Review
Played on: Xbox Series X
Released: 2018
Something hit home with the first Unravel, review here, especially being from Norway, with its Swedish countryside setting reminding me of home. The combination of the beautiful backdrops of typical Scandinavian landscapes and folk music, a story told through shadow characters, while you play a small yarn figure in a platformer in the foreground, was charming.
For those unfamiliar with either game, they’re 2D platformers with a strong 3D visual style. Depicting remote nature and buildings. You access each level through a playable hub world and each one contains a backdrop story of humans, depicted through ghost-like shadows. Its a visually unique way of storytelling and gives completion of each level more depth with the background story.
While I didn’t expect a sequel, it was pleasant seeing it happen. Unravel Two focuses on two Yarny characters this time around, allowing for more elaborate platforming puzzles. Playing solo requires you to switch between the two Yarnys, while playing coop allows two people to control each one.
Released: 2018
Something hit home with the first Unravel, review here, especially being from Norway, with its Swedish countryside setting reminding me of home. The combination of the beautiful backdrops of typical Scandinavian landscapes and folk music, a story told through shadow characters, while you play a small yarn figure in a platformer in the foreground, was charming.
For those unfamiliar with either game, they’re 2D platformers with a strong 3D visual style. Depicting remote nature and buildings. You access each level through a playable hub world and each one contains a backdrop story of humans, depicted through ghost-like shadows. Its a visually unique way of storytelling and gives completion of each level more depth with the background story.
While I didn’t expect a sequel, it was pleasant seeing it happen. Unravel Two focuses on two Yarny characters this time around, allowing for more elaborate platforming puzzles. Playing solo requires you to switch between the two Yarnys, while playing coop allows two people to control each one.
Coop play is the best choice, the experience flows better with less backtracking compared to control both characters by yourself. It also puts a different dimension to Unravel Two, differentiating itself greater from the first title.
Thankfully, the feature of using up all the string of yarn is gone, simply replaced by a limit of string length between the two Yarnys. Easier system to grasp and visually comprehend, as you'll see the whole string onscreen at any given moment.
With a framerate boost all the way up to 120fps, albeit locked at 1080p, Unravel Two on the Xbox Series X/S feels more responsive and less floaty than the original. There are a handful of new moves for Yarny to utilise too, making the second title a more solid platform experience than the first, in terms of actual gameplay.
Level environments and the music score is spot on, with a neat lighthouse working as the game's central hub this time around. Levels range from colourful, sunlit woodlands, to cold and dark night scenes at factories. Slightly more ambitious in its backdrops this time around, with an overall darker and moody tone, albeit it looks and sounds close to the first Unravel. It’s mostly the new and more complex puzzles that separates it from the first.
Thrown in for extra fun are level segments that move along quickly, where you’re chased by a fish or by water speeding down a wild river for example. These segments are entertaining, even more so in coop, where you're both clinging on to dear life as you jump from platform to platform to survive.
I still feel the first game nailed that perfect Scandinavian summer magic better, the second game is a little darker. However, it controls more precisely and the coop addition is a warm welcome indeed. Even smaller kids can play, cleverly they can hand control over to the other player if they can’t get past a certain part.
A sequel that does mostly the same as the first: keeping the atmosphere, music style and adding tiny improvements here and there. It should perhaps have stood out more do differentiate itself, still a worthy and charming sequel though!
