Quick Look: Unravel

Yarny!

Looking forward to this!

...giant enemy crabs? Thought you guys said this wasn't a playstation game

It seems like they're being a little needlessly negative about it, but I haven't played it, so what do I know.

I'm liking the animations on Yarnie.

P.S. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_%28landform%29

Seems kinda meh, but then again, I felt like that at E3 too.

This game looks gorgeous, but nothing about it makes me actually want to play it.

Watching puzzles in Quick Looks: Still makes me want to scream the solutions at my monitor.

@spitznock: I noticed that too and I think it's partly due to The Witness. The puzzles in this game look more basic and some of the negativity from Brad was based on him getting stuck making puzzles needlessly tough or assuming more complexity than was given.

Played this since it came out and still got one level left, I think. It doesn't offer anything that spectacular to the player, but I enjoy the yarn mechanic, even if I got frustrated with it at times as well. I don't know what you need to want to play it...? Just platforming is kinda enough for me. Don't need tiny yarn balls to collect or such to make it any more appealing, personally. I guess the vague story might not be everyone's thing, but then again, I can't really remember that many stories from other 2D platformers.

@korosuzo I mentioned that in the game's thread and it was definitely a problem for me at times as well, overcomplicating something, when the actual solution was real simple. Don't think I ever got as seemingly frustrated as Brad here, though...

Wow. There isn't an object in this video that doesn't trigger some kind of memory of my childhood. So much of the scenery and props are fundamentally tied to Scandinavia culture. Looking forward to playing this, the first levels showed here would resonate with most Scandinavians, almost everyone got some kind of cottage on the coast, in the woods and/or in the mountains they spend their childhood exploring.

Pretty but boring?

great now i fell asleep, thanks yarn-game

Doubly so when Brad is involved.

That's cool to hear. Did Brothers A Tale Of Two Sons not have that effect?

A visually stunning game that I was waiting for since its reveal, played it on EA Access and was actually bored by it, the mechanics are very 1 note and in fact the ever disappearing yarn mechanic holds it back really.

Plus the story could be better, I'm reminded of stories of Toy Story by getting back to a child owner and yarny at first appears to be of a similar mold, which it just doesnt click for me

Yoshi already did yarn-tech! OLD! LOCK! BAN!

This seems adorable and quaint but it probably came out at a bad time. Hard to be cynical about it though!

@skullcrushermountain: he did beat the witness though so the guy does have mad puzzle solving props.

Its like if Kirby's Epic Yarn ate Limbo :P

Yeah, he can beat the Witness but is apparently perplexed that he has to push the floaty thing rather than rock the controls back and forth, and can't figure out the swinging door "puzzle."

The music in this game, at least on this sea level, is like those compilation CDs they sold in the 90s of the most generic ambient shit possible. There was always the one kid that pressed the buttons on the display and this is the song that would come out.

Later on the subjects of the images and background story gets a bit deeper and....playing this game made me want to call my mother.

So... This looks a lot like Limbo. Also demanding in the same ways as Limbo. People really like Limbo... So I guess that flavour of game is less tasty these days.

@jo_magpie:This was a day one for me since my father was born in Umeå, Sweden. The scenery is so close to home and brings out so much nostalgia in me. The music, combined with beautiful scenery based on the swedish countryside made this a real treasure for me. The platforming is alright and the puzzles are easy enough that I did not get stuck once, but hard enough that figuring them out didn´t just feel like a chore.

Beautiful looking game, I have a sinking feeling that the ending may be horrifying though

@assinass: Yes it did in some ways, and it helped that Josef Fares is a cool dude.

"Yarn bridges for days, son!"

@spitznock: The negativity in the video was a surprise to me as well. Just watching the gameplay here convinced me to buy it pretty quickly. Beautiful looking game, nice music, fun little physics-based platforming and puzzle solving - I was pleasantly surprised to hear it was for PC, thought it was console only.

I guess it all depends what you want out of a game, though. I watched Day9 play "The Witness" for an hour or so and decided it wasn't for me. Not only was I bored by it, but I rolled my eyes *real* hard at the audio log that was discovered. Firewatch was better, but I just thought "Yeah, I'll watch a playthrough of that sometime" rather than play it myself. Unravel is something I want to get my hands on.

"Is there a story?"

"Not really ..."

Man! I always get bummed out when a quicklook doesn't do a game justice.

I don't see them being overly negative tbh. It is pretty, but there it ends. Besides that it is just another physics puzzle game, one with not the best controls from the sounds of it. Drew summed it up perfect when he said he is not sure why to buy it except to look at it.

Personal issue aswell, the music on the sea level was driving me nuts. It felt like part of the music was just stuck in loop at points.

"Eh crab's are dumb." Glad Drew picked up a few things from Dan!

Where is Tha Hoop Gawd, though? He's friends with Yarny.

Leave yarny alone, he's just in the bathroom tying off.

Really enjoying the game. The mire was the first real challenge to the game especially when you hit the pesky flies. It's not Braid level but you can find multiple ways of completing many of the puzzles. The art is probably the big draw though. Come for the puzzles but stay for the art design.

Oh and the whole log thing?

Yeah, that dude is rad.

I get that the controls might not be great, but it's frustrating to watch the quick look, be yelling at the screen because the solution is obvious (and I've never played or watched any other footage of yarny), and then they complain when they finally figure it out as though the solution wasn't plain.

I heard a lot of mixed things about this game and seeing it in action I can see why. The puzzles and physics look really fiddly, to the point where you don't know if you have the solution and aren't executing the jumps/swings/physics correctly or if you're just doing it completely wrong. That's pretty much the death of this sort of puzzle platformer. The game also appears to have fairly poor signalling, which doesn't help.

woooaahh Yarnbro, release that crab!

they are being strangely negative about it. not sure why. i love it. It must be hard to design it. do you go with tough puzzles that feel rewarding or accessible enough that more people cane enjoy it as a relaxing fun little game.

Classic Brad Quick Look right here folks.

Game looks neat though.

Definitely charming, and I like the look. The mechanics may be frustrating, hard to tell. I will probably pick this up at some point.

Thank you for so much great content over the past few days! It was a drought for a while but I am loving it. I can't wait to see what this is !

Sick Pac Man 2 The New Adventures name drop by Drew. Also, fuck that game.

Nice to see more videogames including Crabs doing Crab Things

Also I think at some point I got over-saturated with adorable puzzle platformers. This game looks pretty, and I dig the traditional music, but the gameplay isn't doing much for me.

As someone who grew up in the countryside in Sweden, these forests and seasides look exceptionally Swedish. It makes me happy inside.

A reference to the 1.6 map de_rats is pretty high up on my list of things that are unlikely to be mentioned on this website.

That said, great map.

@drpotato: I wonder if that sort of nostalgia - or at least warm feelings for the natural world in general - are a big part of enjoying this thing. As a life-long urban troglodyte, I think Unravel looks real pretty, but it doesn't give me the feeling of home that I feel like it's trying to give me.

I'm kinda sad since I thought this game looked like it had a ton of potential from the E3 previews, but it looks like it just gets boring really fast. The levels seem like they go on for way too long - it would be nice if you could exit a level and then choose to restart at any reached checkpoints to break things up a bit (unless this already is an option?).

I think what it really just comes down to is physics-based puzzle platformers usually come across as tedious to me. There's just so much time spent dealing with the finicky controls and precisely manipulating environmental elements that games in this subgenre usually just end in frustration more than anything else.

Oh, you mean get off and push the "floaty thing" that's... floating in the water? What do you propose I stand on? Nobody likes a know-it-all, but I guess you haven't figured that out yet.

It becomes a challenge to tell when the game is difficult due to its controls or it's difficult because it's Brad being Brad.

Either way, it looks great and Yarny is cute as shit, but the game seems pretty shallow.