The original Unravel was a sweet and unique platformer where you play as a little creature named Yarny (made from yarn, as the name suggests) who can solve puzzles and traverse photo-realistic environments (spanning natural Swedish landscapes to industrial locations) using yarn.  You can swing from yarn, make bridges with yarn, and even make trampolines to jump higher with yarn.  Having such an original protagonist made for an unforgettable experience.  And then Unravel 2 came along, and now we control not just one, but two yarnies!

The sequel is definitely made with co-op in mind, and I’m sure it would be a pretty fun game to play with two people.  But, fortunately, it’s also a perfectly good game to play single-player.  (You can even update your characters’ appearance, and the updated color choices reflect in the clothing of the two kids—more on them later—and the light in the PS4 controller, which is a nice detail.)  Unlike the first game, where Yarny would unravel throughout the stage and would need to periodically get more yarn to proceed, these two are attached to each other, so you can move freely as long as you don’t stray too far from each other.  And if you’re playing on your own, like me, you’re not stuck controlling two characters all the time because one can piggyback off the other.

That does not mean there is no purpose for doubling the number of yarnies, though, as the puzzling and platforming has now been updated to accommodate two of these cute little guys.  Sometimes, one yarny will need to hold something in place or stand on a switch for the other, and then it can climb up the yarn connecting them to join its friend later.  And other times, one yarny will need to swing from its friend to reach a higher spot that they couldn’t have possibly reached without the power of teamwork.

I last played the first game about a year and a half ago, so I can’t say I remember everything too well, but I do think Unravel 2 felt a bit smoother to play than the first one.  They also made it easier to know how close you need to be to latch onto something because a radius of light shows up when you get near.  There is also a little light that darts through the levels, showing you what path to take through the environment, though I didn’t find this necessary.  Honestly, I can’t remember if the variety of puzzles was any better in this game, but I did notice a decrease in frustrating, obtuse puzzles where I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out what was going on.

One thing I could have done without, however, was the drastic increase in hostile entities I needed to avoid.  In the first game, you could get killed by falling into deep water and whatnot, but aside from a few threats (there was a very aggressive gopher at one point), the game was pretty chill.  While Unravel 2, on the other hand, has so many things trying to kill you!  I mean, there are plenty of peaceful moments, sure, but there are also a lot of these shadowy…things that patrol the environment, either just serving as obstacles to avoid or outright hunting you down, making for a far less relaxing adventure.

But that’s not my biggest gripe with this game.  There are, in fact, two larger issues that weighed Unravel 2 down most of all.  I’ll start with the most important point, the story.  The first game follows the life of an old woman, and I believe a lot of the memories we explored were just mundane ones revolving around her spending time with family, with some darker moments coming later.  I wasn’t always sure what was going on with the blurry images in the background, but the story was simple enough.  And then you’ve got the plot for Unravel 2, which, frankly, makes no dang sense.

I’ll try to summarize my limited understanding of the game’s story, but I don’t think you really need to worry about spoilers because, even if you play the game for yourself, you still likely won’t understand what’s going on.  There are two kids who seem to escape from an orphanage or something.  And throughout the game, they’re pursued by these three guys.  The story is told through blurry figures in the background, with the two kids wearing clothing that corresponds to your yarnies, while the three guys are portrayed as grey, shadowy figures.  (A few people online literally interpreted this as the kids being pursued by zombies, that’s how unclear the story is!)  At one point, we randomly see the guys drunk at a party for some reason, a detail that never seems to fit in anywhere.  Then the kids encounter other adults who just seem to be doing their jobs.  And trouble ensues that I can’t help but feel the kids are responsible for.

The story, well, it’s terrible.  I get leaving things up to interpretation, but for that to work, there needs to be something to interpret.  And no one whose comments I read online really knew what they were looking at, including me.  At one point, Mother Duck and I (she was watching my playthrough) thought the pursuers were kidnappers, which gave the whole game a rather creepy vibe.  But later, the kids didn’t seem so innocent, and we couldn’t help but lose all sympathy for them because of all the trouble we felt they were causing.  Plus, the story is rather redundant, since so much of it just involves the kids running from adults, relaxing when they should be on guard, then running again when the adults inevitably catch up.  The story makes no sense.  It’s not emotional or poignant.  I don’t know or care about the characters.  And even though I didn’t feel terribly attached to the old lady and her family from the first game, the simpler story resonated much more with me than this confusing mess did.

The second major issue is the difficulty of the bonus challenges.  Now, you might be saying, but Duck, those are optional, so what are you whining about?  Yes, they are totally optional challenges that can unlock new appearances for your yarnies.  But one, the game is really short, at only 7 levels, so the challenges feel less optional when they are the only thing fleshing out an otherwise short and unsatisfying game.  And two, some of these challenges are absolutely horrid, and I can hate them all I darn well please!

The main game is fairly easy, so an extra challenge isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  These optional challenges can range from tougher puzzles to solve to difficult platforming to traverse.  Sometimes, the platforming is, admittedly, quite fun and the puzzles rather clever.  And other times, they feel like they were created by people who have never played a video game before.  You want to know one of my biggest pet peeves?  When developers mistake a lack of checkpoints for challenge.  No, having to start completely over every time I make a mistake is not necessarily difficult.  It’s just incredibly aggravating!  A challenge should still be fun, and some of these are just not fun, from the aforementioned need to repeat a level from the start over and over again to getting killed by something you couldn’t see beforehand.  This game really looks like it should be cute and relaxing, not rage-inducing!

With that said, if you’re just looking for a game that’s fun, particularly if you’re interested in co-op, then Unravel 2 is a perfectly good game…as long as you’re okay with it being short, the story making no sense, and you plan to avoid some of the especially egregious optional challenges.  But as a whole, I’d have to say the first game is the better choice.  With nearly double the chapters (twelve), the game just feels a lot more satisfying, and the story is more effective, even if that game’s plot could sometimes be a bit unclear, as well.

Despite the differing numbers of stages, a casual playthrough of both games can be pretty short, at roughly 5-7 hours, whereas a full 100% playthrough can take about 14 hours.  Unravel 2 is available on all major consoles and PC (the first game is, as well, with the exception of the Switch) for $19.99, the same price as the first game.  But I would recommend getting the Unravel Yarny Bundle on sale for $5.99 (normally $29.99), as it’s a great deal, especially considering how short these games can be.