Unravel ~ video game review

Title - Unravel

Played on PlayStation 4

Unravel is a video game developed by Coldwood Interactive and published by Electronic Arts. It was released back in 2016 for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. It's a puzzle platformer where you control Yarny, a creature made of yarn, across different sets of environment while solving puzzles along the way. It's sweet, it's lovely and it lets you look at the cycle of life through the perspective of its cute little protagonist.

Little Yarn in a Big World

First of all, let me tell you that Unravel is a beautiful video game. The settings are beautifully crafted from the peaceful, soothing locations of the house backyard and the seaside, to the dark, intimidating locations like a gloomy factory, a toxic dumpster area and snowy garage of abandoned vehicles. Everything is perfectly visualized. It feels like you have been shrunk to a small size and you get to explore these amazing places which are basically real-world based locations but from a different perspectives. The fact that it was greatly and beautifully constructed makes exploration a fascinating and wonderful experience.

The soundtrack for the video game is well-crafted too; complementing it's beautiful sceneries with soothing and calm music, while slow and melancholic music complement it's dark and depressing locations. The music and the environment go hand-in-hand in making the journey richer and satisfying. Not to forget the sound design; crashing waves, rustling leaves, flowing water, all of which play an important role immersing us in the adventure of our little protagonist.

Swing Away

As mentioned, the game let you control Yarny, the cute little creature made of red yarn. First awaken inside a house, you make your way to the photo frames located throughout the house and through these photos, you get to explore the memories of the house's occupant; from happy and fun memories which would then gradually becomes darker, depressing and sad as you move from one photo frame to the next. As you explore these locations that are central to the memories, you will get Yarny to swing, jump, climb, make a bridge and drag apples, tin cans, boxes, etc. to get to your destination. Sometimes there are tricky ways to get across from one spot to another but usually the puzzles are not too difficult to figure out, although I have to admit I did get stuck a few times but I don't necessarily associate these to the puzzles being difficult but rather on me being unable to think outside the box, so yeah, in my case it's more or less the player problem. :-)

Unravel Your Feelings

I've read that the game was inspired from the landscape of Umeå, Sweden, and from the small town where the game's director, Martin Sahlin, had lived which is in the countryside. Although I have never set my foot in Sweden, the game somehow managed to make me feel nostalgic, and it makes me missed my own carefree days of childhood especially in the early stages of the game. My interpretation is that Yarny's journey symbolizes the journey of someone's life from childhood, youth all through adulthood and death.  As the game explores the past memories of the house's occupants, from growing up, to heartbreak, to death in the family, it also somehow makes me think of my own memories of growing up and ups and downs in my own life. It's sweet but also bittersweet and I find it amazing that Unravel, a seemingly simple platforming video game, managed to do that.

Conclusion

Overall, Unravel is a great platforming game, not too hard but not too easy either, with beautiful graphics that features gorgeous locations, and with great soundtrack and sound design. While all of that are great, what's truly remarkable is how it makes you feel while you're playing the game; happy, cozy, nervous, sad, heart-broken and everything in-between. If you don't like platforming games, then you might not like this then no matter how good I'm telling you Unravel is, but if you do or if you simply want to try this, then give it a shot. I'm pretty sure it will be worth your time.