Sights & Sounds
- The graphics are quite good, or at least the narrow slice within the fully-rendered depth of field that contains the player characters is. Objects in the foreground and background are blurrier than their respective distances should dictate, so it can be a little hard to look at until your eyes adjust
- Beyond the partially fancy graphics, the most impressive part of the game is the yarn physics. Sure, it's a little floaty, but the realistic way that you can see gravity and tension modeled for the string connecting the two characters is really cool
- The music was fairly good. Lots of orchestral arrangements like you tend to see from these mega-publisher prestige arthouse entries. If I could make sense of any aspect of the story happening in the background, I might understand why the score is so emotionally charged

Story & Vibes
- Speaking of the story, I have no idea what's going on with the plot. Why do those adult ghosts hate those kid ghosts so badly? It honestly makes no sense when you're just playing as a couple of yarn people bouncing around and solving puzzles in the foreground
- I suspect the story is intentionally vague, but then why make it so dire and frantic? The first Unravel handled this much more effectively by portraying little heartfelt family vignettes in the background instead. The journey of the characters through the seasons reflected the aging and maturing of a family. It was thoughtful and poignant. The whole experience of Unravel Two, conversely, is incredibly discordant and awkward
- I like how the background ghosts' irrelevant plot sometimes affects the environment your puzzle solving. This intriguing blend of story and gameplay would have been dramatically more impactful if the narrative made even a crumb of sense

Playability & Replayability
- Impenetrable plot aside, the gameplay works well from a mechanical perspective. Swinging, jumping, and bouncing all feel natural outside of some slight floatiness
- Unfortunately, the puzzles feel like a step back from the first game in terms of complexity. If you're playing with a friend, you will absolutely blaze through this game without having to think too hard
- The platforming aspects of the game also fail to present many challenges, though more than the puzzles do, at least
- The gameplay isn't though devoid of rewards, thankfully, though really enjoying the game does require a second player. Absolutely nailing a puzzle that requires some platforming chops while in perfect sync with whichever friend/spouse/partner/sibling/pet you're playing with does feel pretty great

Overall Impressions & Performance
- After being left with a pretty good impression of the first game, Unravel Two was a little bit of a letdown
- I played the game with my wife, who enjoyed the game much more than I did. Maybe take some of my negativity with a grain of salt
- The game ran well, at least, though you'll have to deal with EA's launcher

Final Verdict
- 5.5/10. Very soft recommend. The game is a passably enjoyable multiplayer experience if you can ignore the pointless background story and forget that the first Unravel is a superior experience. I don't think I would recommend Unravel Two for the solo player since playing alone would obviate the game's major redeeming quality

Unravel Two is an awesome couch co-op experience that maintains all of the fun you’d want in a two player game, while delivering a layer of subtle intrigue with its story.

Though the narrative isn’t told quite as well or ambitiously as something like “Inside”, it still manages to keep you wanting to know where it will go.

There’s really well designed levels, and some really cool mechanics that make it really fun, and it’s runtime is short enough that it never gets too repetitive.

There's a strong co-op experience in Unravel Two's gameplay, but every aspect of the presentation is determined to obscure that fact.

The visuals go for a realistic style which constantly works against the visual clarity needed for a co-op platformer. Frequently, my girlfriend and I were just not on the same page at all, each of us having a different understanding of what aspect of the environment was foreground or background (sometimes we were both wrong). It may be possible to execute an art style like this and not create so much ambiguity, but if so Unravel Two is a million miles away.

Why does it go for this style? For some reason, Unravel Two fancies itself a cerebral experience, high-art. That's why the level names all have "poetic" secondary titles against a backdrop of (laggy) ocean waves, and why there's an incomprehensible story of shadowy children being chased by... zombies (???) going on in the background. These elements only serve to annoy and illuminate little about the universal message of co-operation Unravel Two is supposedly aiming for.

It's pretentious, and I hate to make that accusation. I think people can be too willing to throw that label around whenever a piece of art dares to test patience or try something experimental, but Unravel Two does neither of those things. It's just a bad, clumsy work of art overlaying a decent co-op platformer.

gonna go on record to say this is the game that got me into games. my roommate got a switch and we'd play mario kart which I used to play when I was a kid and we had a gamecube. then they bought this game and I got kinda obsessed with this, playing the little puzzles and falling in love with the yarn babies. it was the first game I'd ever finished, and didn't even realize game could be finished unlike mario which is just like a 'play forever' kinda game. anyway this game is addicting and cute and I love it so much