This game is STUNNING. Had such a lovely time playing this with my player 2!!

The only reason I didn't go for the full 5 stars is because the story line (or lack thereof) was pretty confusing. The whole time we were trying to piece together the story, but in the end... There really wasn't one? Which was a little bit of a shame since it did kind of take away from the whole experience in the end since the ending felt a little incomplete.

But the journey was so fun. The little yarny characters are so cute. I loved the way you had to interact with one another to make it through each level.

10/10 great date night game 🧶

Unravel Two is a fantastic co-op experience, but I'm not going to argue it is some kind of misunderstood masterpiece.

The story is almost incomprehensible, and the gameplay rather repetitive, but when your primary mechanic is so satisfying to use it almost doesn't matter.
The little flips and animations the characters do are so charming and fun, it was hard for me to get bored of them despite the rather repetitious puzzles and level design.

This game is awesome and relaxing at the same time, and it's the perfect length to boot. I kinda love it. Even if it isn't all that impressive technically, it nails the fundamentals so well that any criticisms I do have feel incredibly minor.

"Confused" is the best word I can use to describe Unravel Two. The gameplay and controls feel better and are more fluid than the first game but it resulted in a loss in identity. The first Unravel is a lot jankier but also knew what it wanted to be and what story it wanted to tell. This game decided "I'm going to be a better video game!" but now it feels shallow and going through the motions of the previous Unravel.

At its core, Unravel Two wants to be a cozy co-op experience with some stunning background visuals and a beautiful soundtrack - and for the most part it does this well - but then the game makes a lot of strange choices like making the levels 30 minutes long with unskippable cutscenes, making it a chore to replay anything in this otherwise short game. And, trust me, Unravel Two wants you to replay the levels, because each level has speedrun and no death challenges with rewards and trophies/achievements attached to them.

I enjoy a good hard puzzle platformer but this game feels ill-suited for that role, especially if the level I'm speedrunning has an unskippable narrative of a child fleeing from an abusive family playing in the background. Watch as this terrified child is struggling to hold the door closed as you and your fellow video game partner employ frame-skipping strats to get out of the bedroom in the least amount of time so you get that gold medal. Uh oh, looks like you got silver on the level where two kids accidentally start a forest fire and struggle to free a bunch of horses from a burning barn! It's just the tiniest bit tone-deaf?

The choice to add a handful of short challenge levels was a good one, and I can't help but wonder if it would've been a better idea to go with a level structure closer to the challenge levels' format rather than "Hey Yarny and Other Yarny, you think this level is over, but surprise! There's a chase sequence!". I got way more invested in saving the little Yarnys than whatever was going on with the story of the two orphans in the main levels.

Finally, there's character customization! I... don't really understand why this game has character customization, but if you play this game on a PS5, the light on the controller changes color to match your selected Yarny and that's really cute.

why does a couch co-op game about two sentient yarn creatures go this HARD?!

I played this with my non-gamer sister and we both had a phenomenal time. The music SLAPS, the puzzles are clever, and the movement is so fun to improve at.

My only issue is that it is way too short. Just when you get into the swing of things (heheh) the game ends. I WANT MORE! The game expects you to replay the seven levels and attempt the challenges to get your money's worth.

Unravel Two is less of a follow-up and more of a reboot - it occupies that same grey area Super Mario Galaxy 2 did wherein you’re playing as the same character experiencing a new adventure, but without any pre-existing plot threads (no pun intended), thereby preventing it from being considered a standalone sequel. In the first game you were collecting memories of yonder from an older woman (or so I interpreted); this time around, you’re aiding two kids trying to escape from an unknown group of men. I don’t know whether the yarn protagonists are representations of the kids or separate entities altogether (as was the case with Unravel 1), but it’s not really important given that narratives are rarely the selling point of platformers.

And yes, I say protagonists because a big shift with 2 is its implementation of a couch co-op scheme. You have a pair of yarn figures, each controlled by a separate player, and while you technically are given the option to play solo and simply swap between the two, it seems like it’d be more frustrating than anything given the precise maneuvering required for some of the levels and challenge areas (more on that below).

Graphically, Unravel 2 has seen some upticks from its predecessor due to the PhyreEngine reportedly getting modified. I’m not going to talk too much about it since the changes aren’t radical (read my review of the first game here for more in-depth remarks- https://backloggd.com/u/RedBackLoggd/review/549125/), however I was particularly impressed by the depiction of water, grass, and debris- there were times where I thought I was witnessing a preconceived cutscene from a major animation studio only for it to be purely rendered in-game, and it really is saying something when the quality is comparable to effects witnessed in contemporary Call of Duty releases.

Sound, unfortunately, has not been improved. What you had in the first Unravel was fine, particularly the rope SFX, but bounding, dashing, and general stomping dins were minimalized in spite of the varied exteriors, and that remains the case here. I know some people will argue that you’re controlling very light entities with barely any mass, however I’d counter by saying that, if we take that argument to its logical conclusion, then you shouldn’t be hearing anything. I mean really, grab a ball of yarn and toss it onto a surface and tell me you discern any noise: it just isn’t natural to its physical properties. The point of video games, particularly fantasy ones like Unravel, is to immerse players in a new world, and a strong soundscape is key to that task, which I felt Coldwood Interactive faltered in creating. In addition, there were moments where things felt aurally off, like falling into water yielding an unnaturally big splash, and stepping on certain rooftops giving off a crunchy crackle despite there being no visible snow or gravel.

Luckily, the score more than steps up to the larger scope of the sequel. I lavished a lot of praise for Frida Johansson and Henrik Oja’s OST in the first Unravel, and here they’ve amplified their tunes to an even greater degree. Though fans will note less of a reliance on stringed instruments this time around, the greater diversity of musical sources ends up adding to an invigorating experience that more than evokes an epic feel. The only qualm I had with the compositions was the overreliance on this one sad-sounding leitmotif that would consistently pop-up, particularly in the first set of challenge stages, though I acknowledge this was more of a music editing issue than any problem with the track itself.

Gameplay-wise, a few shifts have been made from the first game. You can actually swim instead of near-insta drowning; knots can be remotely untied; rope checkpoints are removed in favor of limiting you with a shared string between partners; and you’re able to wall jump. These definitely go a long way towards giving Unravel 2 an ergonomic upgrade that puts it more in-line with other platformers; however, the level design still isn’t where it needs to be. In the first game, my biggest issue was the repetitive implementation of certain puzzles, specifically having to craft rope bridges to drag mobile objects across, and while those have been significantly diminished in the sequel, the bad news is they’ve been replaced by web-slinging. No seriously, the amount of times you and your partner will have to grapple onto an attachable point and Hooke’s Law yourself onto a higher plateau is ridiculous (I swear the last half of the final level is literally a reenactment of the “thwip and release” scene from Into the Spider-verse). It’s an indication of the developers, once again, prioritizing graphical output and narrative junctures over more enticing gameplay structures, and though that will be fine for a sect of gamers, it unfortunately isn’t for me. That’s not to say there isn’t any creativity, but my point is it’s largely muddled under the adiposity of other ventures.

Does this directorial preference at least lend the story more weight? Well, unlike Unravel 1, you aren’t just periodically stopping to see Lion King-esque sky images dissipate after a few seconds; blurry cinematics adorn the backgrounds at set intervals, giving you glimpses of the kids as they try to escape. Seeing your yarnies actually play a part in their successful evasions certainly made things more investable than simply gathering tokens for Grandma, but the fact that you’re given no context about the whole situation inherently limits it. Despite the great Wikipedia synopsis, there is no indication in the game as to that interpretation- for all you know, these adolescents committed some flagrant mishap and the adults are merely trying to apprehend them. It bears noting, too, that the story has an uncanny resemblance to Playdead’s Inside (https://backloggd.com/u/RedBackLoggd/review/503037/), which doesn’t do it any favors in this department.

Besides the seven main levels, you have around 20 additional challenge stages that can be accessed at different stories of the Lighthouse hub, and which grant you additional skins upon being beaten. If the base game was too easy, then the challenges go in the opposite direction of being difficult to the point of unfairness. I know by stating this I come across as someone who cannot be satisfied, but there has to be a balance, and a number of these bonus areas do succeed in hitting that. Sadly, the majority of the others are painful for the sake of being painful: checkpoints are nonexistent, pinpoint accurate jockeying is required amidst permadeath toxic barriers, and enemies appear out of nowhere to screw up your platforming. Don’t get me wrong- I like a good exertion, and I’m happy to be proven wrong about Coldwood’s ability to craft harder obstacles, but delving into They Bleed Pixels territory (https://backloggd.com/u/RedBackLoggd/review/445594/) didn’t seem like the best answer to those criticisms.

I also wasn’t a big fan of that aforementioned lighthouse hub. I admit it’s a pet peeve of mine when games indulge in pointlessly extravagant hubs that add nothing to the main campaign (cough cough Super Mario Galaxy), and that was the case here- since the only thing you can do in it is access portals, why not just keep the interface simple?

In the end, I enjoyed Unravel Two about as much as its predecessor. It makes some impressive improvements, certainly offers more bang for your buck with the challenge stages, somehow has better music, and boasts pretty sweet customization options for your avatar. However, this is countered by neutered platforming, diminished SFX, and a story that ends on a pretty confusing note despite the greater focus. Not to mention this game is inherently limited by its couch coop -- unless you got someone nearby to play things with, you’re not going to have much fun switching back-and-forth ala Hannah and the Ice Caves from Neopets.

É legalzinho, no começo é bem interessante, resolução de puzzles maneira, mas só, com o tempo fica maçante, e repetitivo, além dos cenários sempre se misturarem com os lugares que você deve agarrar, então é muito provável que fique alguns minutos andando na FRENTE do objetivo, mas não perceba, porque ele vai estar camuflado.
Talvez seja um jogo que valha a pena pra um casal que não se preocupa em jogar alguns minutos por dia e demorar muito pra finalizar; Eu acabei jogando com minha namorada e a gente não suportava mais esse jogo na reta final.

A B-grade co-op physics puzzler interspersed with C-grade pure platforming, tagged along by a complete mess of a narrative about... two friends doing things together? A horrifically ugly bloom-and-blur hyper-realistic art direction interweaves a pitifully morose score. The tutorial level in particular is so depressing that less than a third of a third of all Steam players make it to level 2. How unsurprising.

Unravel Two genuinely has its moments when it reveals its craft in the two-player puzzles, all of which revolve around using your conjoined tether in interesting ways, but it is woefully distracted by compulsive desires to become a Spectacle Game, one where the levels have all-caps meta subtitles and the story contains Dark Scenes. This effort lands so embarrassingly flat and abruptly that it hardly feels like anything happened at all. It sort of feels like the game version of Oscar bait, where every design decision is made to generate a murmuring respect from inexperienced eyes and not to actually achieve anything of merit.

To capstone your adventure, a credits sequence overflowing with insecurity begs the players to not come down so harshly by showing how cool and worker-friendly Coldwood Interactive is-- then, right on cue, a huge EA logo scrolls up the screen.

Gostei muito das mecânicas desses dois jogos de Unravel, eu nem consigo explicar muito bem, mas é bem pensada, intuitiva e ainda brinca com a física dos personagens.

A gameplay é levemente diferente da do primeiro, nele eu já não tinha muito o que falar, nesse menos ainda. Isso faz dele ruim? Claro que não, pelo contrário, é mais um game simples e relaxante pra se jogar.

Não peguei a história de nenhum dos jogos, só tem em inglês no gamepass e é meio filosófico/interpretativo.