Rating of
4.5/5
Make Mine a Double for the Fun of It
Chris Kavan - wrote on 12/26/25
Hazelight is one of the truly great studios who has continued to evolve, get better and achieve acclaim. The Swedish game studio (known as Starbreeze at the time) found success with the release of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons back in 2013 and decided to focus on strictly two-player co-op games. They followed that up with the prison-break story A Way Out in 2018, and, the game I'll be focusing on, It Takes Two in 2021. Each subsequent game has been greeted with better and better reviews and, most recently, they have found MORE acclaim with Split Fiction (as well as a remake of Brothers in 2024). Suffice to say, the studio seems to know very much what it's doing - and they do it well.
Looks and Stuff: The game has a fun aesthetic as the shrunk-down protagonists run around in various environments from an overgrown back yard to a musty attic to a toy-filled wonderland. Both are presented as hand-made dolls with distinct colors and patterns. Enemies are likewise quite varied and the boss battles are fun and not too punishing as you face things like a malfunctioning vacuum, a neglected toolbox, various bugs (mostly wasps), some mechanical animals and the Moon Baboon - to name a few, anyway.
The game is fully voiced with Joseph Balderrama and Annabelle Dowler taking on the role of the main characters and Clare Corbett as their daughter, Rose. Balderrama also voices the anthropomorphic Book of Love/Dr. Hakim and does a fantastic job of being over-the-top fun. The main villains are voiced by a variety of voice-over veterans including Stephen Greif, Grahame Fox and Lizzie Waterworth. The music matches the mood as well and is a nice companion to the design. Aside from some minor technical issues, the game never had any flaws to speak of.
Story: The story follows Cody and May, a couple on the verge of divorce and their young daughter, Rose, who just wants her parents to stay together. After finding The Book of Love, she tries to get their attention, but fails, and feeling neglected, brings two dolls she has crafted to look like her parents, along with the book, and cries alone. Her tears, however, cause her parents to inhabit the dolls and Dr. Hakim aka The Book of Love, will not let them return to their bodies unless they can rekindle their love. Thus the two find themselves traveling across all kinds of places - each on reminds them of something forgotten but also reminds them of something that brought them happiness. In probably the most twisted part of the story, the couple believe that causing Rose to cry will bring them back and thus set about literally breaking one of her favorite toys - only to realize, no, that's not going to work and you just made your daughter cry for no good reason you terrible, terrible monsters. Meanwhile their real-world bodies have fallen into unconsciousness and Rose attempts to connect with them once again but thinks their lack of response means they are ignoring her and Rose decides to run away.
The duo get on the right track and start to uncover more and more things they remember - things that brought them together and though the early journey was all about trying to get back into their bodies - the latter journey is about truly connecting and remembering how things used to be. Finding that spark the two are able to return to their bodies and begin mending their family.
Gameplay: The game takes you through several levels across a variety of different variations - 2D platforming, 3D platforming - even dungeon crawling for a bit - and, to spice things up even more, the levels give each character a different ability that compliments one another. Utilizing these abilities is the key to beating various puzzles as well as confronting whatever boss lies at the end. There are also some truly fun (and not too punishing) platforming challenges along the way and some not-so-fun minigame that honestly kind of felt mostly like an afterthought. These are completely optional and some are kind of fun. Easter Eggs are scattered about as well, for those who like to explore. All in all, the game is more fun than anything else and is also quite forgiving with any kind of death - with checkpoints set up to get you right back into the action should things prove too dicey.
Replay value: If you play through once, you will have done everything. The main reason to go back (other than it's just a fun game) is to, of course, get all the stuff you missed the first time around (if that's your thing).
Final Verdict: It will make you laugh it could very well make you shed a tear and it's damn fun to boot.
Presentation: 4/5
Story: 5/5
Gameplay: 5/5
Replay: 3/5
Overall (not an average): 4.5/5
Hours Played: 11.8
Cheevos: 40% (8/20)
