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Is It Takes Two the worst written consensus Game of the Year game... Ever? (spoilers, I'm like 50% through)

ItWasMeantToBe19

ItWasMeantToBe19

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Oct 26, 2017
20,440
So.... Just got past the elephant torture scene... Just not sure what the point of that was except to show that the parents are horrible people which... That was already obvious at this point?

The parents are just these really generic but also really hateable losers who now seem like psychopaths and also genuinely very stupid (the tears theory... was not very smart).

We seem to be getting into weird anti-divorce messaging about why these two terrible people should stay together for their child (who has received no character development).

The game's sense of humor is mostly about extreme violence towards very cute things and when that happens to the player, it's very funny and when it happens to an NPC it's... just the most edgelordy garbage possible.

The amount of inventive mechanics and how well done they are is just fantastic so I perfectly understand this winning GotY but like... This storytelling is pure dogshit.

For reference, here is the list of consensus GotY winners

2021: It Takes Two
2020: The Last of Us Part 2
2019: Death Stranding/Resident Evil 2 Remake
2018: God of War
2017: Breath of the Wild
2016: Uncharted 4
2015: Witcher 3
2014: Dragon Age Inqusition
2013: The Last of Us
2012: Telltale's The Walking Dead
2011: Skyrim
2010: Red Dead Redemption
2009: Uncharted 2
2008: Fallout 3
2007: Bioshock
2006: Oblivion
2005: Resident Evil 4
2004: Half Life 2
2003: KOTOR
 
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oni-link

oni-link

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Oct 25, 2017
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Yeah the story isn't amazing but it's an absolute joy to experience with someone

Played it with my girlfriend and we both loved it
 
SlayerSaint

SlayerSaint

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Jan 6, 2019
2,136
I missed the word "written" in the title and came here ready to tell you how wrong you were but yeah it is pretty badly written. The story is the only reason the game wasn't a perfect 5 stars for me. It's awful.

Which contributed to its charm in a weird way. Like Dr. Hakim. I hate him but I love him but I hate him.
 
AgentOtaku

AgentOtaku

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Oct 27, 2017
4,466
Made a thread about this awhile back but yes, it's absolutely FUCKING AWFUL. My wife and I STRUGGLED to finish it.
Cody and May are probably some of the worst goddamn parents and characters I've seen in a long time.
 
Nocturnowl

Nocturnowl

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Oct 25, 2017
26,289
The writing just followed on from the prior consensus game of the year about psychopaths, torture, horrible people making stupid decisions, extreme violence and a shaky relationship
This is what's in right now
 
Venatio

Venatio

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Oct 25, 2017
3,756
My wife and I definitely weren't fans. I really don't understand all the praise, but whatever.
 
samred

samred

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Nov 4, 2017
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It Takes Two has one of the worst gaming stories I've ever experienced, not to mention one of the most clueless interpretations of married characters I've ever seen in ANY format. Josef Fares flunked this script, and I'm concerned about the evolving shape of games criticism, insofar as few pedigree critics showing up to condemn the plot/script during the review period.

I continue to recommend that anyone who plays the game skip every single cut scene as one way to salvage the clever asymmetrical co-op moments. But even that doesn't tape up some of the worst stuff.
 
ThereAreFourNaan

ThereAreFourNaan

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Nov 8, 2017
13,362
I dont know about worst ever but the story is bad, yes. Five or six hours of parents arguing with each other. Then suddenly they just start being nice. It feels very unearned. The book is so annoying too.

I had two parents who argued a lot. They would get into similar "bitch eating crackers" territory at times. They should have been divorced but stuck together for my sister and I. But there is something deeply inauthentic about the dialogue and characterisation in this game. It felt nothing like what that was like. The story here was extremely... I dunno, 80s or 90s Hollywood writing.

And yes the elephant scene is very very awful.

As you note this is in stark contrast to the gameplay which is excellent and highly creative.
 
The Unsent

The Unsent

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Oct 25, 2017
19,521
I don't know if there's a consensus there, I've seen Fallout 3 get a lot of criticism for its story, as well as the main story, flashback structure in BOTW being pretty bare bones (don't see much criticism for the side quest writing)
 
Eddman

Eddman

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Oct 27, 2017
658
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I loved the game, but I agree on the story; that poor girl deserved better parents and the elephant stuff was not needed at all.

Perhaps it works if you see it as some kind of Married with children/Simpsons/Malcolm satire to make fun of an exaggerated dysfunctional first world family?

On the other hand, I didn't think they only stayed together for the kid; they realized they just gave up on each other but at the end they mutually felt it was worth it to give the relationship another chance.
 
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phant0m

phant0m

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Oct 29, 2017
3,361
Gotta say no. Cody and May were terrible people and I think the game did a good job of communicating that based on the thread here. Yes the elephant scene was fucked and rightly prompted strong reactions of disgust which imo means the message is effective.

I could see an argument that they didn't have make them complete idiots/selfish assholes and could've had a game just as fun which is probably true. But they didn't, and I thought they were idiotic selfish assholes. 🤷‍♂️

Anyway, an absolute joy to play and my GOTY.
 
OP
OP
ItWasMeantToBe19

ItWasMeantToBe19

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Oct 26, 2017
20,440
dude said:
Didn't Death Stranding win GoTY? Because it was definitely worse.
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Death Stranding, RE4, Skyrim, Fallout 3, and Oblivion are the five games that you can argue have even worse stories. Death Stranding won 80 GotY awards compared to 79 for Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 2 won more awards from critics.

(I like RE4's story a lot to be clear, lol)
 
Dr. Mario

Dr. Mario

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Oct 27, 2017
14,042
Netherlands
Yeah my wife didn't want to finish it. The game sadly drags. Story goes nowhere for long stretches, and fails to create empathy for the main characters. A lot of the gameplay elements are pretty well done, but at some time we had our fill.
 
AgentOtaku

AgentOtaku

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Oct 27, 2017
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samred said:
It Takes Two has one of the worst gaming stories I've ever experienced, not to mention one of the most clueless interpretations of married characters I've ever seen in ANY format. Josef Fares flunked this script, and I'm concerned about the evolving shape of games criticism, insofar as few pedigree critics showing up to condemn the plot/script during the review period.

I continue to recommend that anyone who plays the game skip every single cut scene as one way to salvage the clever asymmetrical co-op moments. But even that doesn't tape up some of the worst stuff.
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Amen
 
AvianAviator

AvianAviator

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Jun 23, 2021
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The elephant scene was bad but man, it gave me a great memory. I was playing with my fiance and our 3 roommates walked in when the scene started. They looked over out of curiosity but ended up staying, by the end of it all 5 of us had our mouths gaping open, like "yo, did that really just happen? Did they really just make you do that?"
 
CloseTalker

CloseTalker

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Oct 25, 2017
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I'd take it over Walking Dead and Dragon Age any day of the year

edit of you mean specifically the writing. um, Death Stranding is probably worse there
 
jaymzi

jaymzi

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Jul 22, 2019
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At least Death Stranding has a hopeful and important message at its core.

What was It Takes Two even trying to say?
 
Shadow2222

Shadow2222

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Oct 27, 2017
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I liked the story and the elephant scene was absolutely hilarious. It wasn't a masterpiece, but did the job.
 
Starlatine

Starlatine

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Oct 28, 2017
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Fallout 3, specially base game, is actually worse
So much that they had to release a dlc to (try to) fix it because it was that stupid
 
DarthWalden

DarthWalden

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Oct 27, 2017
6,030
Yeah, it was a fun game to playthrough with my Son but the story bits are awful and it just gets worse and worse the closer you get till the end.

I did kind of like the metaphor of a divorced couple being forced to work together to achieve a common goal but that was about it.
 
Pancracio17

Pancracio17

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Oct 29, 2017
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Death Stranding competes with it. But yeah.

Death Stranding has better performances though, maybe due to the all star Hollywood tier cast.
 
TechnicPuppet

TechnicPuppet

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Oct 28, 2017
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I'm not sure if it's the worst written but it's awful. Every bit of dialogue and the story is written and performed badly.
 
Argentil

Argentil

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Oct 27, 2017
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dude said:
Didn't Death Stranding win GoTY? Because it was definitely worse.
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If it weren't for the last hour of Death Stranding, I would agree. There are some real stinkers in there, but they pulled out some strong moments that really tied things together right at the end. It doesn't make up for the worst parts, but it elevates it a step above being the worst thing that year.

Good god I hope Kojima pulls it together in the next game, whatever it is. Please have someone else write your women as well, that might help.
 
Ailanthium

Ailanthium

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Oct 27, 2017
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Firefly said:
Probably not because TLOU2 and Death Stranding exists.
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You can dislike TLOU2 all you want, but on no planet is the story badly written. Death Stranding is a lot more arguable because it's both really weird and has dialogue that's completely alien, but I personally think there's a lot that's interesting about it and there are scenes where the writing is really good, but that's partly because of some really good deliveries.

On topic... Breath of the Wild barely has any writing at all but I do think what exists is pretty well-written and fleshed out with likeable and flawed characters. KOTOR hasn't aged super well but the overall thrust behind it is still really solid so I think some flaws in its writing can be forgiven. Resident Evil 2 Remake is, well, also written like a twenty year old game, but it's charming enough and I came away with it generally liking the characters involved. Sekiro deserves to be on this list but FromSoft writing is kind of a different beast and is difficult to analyze in the same way others are, but it is pretty good, in my opinion.

Any game that came out before, like, 2010 is hard to strictly compare because standards were so different back then, as were audience expectations and preferences. A lot of games weren't really trying to achieve that high level of writing and had like, artists and programmers taking up that mantle. That's not to say there's not good writing from that time, far from it, but the cream of the crop wasn't necessarily expected to and other things were more important.
 
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Wolf

Wolf

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Oct 25, 2017
4,887
Of the list you provided, I'd give that to Telltale's TWD, personally. I also don't give a shit about TLoU or Death Stranding, but that's just me. It Takes Two was an incredible experience IMO and the variety of coop puzzles they came with blew me away.

The elephant torture scene was super weird and uncomfortable though. A really rough spot in an otherwise awesome game.
 
vixolus

vixolus

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Sep 22, 2020
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dude said:
Didn't Death Stranding win GoTY? Because it was definitely worse.
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This lol. I thought the elephant scene was funny. The ending of the game was meh but i didnt find the overall story and writing to be that awful. Death Stranding is actually painful to listen to
 
PucePikmin

PucePikmin

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Apr 26, 2018
3,923
I think people try to read too much into It Takes Two -- it's just a 80s/90s-style family divorce dramedy with a few edgy bits thrown in. It's not that deep, but at least it's genuinely funny in parts (I for one, enjoyed the elephant scene) and I cared about the parents by the end, so it's still better than most game writing.
 
FallenGrace

FallenGrace

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Oct 27, 2017
6,058
AgentOtaku said:
Made a thread about this awhile back but yes, it's absolutely FUCKING AWFUL. My wife and I STRUGGLED to finish it.
Cody and May are probably some of the worst goddamn parents and characters I've seen in a long time.
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All of this. The dialogue and cutscenes are all just so painful. I played with a friend and we barely got through. How this got GOTY anywhere is beyond me. The writing is so bad. The characters are insufferable and I don't care if its intentional, it's not enjoyable.
 
KORNdog

KORNdog

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Oct 30, 2017
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The story, script, and VO are hilariously bad.

But it's an excellent GAME! I didn't really miss the context of why when I was having so much fun just "doing"
 
Rodelero

Rodelero

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Oct 27, 2017
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I never tried to take it remotely seriously -- my friend and I enjoyed it a lot. Plenty of laughs throughout.
 
The Unsent

The Unsent

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Oct 25, 2017
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Ailanthium said:
You can dislike TLOU2 all you want, but on no planet is the story badly written. Death Stranding is a lot more arguable because it's both really weird and has dialogue that's completely alien, but I personally think there's a lot that's interesting about it and there are scenes where the writing is really good, but that's partly because of some really good deliveries.
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Your mileage may vary, I found The Last of Us 2's story was too heavy-handed,
like when they show the doctor looking after the zebra, imo there are plenty of cheesy moments 'remember this is the person you killed?'

But I feel like the well has been poisoned in a way, the people who really don't like Last of Us 2 have some really toxic reasons, and in general I can't even be bothered criticizing the story, because of how tiresome it got.
 
defaltoption

defaltoption

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
11,552
Austin
Not to derail, but you know I didn't realize Bethesda had 3 game of the years, Starfield comes out this year and you'd think it didn't exist based on the Elden ring goty talk.

On topic, I disagree, though to be fair I played through it at launch not expecting a goty and with my father of all people haha. I have no experience with divorce first or second hand so I just assumed they were two people who had grown apart and eventually be broken down by each other leading to they're flawed personalities.
 
BoxManLocke

BoxManLocke

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Oct 25, 2017
4,160
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Played it with my SO, we had to stop after 10 hours or so because I had to play something else but it was a relief for us both I think. It's very unlikely we'll get back to it.

The couple and the book thing are insufferable. The voice acting was grating, which is pretty rare nowadays.

I guess I enjoyed the gameplay variety somewhat but the levels dragged on too long for my liking as well.

I know quality, tailored coop experiences like these are rare but I hoped we'd strive for better than Josef Fares games.

Considering all the praise It Takes Two got, I guess not.
 
Messofanego

Messofanego

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Oct 25, 2017
26,594
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samred said:
It Takes Two has one of the worst gaming stories I've ever experienced, not to mention one of the most clueless interpretations of married characters I've ever seen in ANY format. Josef Fares flunked this script, and I'm concerned about the evolving shape of games criticism, insofar as few pedigree critics showing up to condemn the plot/script during the review period.

I continue to recommend that anyone who plays the game skip every single cut scene as one way to salvage the clever asymmetrical co-op moments. But even that doesn't tape up some of the worst stuff.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That's interesting about your disappointment in games criticism when it was the reviews criticising the writing of the game that made me end up not buying the game and I still haven't played it as those same critics continued the criticism into the GOTY list making. I just haven't come across reviews or later critiques praising the writing or story of the game but maybe it's just my internet bubble.
 
Justin Bailey

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Oct 28, 2017
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Cutie the elephant was a dark humor scene to hit home how horrible the parents were being at that point in the game. I think it did exactly what it set out to do.
 
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