It Takes Two is Josef Fares’ latest attempt to showcase the power of co-op games

Josef Fares has strong opinions. Director of Hazelight Studio – his latest co-op game, It will take two, out today – brought to the fore at The Game Awards in 2017 with an unparalleled, acclaimed talk about the joys of interactive video games culminating in the “Fuck the Oscars! ” line.

Years later, Fares (who started, ironically enough, as a filmmaker) still stands firm on his stand outside of the game. “Look, my background is as a filmmaker. The whole thing with ‘fuck the Oscars’ was really special, ”he says The edge. “One, you have to remember when I was there on the set, everyone was talking, ‘Oh this is like the Oscars, it’ s like the Oscars. ‘And I was like’ Fuck the Oscars! ‘ for I was actually saying ‘Fuck the Oscars – because we should celebrate games now.’ Not that I have anything personal about the Oscars. ”

It will take two the third game at Fares, cont Brothers: A story about two sons and Exit. Hazelight’s latest game offers a similar tack Exit, in particular: it’s a co-op-only game that you can’t experience at all unless you’re willing to play with a friend or companion (either by your bedside or over the internet ). According to Fares, the studio was never considering adding any kind of AI companion.

“They’re designed from the beginning like that, so you have to communicate with someone,” he says. “It can’t be played at random [person]. It’s not a matching game where you’re just randomly connected. If you want to play with someone you don’t know at all, you have to be able to talk because if you don’t speak, you can’t progress. ”

Communication is an appropriate basis for It will take two, who sees a man and a woman on the verge of divorce who are then magically transformed into a pair of Pixar-esque dolls and forced by a magic talking book to work out their differences. -mach.

Slighe O.offer a strong thematic narrative pulled out of a crime novel let down by poor play that did little to exploit the cooperative nature of the game. It will take two flips the script: it offers a weird, almost unobtrusive story built with clever co – operative mechanics. Each of the two characters tends to split their abilities between levels. For example, an early level gives players a pair of guns – one character can shoot a sap, and the other ignores it.

The more diverse game is no accident. “We’ve gotten better at finding co-op cold mechanics that can be combined,” says Fares. “So you really feel the need for a co-op. Also, I talked a lot about marrying the story and the gameplay … we tried to connect the abilities to the character as well. By May, for example – it’s her toolbox, so is her hammer. “

The result, however It will take two the game is much more complex than Exit. For starters, it’s a platformer. And while it doesn’t call for the kind of pixel skills as something like Celeste no Spelunky, it’s a harder game to get into than the relatively simple one Exit. Introduce the new mechanics (admittedly more interesting) that will change from level to level, and there is a risk that players will be newer or less familiar with the game.

However, the resulting game is very special, despite the uneven storytelling. As Fares rightly says, almost no one else out there makes these types of games. “Of course there are co-op games out there that have your campaign and your co-op campaign add-on and so on, but none of them design, write their everything from the beginning as we will be at Hazelight. ”

“I think that opens up … both creatively, but also the dynamics between the characters that you play, that you use different abilities, how you can co. operation, and also what ‘s going on, ”said Fares. “I think there’s so much material to research there. “He sees the experience as something like watching a film or a TV show: it’s something you do together. “So why not enjoy a story in a game?”

And it’s that level of interactivity that helps games stand out to Fares from a movie. “The whole idea is to make the experience interactive [for a game is] completely different than a tolerant experience as a film, ”he says. “So I sometimes hear when they talk about ‘We should bring in more film. [to make games]. ‘Yes, we can be inspired by how they tell stories and so on, but we have to find our own way to tell stories in an interactive way. ”

And while Fares won’t give too much detail on what Hazelight’s next project will look like or whether it will be another co-op experience, he certainly thinks there’s more room for other developers to go. involved – and not just with optional co-op experiences, as with survival games or hunters like Boundaries no Hello.

“We should have the single-player statements; I love those. But I think there is a market here, and I think people really value this type of game, you know. To play something with someone you love or a friend or a father or a mother or whatever – just to experience something together and not just a shooter game, you know what I mean? ”

It will take two now available for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X / S.