Unravel was developed by Coldwood Interactive , a small sweedish studio with afew games, and it was publish by Electonic Arts, mostly known as EA. More specifically the game was published under EA's subordinate team EA Originals.
The team that supports indie developers by funding their projects. The games were released in February 2016 for Unravel and two years later,in 2018 the sequel was developed and release from the same colaboration.
For their debute game,Unravel 1 was well received, scoring overall positive critics. The visuals of the game, the character design and the soundtrack captivated everyone who experienced the game early on. The same critisism applies till
this day.
The game had three release forms:
Standard
Included the game alone (available for Playstation & XBox)
Limited Yarny Edition
Included the game, and a crafted Yarny figure (available for Playstation & XBox)
Unravel Two
Included the game alone and it was only available for the Nintendo Switch.
Unravel: Bundle edition
Included both the games in an ultimate collection.Available for Playstation and XBox.
Story of the Game
Unravel
Unravel has a unique way of sharing it's story, it is a speechless game that does not share any dialog and expects the player to piece all the pieces together in order to learn the story. The game begins by introducing an old woman
looking out of her house window. She looks at a photograph of a baby and picks up a ball of yarn. As she leaves the scene, the ball of yarn rolls of the screen. The player is soon introduced to Yarny the protagonist of the game who
is formed by yarn and has a human design. The player is placed in the hub world. A small room where the player can look around and select a certain level to play. The levels are represented with picture frames found in the rooms. Every level
in the game seems to represent a scenery where something important happened to the womans life. Revisiting these areas show memories of happiness, sadness and overall unique life experiences. At the end of each playable level, Yarny collects
a yarn badge and places it in a photo album in the hub world. The player task is to collect all the badges and place them on the Album. Needless to say, the game an exceptionally good ending that will shock most of the players. As the player
places badges in the album they get to reveal a story that feels like it's content is directly referring to the player. It has a message that stands the test of time and depictions feelings that at some point every human alive will go through.
From the first love, to the first newborns , the feelings of lost and the feelings of hope.
Unravel two
Unravel Two, continued the magic of the first one, however it made things different by allowing the player to experience the story themselves or even share it with a friend through Local Co-op. This time around, a red Yarny got seperated
from it's home owner due to the storm that occured while they were sailing. It was washed ashore and completely cut off it's yarn. Near the shipwrecks it encounters another blue yarn and they connect their yarns into one. A spark occurs and a
spirit floats away. As a result the two Yarnies follow it around. They reach a light house that they take refugee on. the light house acts as the sequels hub world. This time around, the story doesn not foccused on the granny's life experience
but instead focusses on two children. These children seemed to be living in an adoption house and constalty being abused by the owners, leading them to escape through the window. The story takes place at the same time, the events occure concurrently
however none seems to acknowledge the presence of the yarnies. Throughout the adventure the children reach dead-ends but duo the yarnies help, they re capable of proceeding through all the obstacles. The game has a suiting ending for the adventure of
the children, and an unexpected ending for the yarnies.
Unlike the prequel, the second game Unravel two got more recognition and it was he nominated for a few awards, even claiming the Family Game of the year award in 2019.
Gameplay
Unravel is a platform puzzle game. The Yarnies move around in a 2D environment and try to use everything within the area to manuver around. There mobility though goes as far as their yarn can reach. In unravel one, checkpoints are represented as yarn that is
attached on wood. Once Yarnie approaches one, it is capable of combining it with it's body, thus extending it's size. at any point the player can move backwards and recollect his yarn,in order to try out a different path that might be shortened or untie a thread
to gain the extra centimeters. In the Sequel Unravel two, the players do not have to worry about their yarn left behind cause all they use is their body length. The ammount of yarn that they can use can be seen from the avatars themselves. Yarnies have a
decent body shape, however the more they extend their yarn the skinnier they become indicating that they are near their limits.
The game's control are simple and very similar for both the entires. the Player moves yarny with the L3 buttons. L3 is also used to move items around when moving towards movable objects. R2 is used for Yarnie to use it's lasso. The lasso is used to brab
on items,(visually represented with red sparkles. The grabbing can use to reach higher areas. Yarnie can grab on a surface and then climb it's yarn all the way up. X is the ability of jumping. Jumping and holding down will allow Yarnie to go down a level
and when jumping on a wall, the player is allowed to bounce of the wall. L2 is the pulling ability which can be used in collaboration with R2. The basic idea is that Yarnie grabs something with R2 and then pulls it towards it with L2. Square is used to tie
its yarn on a surface. This can be used to save a location. For example, in areas where the player has to jump from tree to tree using R2, player might feel safer if before jumping to the next tree, they tie their yarn on the tree they re currently hanging off.
Circle is used to grab objects with the hands. These might be collectable items or simply items that they need to place in order to proceed. The down arrow is the reset button that places the player to the last claimed checkpoint.
For the sequel, Unravel two, shares similar button mapping. The players move around with L3, Jump with X and use their lasso with R2. L2 can not only be used to pull items, but also to support the second Yarnie. When holding down L2 the player who pressed it gets
hold of the yarn that comnines them and the other player has a limitation towards their move. This mechanic can be used to give a boost to the second player, by allowing them to swing in order to build momentum and then release them in order to launch themselves.
It can also be used to carry the other player. For example, if player 1 succesfully reaches a high area where player two cannot reach, the first player can hold L2 so that player2 will climb up the yarn. Square is once again used to tie their yarn, tying the yarn
in two close lacations allow the Yarnies to bounce. Circle that was used to carry items in the sequel is used to untie the yarns, and unlike before the player can just click it from wherever within the map.(before the player had to walk to the combined area.
Holding down triangle can fuse the yarnies into one. This can be used to allow the player with the most experience to manuver around as one double colored Yarnie. L1 is used for ingame hints and the right and left arrow to manuver through these hints. The keypad
can also be used for emoting purposes. Last but not least R1 is used to activate slow motion.
Collectables
The games has three types of collectables:
Unravel: Coins
Unravel Two: Yarnie Cosmetics
Unravel two: Spirits.
The first thing found only within the first Unravel,is the sets of weird coins. Theres a total of 55 of them scattered through all the levels. Most of them can be easily seen visually, and its up to the player to find the path towards them while calculating
their yarn.
The second type of collectale are the yarnie comseticks that the hero can equip. Within the lighthouse, there are the stages, the players get to play, but also there are very small yet challenging levels where collaboration and communication are key factors
in order to win. These stages focus less in puzzle platforming but more on teamwork platforming. The goal of these levels is for the yarnies to reach a third Yarnie who is currently trapped. These Yarnieswill have either different head, different yarn color,
different shaped eyes or different body types. When the players successfully save the NPC they will receive one of the items that the NPC had unique to his design. At any point in the game, pressing option will open the pause menu where the playercan change
their appearance. The last type of collectable are the spirits. Unlike The first game, the sequel replace the coins with spirits that form a circle. Collecting them still does the coin sound . Theres a total of 43 around the levels and when all are collected
the players will receive a trophy.
Final thoughts
Overall these are fun and friendly games. The first Unravel takes a teaching form where it wants to take the player into a journey that wants to teach a lesson about life and how humans should encounter certain experiences. Just as Yarnie went
through all of that adventure just so he could finish the photo album for us the players to read. It's sequel, saw the potential the first one had, and went for a more teambased game with a story that doesnt have to teach the player something
visually or through notes. Through the adventure the players given they ve chosen the multiplayer experience learn to work as a team. Yet again the last statement might not be 100% accurate. It is a common thing, that when two players work as
a team, that one will always choose to troll making crazy choices of movement just to create a comedic scenario. Friendly trolling will always make for a pleasant experience, that noone knew they could have gotten out of the game. The visuals
of the game are stunning and the music that escorts each level mix together like sugar and coffee.
This is a video with my Honest review close to when i played the Game
