using the 'best' character for every God is not an option, as they will be slowly weakening, and never get a chance to recover.

The actual dungeons are quite nicely designed. The randomisation of dungeons extends only to enemy quantity, difficulty and placement - the actual layouts are static for the most part - however, the various dynamic elements of weapon / character / enemies makes this still feel quite different from run to run. 

There is a really cool, quite unique mechanic present in the game, in the sense that the Gods are genuinely empowered by the worship of their followers. Their health bars are visible from the moment of entering a dungeon, and can be reduced in various ways before ever even seeing them - sometimes by destroying totems or doing other level-specific tasks, but primarily by killing the enemies. If a player chooses to run through the level quickly, slipping past the regular enemies, that is valid, but the boss will have full health when thy face it. If they meticulously slaughter every one of their followers before facing them, however, the God's health bar may be up to 50% gone right from the outset.

 

The game looks pretty nice. There is a painterly aspect to the world design, giving a look of a kind of Pagan-flavoured Rime, and the (minimal,) cut scenes are simple, but well done. Enemy design is fairly good, and the individual bosses all look cool and distinct - cartoonish in a cell-shaded, slightly PS3 way, but still aesthetically pleasing, and varied.

 

Audio is really top-notch - the general score is a cool, thumping, ritualistic affair, filled with sombre groans, creaks, and threatening tones, and the voice over (in some ancient pagan language, I believe,) and subtitled in English, is appropriately tonal, booming, and sounds great.

 

Combat is a bit of a mixed bag, however. There is a bit of an issue with hit-boxing - it can be difficult to tell if a weapon swing will connect at times, particularly in boss fights, or to gauge how far the player needs to be from an enemy swing to avoid it. There is a parry system, but it feels at times a little finicky in the timing. (Personally, I tended to avoid parrying, unless the warrior I was using had a particular trait, which extends the timing window, as that was the only time I felt comfortable with it.) There can also be an issue with 'elevation' in the game - if the enemy and the player are on uneven terrain, and slightly elevated from one another, hits that should clearly connect can often whiff.

There is also, it must be said, something of an issue with balance. Certain weapons and traits are vastly superior to others. Speed is much, much more important than stamina or strength, and so 'large' characters and 'heavy' weapons are pretty useless. The range and power of a spear is so vastly over-powered as to render all other weapons senseless, and so a run can be trivialised to a large extent by having a few particularly fast warriors armed with decent spears.

 

The actual boss fights are mixed - the designs of the fights are pretty good, however, the same hit-box issues remain, and that can be frustrating. Frankly, most bosses can be defeated by simple attrition - standing ground, and wailing on them until they are gone - and while that can be fun, it is also a little unsatisfying. There are specific trophies for killing each boss a specific way, which alleviates some of this, but from a pure game point of view, it can make the game feel less than it should be.

I do also think there is something a little lost by the absence of a 'final' boss. The first time through the game, I was specifically saving certain items / warriors, assuming there would be a final encounter with a 'big bad' once all then Gods fell. As it turns out, there isn't - the ten you have available form the start is all there is, and while that is fine in terms of content, it does mean the game feels a bit lacking in catharsis or finale. It just kind of... ends. 

 

Overall, there is a lot to like in Gods Will Fall. It's a game that looks cool, sounds cool, and is brimming with genuinely smart ideas that I could easily see influencing future games in the rogue-like camp. It is a little let down by its base mechanics, however. The combat is a little easy to cheese, the over-world, while nice to look at is a little barren, and it could really do with a big 'final' encounter to make the whole thing feel more complete. 
Not a bad game, and worthy of your time, but one that doesn't actually ask as much of the player than players of this genre have come to expect.

 

 

(Review originally published HERE)

(For game comparison and Scientific ? placement, see THE CURRENT RANKING)

 

Edited December 7, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[DrBloodmoney]

 - 483

 - 617

 

It Takes Two

 

It Takes Two, the third game from Josef Fares, and the second to be released under the banner of his Hazelight Studio, continues his penchant for duel-play, co-op game design, first dabbled with in the wonderful single-player-but-duel-control art-puzzle game Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, and continued in his interesting-though-flawed co-op-only 70's exploitation prison-break crime-thriller A Way Out.

 

A co-op-only, action 3D Platforming Puzzle-lite, It Takes Two follows a married couple - stay-at-home dad Cody and engineer May - who are on the verge of divorce, and their young daughter Rose. After they inform Rose of their plan to divorce, she is playing with dolls of her parents, play-acting a reconciliation. Through the power of wishful magic, the two adults are transformed into the dolls, (leaving their corporeal bodies comatose in the house,) and are introduced to Dr.Hakim - a magical self-help book with an inexplicable (and tremendously grating) faux-Italian accent - who proceeds to send the couple on a series of odd, semi-metaphorical quests around the (now massive,) family home, dealing with anthropomorphically enlivened versions of the general household objects, in order to repair their relationship and, ultimately, to return to their human forms.

 

The game looks great. Really, really great. There is a visual fidelity in the graphics that is smooth, bright, lively and really pops. The smooth frame-rate is pretty impressive, considering the level of rendering on screen, and the fact that the game is (most likely) being played spilt-screen most of the time.

 

While the actual design for the levels that May and Cody traverse does, I think, lack much of the charm that they aim at, (the kind of genuinely child-like, wonder-filled aesthetic of a Little Big Planet,) and tends to revert to twee or rote, (more on that later,) there is an admirable amount of variety in the far-longer-than-one-might-expect game. The pairs travels take them from the gardens, to the attic, to a squirrel-ruled tree-world, to Roses room, to a snowy snow-globe, and a host of other locations. Each is chock-full of nice looking details and a really impressive level of art design, as well as a remarkable amount of interactive objects and fun, silly diversions. Exploring a new area, and finding all the little ways Cody and May can interact with it is a consistent source of fun.

 

The actual gameplay is a bit of a mixed bag, but generally levels out to 'pretty good'. The main thrust is 3D platforming, which is loose and free, with a fun, slightly floaty quality, though some of the more intricate platforming can often cause the camera to jerk around, or get hung up on environmental elements. (One challenge in particular - the aptly named 'Hell Tower' is certainly a hellish affair, though this is less as a result of the actual platforming, and entirely down to the camera's total inability to focus on the action - deciding to randomly swivel 180 degrees at random during particularly perilous jumps!)

 

There are a huge number of little competitive mini-games to be discovered (each playable from the main menu after finding once,) which while varying in quality, are generally pretty good fun. These are, in fact, the only real 'collectibles' in the game, and huge credit has to be given to Hazelight for only including collectibles that are genuinely interesting, and no - as platformers often do - simply adding needless busywork to the trophy list.

 

Where the gameplay is at it's best, is generally in the level-specific, more puzzle-y elements. The whole game is geared towards finding different ways for Cody and May to be forced to work together to proceed, and the game does a genuinely good job of consistently coming up with new twists on this. 
In one, for example, one character can fire flammable sap, while the other can ignite it. In one, (a personal favourite,) both players have opposite poles of a magnet, and can push or pull different elements of the environment (or each-other). In another, one player can rewind time on certain objects, while the other can teleport - and there are quite a few specific puzzles crafted to make use of these powers.

This is certainly the strongest card in It Takes Two's hand, however, it must be said, it does know it, and tends to over-play it. As said, the game is long. Over long, in fact. This isn't a case of too many levels necessarily, but of each level simply being two or three times longer than it really should be. For every smart smart puzzle solution the player comes up with, they can bet they will be using it 5 or 6 separate times per level - and each time, the effect is a little lessened. Frankly, the actual beat-by-beat story simply isn't able to support levels of this length - while there is a lot of interplay and dialogue between Cody and May, none of it is particularly interesting or funny, and so, while it does a valiant effort, it doesn't do enough to stop the longer levels from dragging.

 

All of these minor negatives don't really do much harm though, and the actual gameplay is fun enough to stand up to them... however, where the game completely falls over, (and I do mean completely,) is in the writing. 

This game really hurt - as it forced me to admit that Josef Fares, creator of my beloved Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, simply isn't at his best whenever there is an explicit narrative or actual dialogue to contend with. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons worked incredibly well, but those characters only emoted and the narrative was evident through the actions. They spoke only in gesture and mock-simlish, rather than explicit dialogue. 
In actual writing, it seems Josef Fares games fail, and tend to fail big. A Way Out suggested it, but It Takes Two confirms it.

There are multiple elements to this - some general, but less egregious - and one specific and extreme. 

 

In general, the writing of It Takes Two suffers for a lot of the same reasons A Way Out did - its characters simply do not talk naturally, or behave realistically. 
While in A Way Out, this was more a vocal issue - the characters felt emotionally coherent, but the way they actually spoke felt a little tin-eared, as if the script had been through a google-translate prior to recording, in It Takes Two, the opposite problem is on show. The actual dialogue is largely fine, (never good, but acceptable,) but what makes no sense is the emotional coherence of the characters. 
Cody and May seem to have a sort of selective amnesia about their daughter and their situation. One minute, they will be shouting at Dr.Hakim about how they need to get back to Rose immediately, (as one would expect,) but the next minute, they will take a time out to play some chess, or some Laser Tennis, or to jump on a merry-go-round, and be gleefully chatting about how much fun their entrapment in their new toy-bodies is.

Of course, some portion of this is par-for-the-course - after all, the game is marketed at children, and so keeping the tone light and the stakes in check is understandable - however, because the game is so long, and the tone so uneven within, there is a constant problem of remembering what the actual stakes from section to section are. 
It Takes Two is a co-op required game, and one in which the two players really need to be the same two players for the duration. Because the game is so long, it is highly likely that it will take most pairs of players several weeks to finish, given that finding time to play together is much more difficult for most people than finding solo-gaming time. Because of this, and because individual levels are so long, and lack obvious 'break points,' the lack of consistency in the characters' goals is exacerbated and extended to the players - it feels like Cody and May are constantly forgetting what they are supposed to be doing, along with the players.

 

The other aspect to the general writing is the charm and the humour of the game... or rather, the attempt at those elements. Charm is a tough thing to define, but - like pornography - we know it when we see it. In It Takes Two, we incredibly don't. 
It has all the elements of other, more charming games, (most notably Little Big Planet,) - magical realism, a world of wonder within every-day objects, whimsical characters made of anthropomorphised object etc, however, it just doesn't quite add up to charming. It feels like an approximation of a Little Big Planet-style game, made by someone who not only doesn't believe in magic, but never even did as a child. It's 'charm' feels borne out of committee and focus-testing, rather than imagination. 
A sort of "Brett Ratner's Little Big Planet", if you will.

 

Humour, on the other hand, can be done myriad different ways, but here, it fails almost every single time. Neither Cody nor May is particularly likeable or endearing, and so their playful ribbing and antagonistic back and forth is far more often wearying than funny. Dr. Hakim, who is clearly intended to be H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S, is so profoundly irritating and try-hard in his jokes, that all it really does is make you despise his mere presence. 
It is debatable whether, even if the humour were to work, that it would save the character, given Dr. Hakim's part in the overall narrative - after all, he is responsible for ensnaring these struggling parents in this situation, endangering the well-being of their child, and forcing them to complete an arduous series of increasingly difficult, ironic-punishment-based trials in order to win back their freedom and lives. A sort of cheebie-Jigsaw from the Saw franchise, if you will. However, because the humour never hits, it really takes the legs out from under the game's tone.

These elements drag the game down, but they are nothing in comparison to the narrative finale.
Let me not mince words here:  I think the finale is grotesque. 
Simultaneously saccharine and false-ringing, but also genuinely dangerous to impressionable children (arguably the game's intended audience) on a multitude of levels.

 

FAIR WARNING - I generally don't spoil the endings of narrative games, but I'm going to here. (I'll use spoiler tags for public places).

Normally, I would avoid compromising the integrity of the narrative, but, as the last 15 or so minutes of the story of It Takes Two proves, it has no integrity to compromise. Let me be clear - I played this game with my wife of ten years. We have a young son, and we are both children of divorce. The ending of the game made both of us FUCKING LIVID!

 

Okay - everyone ready?

 

Spoiler

Cody and May are going to divorce at the start of the game. They have made that decision. They tell Rose so.

They then go through their whole adventure, being forced to address the (laughably minor) problems in their relationship by the satanic Dr. Hakim, and finish that nightmarish situation in victory - by kissing.During this time, Rose has decided she is the problem in their relationship, and runs away from home, leaving a letter telling her (currently catatonic) parents that without her, they will be friends again.
The game ends, with Cody and May, (back in corporeal form,) running to the bus stop, stopping Rose, telling her they are going to stay together, and everyone lives happily ever after.

 

Where do I fucking start with this?!

 

To begin with, to any adults playing the game this is obviously laughable and frivolous, but for the intended audience - children -  many of whom will either have divorced parents themselves, or will experience divorce at some point - this is downright dangerous.

 

Firstly, on a surface level. It leaves the impression that running away from home is all a child need do to provide the catalyst for their parents to reconcile their differences, and become a smaulchy, TV-cereal-commercial family again.

 

Secondly, on a much more insidious level - it suggests divorce is something that parents choose to do on a whim. That adult relationship problems are something that can be solved by mere circumstance or minor changes - and that they would not have explained to Rose early on that it was not her fault.

 

If Cody and May's problems were simply that Cody didn't comment on May's singing often enough, or May didn't appreciate Cody's gardening (both actual narrative points in this game,) then the game is suggesting to children that their parents may divorce (or have divorced) over tiny, minor annoyances, and not genuine irreconcilable problems. 
Or, worse, that Cody and May do have fundamental relationship issues, but they that they are going to ignore them, and stay together anyways, suggesting, with the faux-happy-ending, that two miserable parents who do not like one-another living together is a preferable situation to having two happy parents who live separately. 

Like a lot of 90's family films did, It Takes Two minimises true relationship issues, and the serious emotional issues that arise from unloving couples raising children together, glossing over these in pursuit of a "Happy-on-the-Surface-Nuclear-Family-is-Best" 1950's attitude. It is further perpetuating the stigma of divorce, and further complicating the issue when it (inevitable) does arise for many children. 

 

Children are not stupid, and in 2021, you would have to go deep into the unexplored, tribal jungles of Papua New Guinea to find any child over the age of five who does not understand that having divorced parents is something they need not feel ashamed of. That divorce is not the result of their actions. That if both their parents love them together, they would also love them apart.
That leaves It Takes Two's narrative in a peculiarly unnecessary place at best - even a generous interpretation of its morals would conclude that it is trying to impart a lesson that everyone already knows - but in a much worse one really. It is actively contributing to, and attempting to revive, a stigma that is largely squashed already. 

 

This is both unfathomably stupid and dangerous, but also... could have been so easily avoided!

 

By simply not raising the spectre of divorce in the story - just having Cody and May be in a bit of a relationship funk (as happens to most couples from time to time) - and having Rose pick up on that negative stuff more than they realised, the entire existing narrative could be re-contextualised to a large degree.

 

Or - more appropriately - the game could have imparted a genuinely useful message to it's audience: by having the parents not kiss, not reconcile, but still run to the bus stop and talk with Rose, they could have explained that they love her, that the divorce isn't her doing, and that things will be okay anyway.

That would have solved 90% of the games issues - Dr.Hakim (and the for-profit self-help-as-commodity industry,) would have been proven wrong and shown to be as insidious and ineffective as it is, Rose would have learned that divorce is not the grim spectre she feared, Cody and May would have been able to live happy, separate lives, and everyone would still live happily ever after...
...it would just be a little more realistic, and a little less... fucking disgusting.

Okay. 
Rant over.

 

Overall, It Takes Two is a game that has a fair number of good point - the gameplay is relatively slick, varied, fun and quite clever in parts. The visuals are great, and a lot of the design work is impressive. There is genuine fun to be had across almost all of the game, at least to some degree.
The story pretty dull, and is massively undercut by the ending, however, and the light tone does not extend to actual humour. I do think the game also requires some discussion as to whether it is actually appropriate for children, given the damaging and dangerous message that is its central statement. While I think a child could enjoy the gameplay part, it would be best if the story could be contextualised and discussed with them by a parent after the fact.

 

In the end, this is an odd one, as I feel the different aspects of the game are of such disparate qualitative levels, that I am addressing different areas of the game with completely different messages:

To the art designers, I say "Great job!"
...to the game designers, I say "Solid performance!"

...and to the writers, I say "Go FUCK yourselves!"

 

 

(Review originally published HERE)

(For game comparison and Scientific  placement, see THE CURRENT RANKING)

 

Edited December 7, 2021 by DrBloodmoney