Second part of a gorgeous puzzle-platformer about Yarny - this time with a friend!

This was a surprise! I loved Unravel, the first game - it offered a relaxing experience, with wonderful environments and great mechanics, with clever use of the character - Yarny, a figure made out of yarn and using it to move around. So I was so excited about hearing about Unravel 2 being announced on E3 this year! And even more - quite a unique thing - released the instant it got announced! Got it in an instant ;)

The gameplay is very similar to the first game (yes I will compare them all the time!) - I think only wall jumping is a new thing. But! Those are still great mechanics - the yarn gives so many possibilities, and it’s just satisfying to do. The new thing is the co-op - but fear not, it’s still a totally viable single player game! In the game, you control 2 characters - either you can “merge” them into one (and separate them at will), or switch control between them, while the other one is waiting. This opens possibilities for different puzzles, where most of them are actually leveraging the need for 2 characters and are really fun because of that! It doesn’t force you at all to play it in multiplayer - but I’m sure it’s great fun to play it with someone. You need to cooperate what you do, and it won’t be that easy as doing that yourself ;) The only limitation of the co-op is that it’s local only - it’s a shame they didn’t implement any online co-op, but I guess you can’t have everything.. It’s definitely a great game for local co-op, even with someone who isn’t that much into games! Especially that most puzzles are not that hard (there is even some guiding light showing the way, and you can turn on some hint in the options), although some places are really getting most of the 2 characters usage and those puzzles might take you a bit longer to figure out! I think there’s a great balance there, which will not scare of casual players, but still give them a bit of a challenge once in a while.

The story in the game, is rather just a background. There is some story there, some “uncovering” what happened, but to be honest - it’s just a background, definitely not the core of the game. It’s kind of similar to the first game - and it’s not a flaw, it’s just something to move along the game, to make it about something, not just puzzle rooms. But, not the main thing really.

It’s still beautiful though - the environment looks great, lively, and yarnies look good too. The backgrounds and all environment elements - whether it’s nature or indoors, look really good and puzzles are fitting into the landscape. Unfortunately, the game suffers a bit from lack of optimization - it can quite often crunch and stutter a bit, which is quite annoying, especially in a time sensitive platformer like this one.

Music keeps the similar atmosphere as in the previous game - rather chilly, atmospheric, changing to more lively accordingly to the action on the screen. At the same time though, it didn’t caught my ear this time - I still listen to the Unravel OST sometimes, if I need a bit of chill. I’m not really remember any tune from this one, sadly. Also, some technical issues here - when switching from one track to another, the transitions weren’t smooth at all: either too long of a pause between them, or a very abrupt switch. It kind of broke the immersion and felt just wrong.

I had fun playing Unravel 2, although I have some dissonance when thinking about it. Definitely not as good as the first one - it’s probably because it’s mostly the same idea. One could say it’s more like a DLC for the game, especially considering how short it is. It also has some small technical issues, nothing game and experience breaking though. All in all, I still think it’s a decent game - giving a good casual gameplay, a relaxing experience and definitely something for fans of the first one. Also - a great option for couch co-op game, and it’s quite cheap too! Although it’s on Origin only :(

My rating: 8/10
Playtime: 4h
Tags: platformer  puzzle 
Unravel 2 on Origin