Unravel Two a game of simply staggering beauty
THE past half-decade or so in gaming has seen a steady flow of a new era of charming, thoughtful and ultimately magnificent side-scrolling platformers.
Games like Ori and the Blind Forest, Celeste and Inside have positively wowed critics and gamers alike, ushering in a time of great innovation for the humble side-scroller.
Unravel Two feels like an altogether more grown-up version of 2016’s equally beautiful but directionless Unravel. Whereas Unravel represented something akin to aesthetic tourism, Unravel Two emerges as a fully-fledged puzzle platformer.
The most immediately noticeable addition to the Unravel formula is the inclusion of a second playable Yarny character - the diminutive yarn character that stole our hearts in the first game.
While a second Yarny affords the player the luxury of completing the entire campaign alongside a friend, this is by no means mandatory nor a detriment to the game experience should you wish to play alone.
In fact, playing with a friend often results in janky and imprecise movements, but what is lost in precision is often gained in hilarity.
Your character’s abilities are pretty much a mirror image of the first game.
Yarny’s arsenal of effortless traversal abilities still feel as delightfully satisfying as in the previous title, though with the addition of a second playable character many of these abilities have been amplified.
For instance, one character can now function as a movable anchor for the other character, extending Yarny’s ability to cross seemingly impassable gaps.
Unravel Two is quite simply a game of staggering beauty. While there is no explicit story to speak of, it does seem as though your journey through the game is mimicing that of two teenagers, who’s comparatively gigantic frames appear in the background as ethereal shapes; ghostly memories who only ever hint at a mysterious narrative.
The focal length of the camera employed throughout the game really helps to impress a sense of breathtaking scale upon the viewer.
There is no doubt that Unravel Two is one of gaming’s ultimate triumphs concerning the perfect marriage of both form and function.