As a game developed by the creators of A Way Out, It Takes Two has a lot of surprisingly grim and out-of-nowhere darkness in spite of being on the surface a goofy, comedic Action-Platformer.
BEWARE OF UNMARKED SPOILERS
- It's not entirely clear from the outset if the scenario is Rose's imagination or if the games events are actually happening. Any ambiguity is quashed when Cody and May are rightfully horrified to see each other as strange facsimiles of each other. While it comes across as goofy, May runs and jumps into an abyss to wake herself up, only to regenerate and give out the realization that they aren't waking up.
- How did Rose manifest this entire parallel fantasy world? Are these fantasies having any wider affect on the families house? Any of these kinds of questions are not really answered. The most the characters can glean is that they are under some kind of vague voodoo-like spell, instigated by Rose's sadness and Dr. Hakim's book.
- Dr. Hakim comes across as a mix of being delusional, actively being antagonistic and genuinely thinking he's bringing the couple closer together. This alongside his Character Tic of thrusting and swaying his hips, make him genuinely kind of creepy until about the final level, where his intentions are revealed to be genuine.
- The first chapter has swamp-like mud that you can sink into and Big Creepy-Crawlies made from living vacuums and tubing, at one point you have to finish a puzzle by completing a wires electrical circuit by making May and Cody hold the ends of wires.
- The Vacuum Cleaner is the first sombering showcase that these fantasy worlds are made of consequences of May and Cody's flailing relationship.
- He's trapped in the basement, clogged and in agony from sucking up things Cody forced him to. May has yet to fix him due to being so busy. And Hakim whips him into a (quite understandable) Roaring Rampage of Revenge to keep them from escaping too quickly.
- His bossfight is rather intense and complex for a first boss, and it ends with May and Cody making him suck out his own eyes with his tubes, which causes him to explode. If you listen you'll also hear him beg for the two to stop as they move the arms.
- The second chapter has May and Cody explore the toolshed fight a living Tool Box that has entrapped a Hammer's friends. It's not too bad in itself but it hammers home just how durable the two are when May can bury Cody into the floor by hitting him, and how Cody can pin May with nails. They both audibly show that it's still painful, and going forward in spite of it being a Running Gag, all the things that cause them harm, still hurt, even if they can survive.
- The Hammer's description of dying from rust, explaining that it's like burning alive extremely slowly.
- In this chapter and the last, you can occasionally find cans and other small objects suddenly open so small glowing robotic eyes can watch you. They don't hurt you (unless you manipulate them into doing it somehow), but they are NEVER explained.
- The Tool Box itself. Not only is the monster's face rather creepy, with the red paint of the toolbox flaked away so that its eyes and mouth are the exposed silver underneath, but it rains nails down on the two that it shoots from its top, it's boss fight involves destroying your platform with saws, and it's killed when Cody essentially blows up an arisol can that landed on top of its head and knocks it loose from where it's hanging.
- When the two arrive at a window in the Toolshed, the Binoculars there show them that their original bodies are not gone or dead, but are completely unconscious and unresponsive, which is just as horrifying in a more surreal way.
- While exploring the Tree outside their house in chapter 3, May and Cody come across a group of militant squirrels who are in a war against invading wasps. The situation becomes somewhat Evil vs. Evil as the Squirrels are paranoid and the Wasps are genuinely hostile. May and Cody are more threatened into helping after the Squirrel's leader more or less threatens them into it.
- When the Squirrels capture the two, they interrogate them. It really doesn't take long before they unleash some captive Wasps in the same interrogation cell with them. Said Wasps them proceed to immediately sting the two to death over and over with only their immortality keeping them alive. Unsurprisingly they turn on the parents when they defeat the bumblebee but spare her, and begin firing on all three with much more rifle-like weaponry.
- The Squirrels have been getting into their house and covertly stealing things from the family for their base to construct their tools. Among these are the weapons they give you, which basically act as high explosives when used in tandem. It's lucky they did not aim their sights higher, but it's also creepy to see what amounts to a Stalker Shrine using their pictures.
- As you explore, you find the Squirrels have not only been tinkering, but also have been conducting a bunch of unexplained experiments with equipment they couldn't have possibly gained from the house, such as a giant Acorn hooked up to wires, floating into a vat of fluid and illuminated by eerie green lights.
- Another room in the squirrel base has what amounts to a glorified torture chamber. If Cody or May step inside, the other can activate its deadly functions, which are:
- electrocution
- lighting them on fire
- Spinning them so fast they eventually lift-off and disintegrate.
- Turning them into an Acorn and then lowering a pair of grinders onto them
