Unravel

Studio

Coldwood Interactive

Publisher

Electronic Arts

Senior Developer

Martin Sahlin (Creative Director)

Erstveröffent-
lichung

February 9, 2016
December 7, 2018 (PS4 / XOne disc version)

platform

Microsoft Windows
PlayStation 4
Xbox One

Game engine

PhyreEngine

genre

Jump 'n' Run , Skill , Puzzle

Game mode

Gamepad

Download , Blu-ray

Unravel (German: disentangle or untie ) is a 2016 published video game , which the Swedish development studio Interactive Coldwood developed by Electronic Arts was moved. The game was first presented to the public on June 15, 2015 at the Electronic Entertainment Expo , and finally released on February 9, 2016.

By critics the game, one was Jump 'n' Run with numerous skill and puzzle inlays in which a anthropomorphic beings from yarn names Yarny (from English yarn is controlled for yarn), very favorably received.

A successor was announced for the first time in May 2016. As part of E3 2018 , the successor Unravel Two was presented on June 9, 2018 and immediately published. A new feature is a co-op mode. As a "Yarny Bundle", both parts were released on December 7, 2018 as a disc version for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

development

According to Creative Director Sahlin, the intention behind Unravel was to touch the players emotionally and to convey a message. Earlier games of the studio were mainly used to keep it financially alive. The previous title "The Fight" also sold passably, but remained unsatisfactory for the developers in terms of content, as it did not contain the desired depth and meaning. Sahlin said of Unravel:

“The longer I worked on it, the more I realized that other people could also make sense of it. [...] You start with yourself and at some point try to involve as many people as possible. You want it to be personal, but the bottom line is that you also want it to be a personal experience for everyone else who plays it "

- Martin Sahlin : Interview in Develop

Yarny, the playable thread figure, stands for the relationships between people. The developers deliberately leave an exact interpretation of the plot to the player. The home of Sahlin, the north of Sweden, especially the area around Umeå , played a strong role in the development and design of the game sections.

Gameplay

The game appears as a 2D platformer, whereby it was visually compared to Yoshi's Woolly World or LittleBigPlanet , but in terms of play it was more like Limbo , due to the high proportion of physics puzzles and skills. The peculiarities of the play figure as a thread creature are used accordingly. Yarny uses his yarn as a lasso, climbing rope, to grab, swing and pull or to build bridges and trampolines in order to progress in the respective ten game sections (levels), which differ in landscapes and seasons. However, since this continues to roll up itself, it must be ensured that it does not run out of yarn, which can only be added at certain points. The physics and combination puzzles correspond to the respective context and serve to enable further progress, for which the skills of the game character as well as the use of the environment are necessary. In addition, each level offers five collectable secrets, in the form of buttons.

action

The game begins in the house of an old woman who appears lonely and bitter. When you reach for twine, you slip away from a bale from which the Yarny character develops. It is now his concern to bring the old woman back her memories. Yarny now jumps through the house and through a few pictures he gets into the memories of the old woman in order to collect little red figures of thread. These then fill in an initially empty photo album. In addition to beautiful memories, such as family outings and other beautiful moments, Yarny is also confronted with death and transience.

reception

Magazine / website	Rating
4players	80%
GameStar	83%
Metacritic	80%
Computer picture	Note 1.43
GamePro	83%
GameSpot	80%
GameRankings	81.71%
M! Games	8 of 10

Tobias Veltin from GamePro sees Unravel as one of the “currently most beautiful games ever” and praises the “great and soulful pieces of music” as well as the game's “wonderful message”.

“Unravel has enchanted me and hit a certain nerve in me. It is not so much the pure game mechanics, because with the hopscotch and puzzles it is certainly not particularly original. Rather, it's the red bundle of wool itself, because I can almost always see Yarny how he's doing with the help of small animations or his facial expression. Together with his noble mission, that makes the guy more tangible and personable to me than some deeply drawn role-play characters. In addition, this, in my opinion, fantastic optics, which mainly draws its visual power from the details. "

- Tobias Veltin : Criticism in the GamePro

Web links

Official website

Individual evidence

[1] ttp://www.gamestar.de/spiele/unravel/news/unravel_2,52438,3272689.html

[2] ttp://www.pcgames.de/Unravel-Spiel-55713/News/Electronic-Arts-bestaetigt-Nach Nahrungsmittel-1195691 /

[3] Gamestar: Unravel 2 - Released immediately after the announcement, now with co-op

[4] ttp://www.4players.de/4players.php/spielinfonews/Allgemein/36798/2156239/Unravel-Zwei_Prozent_negative_Kommentare_-_Creative_Director_Martin_Sahlin_blickt_zurueck.html

[5] ttp://www.4players.de/4players.php/spielinfonews/Allgemein/36798/2156239/Unravel-Zwei_Prozent_negative_Kommentare_-_Creative_Director_Martin_Sahlin_blickt_zurueck.html

[SPON-1077169-6] Carsten Görig: "Unravel" alluded to: Tangled up in the idyll. In: Spiegel Online . February 15, 2016, accessed June 10, 2018 .

[7] ttp://www.gamepro.de/playstation/spiele/ps4/unravel/test/unravel,52439,3267586.html

[8] ttp://www.4players.de/4players.php/dispbericht_fazit/Allgemein/Test/Fazit_WANY/Allgemein/36798/81682/Unravel.html

[9] ttp://www.gamestar.de/spiele/unravel/test/unravel,52438,3267632.html

[10] ttp://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/unravel

[11] ttp://www.computerbild.de/artikel/cbs-Test-PS4-Unravel-14533379.html

[12] ttp://www.gamepro.de/playstation/spiele/ps4/unravel/52439.html

[13] ttp://www.gamespot.com/unravel/

[14] ttp://www.gamerankings.com/ps4/168603-unravel/index.html

[15] M! Games , issue 270, March 2016, page 73

[16] ttp://www.gamepro.de/playstation/spiele/ps4/unravel/test/unravel,52439,3267586,fazit.html