Review for Unravel Two. Game for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 09/06/2018 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 22/03/2019
It's spring also for indies: made up of small studies, heart and passion, this category of games has blossomed into new flowering in recent years, often becoming synonymous with a different, thoughtful video game, expanding its audience to an increasingly vast number of fans. Three years ago, for example, he saw the light Unravel, creature of this Swedish development house in which a little red thread creature called Yarny had to be guided and which immediately struck with its delicacy. It hit so hard that it convinced Electronic Arts to bet on this small house that evokes the magical Scandinavian forests only from the name, Coldwood Interactive, and to shape a sequel that evoked the emotions of Unravel more and more.
So Unravel Two landed first on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and then, almost a year later, on Nintendo Switch.
The legend of the red thread
In the review of the first Unravel we wrote about how the red thread of which Yarny was composed evoked one Chinese legend who wanted everyone to be born with a red thread tied around the little finger that bound him with his soul mate. If this image is very romantic, in Unravel Two this ceases to be legend: that "two" is not only to indicate the second iteration of the title, but also because this time there are two of Yarny. The title is actually unrelated to the first and is not a sequel to the letter, narrating a red Yarny who meets another similar, neglected by time - or perhaps another similar one, who can say? - and sees the two indissolubly linked with a thread.
Coldwood Interactive's vision for Unravel Two shines through as full of love and care, by which we do not only mean that of a couple, but fraternal, filial: an adventure born with a vibrant collaboration in mind. The title was designed with a co-op that you can take and leave at any time and which does not have the same elegance when played alone, although it is possible. The target of the Coldwood boys was different: they wanted to tell a story and they wanted to tell it in two, make it ring in two bells and be perceived in two beings of thread.
The story of Unravel Two is very smoky, but it has a more symbolic than sovereign function. It is free to interpret, but it certainly is one story about the richness of ties. Martin Sahlin himself, creative director of both games released so far, had declared that 2015 had been a particularly difficult year for him and that Unravel was born from that pain. Take something terrible and turn it into something great: in this Unravel Two is a great little game, because a video game, in addition to being fun, must also send a message and in this it is loud and clear, as clear as the two Yarnys whose job is to restore light to a lighthouse after a stormy night.
Sahlin described the Yarnys as the personification of positive emotions, little helpers who appear when needed, and that is why, indirectly, the two little creatures end up following the adventures in the background of two boys (friends? In love?) Who they live their youth with the adult world at their heels. The silent boys, real ghosts from the point of view of the protagonists, are destined to cement the memory of their adolescence with the right dose of lightheartedness and recklessness, and we to follow them hand in hand, curious about their deeds.
In two you can overcome everything
The cooperation that is the heart of this second chapter, as we have said, is managed in a very free way: a player can enter the game and leave it by pressing two buttons, taking control of the second Yarny identified with the electric blue color, while the first character is the red one - at least in the beginning. Coldwood has implemented the creator customization feature in Unravel Two: by going to the game menu it will be possible to change eyes, body, color and shape of the head. The latter change the extremity of the Yarny and are unlocked by winning some challenges apart from the main adventure, consisting of seven chapters, while the colors will be available immediately going to fill the whole spectrum, from green to yellow through a white blinding.
As a result, the threads that the Yarnys can throw from their bodies like vines will also change, which is the main form of platforming beyond the classic jump. Through it it will be possible to swing between the branches or form trampolines and if there is no secure grip then one Yarny will be able to hold the other's wire firmly to make him swing over. Two other useful features that we really appreciated were the ability to complete a puzzle with one Yarny and rewind the naturally extended thread to retrieve the other Yarny left behind and the ability for the protagonists to merge and maybe help a less experienced player to continue together. in the same woolly and iridescent body.
In single mode, the player will have the task of controlling both Yarnys taking control now of one hour of the other with a button: in doing so it assumes a more tactical and more "unnatural" connotation between the due quotation marks; nevertheless in both cases the commands appear more precise than it seems and the everything flows very smoothly with the possibility, moreover, in the options, to prefer graphics or frame rate. In the Nintendo Switch version we tested it is not noticeable if Coldwood had to make compromises and indeed we never had to touch the option for more fluidity, as well as the ability to slow some puzzles up to three times if they are too fast.
It will be possible to solve many of them only with an alchemy between the two players and yet, at the same time, the puzzles of the main adventure never turn out to be bizarre or contrived, but measured and feasible. For each puzzle that is more difficult Unravel Two comes to meet you with suggestions that you can make appear on the screen at will, optional aids that are not blatantly blunt in the face but gradual, that is to say that the solution of a particular puzzle is divided into three levels, gradually more and more clarifying and it is the player who decides whether to have a help or a more decisive help, without it taking away the joy of resolution.
A quiet and allegorical world
Silent and full of details, the 2.5D world seen in miniature sees the characters move between shores, Nordic forests and bucolic haunts directed by a guiding light, all accompanied by music composed by Frida Johansson and Henrik Oja, which return from the previous chapter with orchestral and relaxing pieces, but also capable of being pressing, to the point of becoming, between violins and drums, a strength of the title. The levels appear varied and an enchantment at every step taken, thanks to a solid artistic direction, but this does not mean that for the Yarny life is all pink and flowers: some specimens of the animal kingdom will give a lot of "hard time" to the little creatures who we will control and some dark creatures will be a constant in the course of the adventure, which one touch will be enough to dissolve.
In the symbolism of the world of Unravel, if the Yarnys are positive emotions, the direct antagonists are negative emotions that stagnate and pollute a place, desecrating it in the woolly eyes of these highly empathic figures, who create a bond with young people and their businesses daredevil.
In its portable mode, the camera proves more merciless because you have to juggle with a smaller screen and even smaller Yarnys, despite getting used to it. This is especially true with the challenges, platforming tests and reasoning without any possibility of help from the game ranging from easy, harder and harder. The purpose of the challenges is to free other Yarnys like the two protagonists and get other customization options in return and both Yarnys must reach the goal to free their friends.
We tried some and although the difficulty was often "distorted" or in any case relative, these have the advantage of prolonging the experience in the world of Unravel Two as it was not possible to do in the prequel. Some of them - the platforming ones, which require a certain readiness - have a trial and error system in which you can expect to die hundreds of times. From Unravel they return instead collectibles, which unfortunately, in the same way as the original game, leave the time they find, having neither a plot explanation nor giving any prize to the player for having collected them.
The idea of Unravel Two goes very well with a hybrid console like Nintendo Switch, but the recommended way to fully live is the big screen with the dock. Again, we must consider that the port on Switch does not bring with it any additional functions and is sold at a higher price I respect the competitors because of the alleged “Switch Tax” and that therefore the work of Coldwood Interactive was “limited” to transmigrating Unravel Two without any bonus for the several months of waiting. As mentioned, the title is made up of 7 main chapters that wind through the lighthouse. The choice to know in advance of how many chapters Unravel Two is composed did not make us crazy and in light of the increased price on Nintendo Switch, the adventure appears short, shorter than Unravel, so much so that even the ending appears a bit hasty.
In conclusion, Unravel Two returns an almost melancholy atmosphere: we can only be attracted by those shadows in the background that help each other and smile embarrassed while it is raining outside and remind us that the most important things are the small, everyday ones, values such as true friendship and love.
With Unravel Two, Coldwood Interactive brings a well-balanced cooperative adventure to the Nintendo Switch, impalpable in its lightness but full of meaning. The game is very forgiving during the main campaign and reasoned during the challenges. Although it has an unfairly higher price on the Switch and is rather short, Electronic Arts has bet well on the Swedish studio and we can recommend the purchase of an experience created to be done in pairs, but which is also usable individually, with a nostalgic flavor, which teaches us through two little woolly creatures that we all deserve to be here, regardless of our shape and our color.
► Unravel Two is a Platform-Puzzle type game developed and published by Electronic Arts for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 09/06/2018 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 22/03/2019
