The Perfect Co-op Game To Play
This is why I love reviewing games. Maybe a few times a year, a game with no press bluster or hype blows me away. These are the best ones: my armour is down, I have zero expectations and I’m taken aback. That’s when I get to be a hipster and recommend something unknown to my gamer mates.
It would be a little unfair to start with a paragraph like that and say it doesn’t apply to Lost Twins 2. But we can reassure and say with firmness that Lost Twins 2 is one of those precious few games. No hype, just quality. We hadn’t heard of Lost Twins 1, let alone 2.
It’s also a type of game that I wish there were more of. Similar to Hazelight’s It Takes Two and Split Fiction, this is a cooperative experience that is hugely accessible. If you’re like me and have a partner who wouldn’t consider themselves a gamer, or is outright suspicious of video games, then this is a game to broach them with.
Doing The Shuffle
Writing about Lost Twins 2 makes it sound more complex than it really is. Each player plays one of the titular twins, Abi and Ben. They find themselves separated from each other within forty or so levels, and their immediate goal is to regroup at a Phoenix located somewhere within each level. By doing so, they can move on to the next and then the next.
Without context, the levels seem oddly constructed. Platforms end in nothingness. Walls block paths. The Phoenix might hang, unreachable, in the middle of a chasm. This is where a tap of RT comes in.
RT accesses the shuffle screen. Here, you can see the level broken down into a 2×2 set of squares. Abi might be in the top-left square, Ben in the bottom-right. Now, with a jab of the analogue stick, you can shuffle these squares about. Think of the sliding puzzles you might have played as a kid, but the pieces are fragments of a platformer.
With a quick shuffle, that blocking wall might get unblocked, leading to an open path. Platforms might join up. Blocked holes are now pits for you to fall through. This simple shuffle tool allows you to piece together a level that leads you to your goal.
It All Goes A Bit Rube Goldberg
With such a simple mechanic to play with, the Playdew team has fun. Boulders can be rolled from one screen to the next, before plummeting them through holes and smashing glass domes. Batteries can be dropped off cliffs into battery packs, which in turn power fans. Abi and Ben can hop on a flying bug that makes short work of a level, but they both have to get there first.
There must have been an incredible temptation from the designers of Lost Twins 2 to broaden the 2×2 grid to a greater number of squares. 3×2 squares and greater would have led to increased permutations and more intricate puzzles. But it would have been a wholly different game at that point, and not an accessible one. Kids and non-gamers might not be capable of falling in love with it as much as we did.
Instead of ramping up its base difficulty, Lost Twins 2 adds in optional challenges. If you want to push yourself, why not collect the Phoenix feathers and t-shirts in the level? Better yet, if you’ve completed the game, why not reverse back to complete Lost Twins 2’s expertly pitched Achievements? More games should follow its cues: they are designed in such a way to get you playing in obtuse and twitchy manners, turning each level into something else entirely.
Lovers, Not Fighters
We expected to be at odds with each other, arguing over who shuffles the room, perhaps, as only one player can manhandle them at once. But Lost Twins 2 dodges this issue by being asymmetrical. You’re both in different parts of the level with different obstacles, so you’re largely working separately until you come together. It leads to feelings of coordination and friendliness rather than Overcooked!-style bickering.
What stops Lost Twins 2 short of Braid-like greatness is a lack of investment in its world. There’s no story to speak of, which we can live with, but there’s nothing in its world to latch onto either. The Phoenix, the bug, the t-shirts and the DUPLO toy blocks in its latter levels: none of these feel drawn from a consistent world, and the result is a game that plays like disconnected puzzles. Considering the care and artfulness that has gone into the visual design, it’s hard not to imagine a version of Lost Twins 2 where the world is less hollow.
Nailing The Co-op
But let’s hand Lost Twins 2 its laurels. Making a cooperative game that delights the experienced gamer just as much as the inexperienced is witchcraft. Only Hazelight can do it consistently. But in comes Lost Twins 2 who nails that AND arrives with an innovative mechanic. Take that, It Takes Two.
Important Links
Lost Twins 2 Seeks to Capture the Magic of Split Fiction – https://www.thexboxhub.com/lost-twins-2-seeks-to-capture-the-magic-of-split-fiction/
Buy Lost Twins 2 on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/lost-twins-2/9nh600hw7hdg
