Takeover 2 Review: A Sharper, Meaner Arcade Brawler
Our Takeover 2 review covers the rebuilt parry combat, the four fighters, all three modes, co-op and whether the launch price is justified.
Takeover 2 is a faster, more technical sequel that rebuilds The TakeOver around parries, combo routing and improvised weapons. It is at its best as a local co-op score chase, and its weakest when you want a story or online play. Source: Takeover 2 on Steam ↗
Takeover 2 arrives seven years after the original, from the same solo developer, Athens-based Pelikan13. The first game was a loving Streets of Rage tribute with a cult following and a short list of obvious flaws: stiff movement, thin combat, no online co-op. The sequel's pitch is a direct answer to that list. Pelikan13 calls it a fully redesigned combat system, and the launch build backs that claim with parries, finishing moves, combo chains and a scoring layer that turns every stage into a repeatable challenge.
This review is based on the launch build's documented systems, the public demo, the official trailer and the store metadata, not a full clear of every difficulty. We say that up front because Takeover 2 is a small release with very few published reviews, and the difference between "promising systems" and "twenty hours of balanced content" is exactly what a first-week buyer needs to know.
What Takeover 2 actually is
A 2.5D side-scrolling beat 'em up for one or two players on the same screen. You pick one of four fighters, walk right through compact stages, clear enemy waves and fight a boss at the end. Between the fights the game throws weapons at you: buckets, traffic cones, tyres, pipes, axes, basketballs, trash cans and firearms. The environment is not decoration. It is the answer to crowd control.
The structure is arcade-first. There is no open world, no loot and no long cinematic campaign. Arcade Mode runs the full stage gauntlet. Challenge Mode gives you a route of combat trials with mission objectives and star ratings. Score Attack asks you to replay stages for a better number. Two bonus games, Jet Fury and Overtake, sit alongside the main campaign as arcade interludes rather than separate products.
At launch the store lists 11 achievements, five languages (English audio plus French, German, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese text), full controller support and Remote Play Together. It does not list online co-op, online PvP or cross-platform play. That absence matters more than any single mechanic.
The combat is the reason to care
The original The TakeOver asked you to mash a two-button combo and occasionally grab a bin. Takeover 2 asks you to read an enemy, parry the committed attack, then route the punish into a launcher, a juggle or a finisher. The parry is the centre of that loop. A successful parry stops the enemy cold, and the counter that follows is mapped to the punch button rather than a separate defensive action, which keeps your hands on the offensive layout.
That design has a cost. The demo's parry produced a noticeable slowdown effect, and some beat-'em-up players found it intrusive. The June 10 patch also removed the i-frames from the kick parry and reduced parry healing, which tells you the developer is deliberately keeping defence risky rather than turning it into a free reset. If you liked the parry in Fight'N Rage or the perfect-guard timing in Streets of Rage 4, this is the same conversation.
Combo chains are the second pillar. The HUD tracks hits and score in the corner, and the stage rank rewards variety and cleanliness rather than raw kill count. You can brute-force a stage with the same safe string, but you will not see an S rank for it. The interesting question is whether the full roster has enough distinct routing to make that climb feel different per character. The trailer suggests it does: Ethan leans on flaming kicks, Megan mixes acrobatics with gunplay, Connor is the heavy grappler and Amy fights on roller skates.
Four fighters, two players, no online
The roster is four: Ethan Rivers, Megan Brooks, Connor Grayson and Amy McKenna. Each has a defined silhouette and a different relationship to range. Connor wants to be close with heavy strikes and firearms; Amy wants motion and aerial angles; Ethan is the balanced martial artist; Megan is the fast mix-up character with acrobatic kicks and gunshots.
Local co-op is the headline feature. Two players share the screen, which changes crowd control completely: one player can hold a side while the other isolates a boss, and revive windows give the downed player a reason to keep watching. Remote Play Together covers the case where your second player is not in the room, but it is still a stream of a local session, not matchmaking. If you want to play with a stranger online, this is not that game.
The four-character roster is small for a brawler, and the achievement list confirms that the completion loop expects you to clear the game with all of them. That is a reasonable amount of replay for the price if you enjoy mastering routes. It is thin if you expect an unlock tree of ten fighters.
Modes and content
Arcade Mode is the campaign and the main measuring stick. Challenge Mode is the more interesting long-tail: fixed trials, unique objectives and a three-star rating that rewards precision over survival. Score Attack strips the stage down to a single performance. The two bonus games are deliberately retro: Jet Fury is a high-speed fighter survival shooter with kill quotas, and Overtake is a three-lap arcade racer where anything other than first is a loss.
If that sounds like a lot of disconnected pieces, it is, but the arcade framing holds them together. The bonus games are short, score-attack palate cleansers, not full campaigns. The main content is the stage gauntlet plus the challenge grid.
The launch build ships with 11 achievements. Most are reasonable: finish a stage with an S rank, land 20 parries in a clear, get 20 gun finishers, clear on Classic. The tail is much harder: Hardcore clear, Mania clear, full roster clear, and all Challenge Stages at three stars. The 0.1% completion rate on Absolute Takeover tells you the last one is a long project, not a weekend.
Presentation and performance
The art direction is comic-book arcade: thick outlines, saturated stage lighting, screen-shake on heavy hits and a HUD that looks like a 1990s cabinet. The trailer shows a wide spread of locations - a highway bridge, an arcade alley, a pink nightclub, a jungle facility with dinosaurs, a railway, a beach, a restaurant, a cage ring and a rooftop. Reusing the same engine across that variety is the sequel's biggest visual step up from the first game's city streets.
The PC requirements are modest: a GTX 1050 or GTX 950 at minimum, an RX 6600 or RTX 2060 recommended, 8 GB of RAM and 10 GB of storage. There is no official performance target on the store page, so treat those numbers as a compatibility floor rather than a 1080p60 promise. The game supports keyboard-only play and full controller support, and the demo is the cheapest way to check whether your machine holds frame rate during four-enemy waves.
The honest verdict
Buy Takeover 2 now if you have a second player, a controller and a taste for score chasing. The parry-centred combat is a real redesign rather than a marketing line, the stage variety is there, and the challenge grid gives the game a reason to stay installed after the credits. The launch discount brings it to $17.99, which is fair for a focused arcade brawler with local co-op.
Wait if you need online matchmaking, a substantial story, or a large roster. The sequel fixes the first game's combat, not its scope. It is still a short, repeated arcade game, and the review pool is tiny because almost nobody has published a full assessment yet. If you are unsure, play the demo first: it contains five stages and the core parry loop, and it will tell you more about the feel than any review can.
For the system-by-system breakdown, start with the combos guide→, then check the character roster→ and the boss list→. If you are still deciding between this and the 2019 original, the comparison page→ covers what actually changed.
FAQ
Is Takeover 2 a sequel or a remake?
It is a sequel to The TakeOver (2019), with a rebuilt combat system, a new four-character roster, new stages and two bonus games. It is not a remake of the first game's campaign.
Does Takeover 2 have online co-op?
No. The store lists local co-op, shared/split-screen co-op and Remote Play Together, but no online co-op or matchmaking. Remote Play Together lets a friend join a local session over the internet, but one player still hosts the game.
Is Takeover 2 worth $17.99?
Yes if you value local co-op and replayable score attack. No if you need online play or a long story. The demo is free and includes five stages, so try the parry timing before you buy.
Sources
- Takeover 2 on Steam ↗
- Steam news and patch notes ↗
- Takeover 2 achievements statistics ↗
- June 2026 press release on Games Press ↗
Official source: Takeover 2 on Steam ↗ Takeover 2 guides and walkthroughs