Unravel Two is a puzzle platformer that is a sequel to the first Unravel. It retains the charming nature with its protagonist, affectionately named Yarny, a character made of red yarn, and adds a partner, one made of blue yarn. The sequel puts an emphasis on two-player gameplay, although it is only available as local co-op. It is also playable as a single player experience and the developer has a well thought out control scheme to compensate for the lack of another player so you are not disadvantaged at all.
Carrying the same setting and aesthetic, the game takes place where normal everyday objects are enlarged, thanks to the protagonists’ small sizes. As a result, getting from one end of the room to the other is a challenge, requiring the two Yarny’s to jump, climb and swing their way around. The game adds several new abilities to Yarny, who can now jump, use its yarn as a lasso, swing, wall jump, swim and climb on certain surfaces. The single player control scheme has you controlling both Yarny’s, where you can swap who you are controlling at the press of a button. So that you aren’t running one Yarny to the other end, and then swap to the other so that it too can go to the objective, they can merge together into one.
The game is a sidescroller and a lot of the puzzles require the cooperation of both Yarny’s. For instance, the platform to move to the next section may be too high jump, so you can split up the Yarny’s, where one will anchor itself into place for the other to swing to it. Or one can hold an object into place while the other uses it as a ledge to reach a higher place. This allows the puzzles to require more thought and adds some variety when compared to the first game. It also doesn’t feel too cumbersome.
There are several quality-of-life improvements to the game. If you get stuck on a puzzle, you can bring up hints. There are three hints for each puzzle, each revealing more than the last, with the third one pretty much giving you the steps to get past the section. Not every section will have a hint section, so you may just have to keep experimenting to see how to get through a platforming section rather than a puzzle section. Then there is the slow motion mode, where you can slow the game down to make the platforming easier.
One major annoyance though are the enemies, black shadowy blobs that kill you instantly upon touch, requiring finesse for some of the platforming. They’re annoying, especially when the beginning of the game is fairly relaxed and chilled. Then they start appearing more than the occasional instance. Their aim is to add some “urgency” and “risk” into the game, which is not required. It forces you to rush the puzzles, effectively giving you a time limit on doing certain steps, instead of giving you the luxury of slowly thinking it through, so it’s a big blight of the game if you don’t like that style of gameplay. At least whenever Yarny dies to one, it only puts you at the start of that puzzle section, so you can immediately try again.
The platforming is physics based, you need to gain momentum when swinging, and objects will fall back down due to gravity. While most of the puzzles are not too hard, there are some where it can be confusing when playing solo. This is because you’ll need to switch your control between the two Yarny’s, which ican be very easy to mess up requiring you to restart the puzzle as Yarny either died or missed a critical jump. That said, no matter how many times you do it, yarn-slinging is heaps of fun and you’ll never get bored of it.
The story has a bigger scope. It begins with red Yarny out at the sea during a storm when he encounters are blue Yarny. After they are washed ashore, they decide to journey together and connect the ends of their yarn. A spark emerges, and while it is important in the story, it also lights up the objective during gameplay. Throughout their journey, memories are dredged up showing two young children who run away from home, and what happens to them.
The storytelling is in the background behind the two Yarny’s is fairly unique. Although it ends up being a somewhat abstract story as the ending doesn’t really show off or resolve that many things. There is also not enough time to bond with the two young children beyond seeing them run away and hiding from people, so you end up not really caring about their fates ultimately at the end.
Just like the original, this game is a bit short. There are seven levels in total and each level takes around half an hour to complete on your first go. Given that once you know what to do and can speed run them in 10 minutes with a lot of practice, this ultimately means it’s a four hour first playthrough. However, this is definitely one of those games that’s short and sweet, as well as that it doesn’t outstay its welcome. Most of the game is fun to play, although the chase scenes and those smoky enemies are the more annoying and unnecessary additions to the game. It also helps that the game is brilliant to look at, the graphics are pretty and due to the scale, there are several breath-taking scenes.
To extend the game a bit longer, each level has several optional things to do. The most obvious one are the collectibles scattered throughout. You can also attempt to beat the time trials and attempt no-death runs. Both of these are difficult and you will most likely end up in frustration as you attempt it multiple times to perfect your runs.
There are also 20 bonus levels, which are each comprised of one tough puzzle each. These levels are no joke, they are much harder than the ones found in the story levels. These will test not only your puzzle solving skills, but also your reflexes and skills at controlling Yarny. Naturally, attempting and succeeding at these can be a frustrating experience.
Overall, Unravel Two is a good sequel and a strong platformer. It’s impressive at how well the developer managed to create a co-op game that’s also fun and very achievable in single player. The story tries to be more complex and deeper than the first game but ultimately does not achieve much. The bright and colorful visuals are awesome, and the new additions to the platforming makes this a fun experience.
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