After a couple of exclusives for the PlayStation 3, the Swedish studio Coldwood Interactive begin to develop a curious platformer called Unravel. In it, the authors decided to share their impressions and thoughts with a potential player. However, released in February 2016, Unravel did not gain much interest among the audience, and critics spoke of the craft extremely polar. Someone was enthusiastic about the project, noting a strong spiritual connection with a fictional creature on the screen, while others complained about the monotonous gameplay and general secondary. Both those and others are right - the game is really not without sin. However, people just look at it from different angles. Those for whom technical coherence and “challenge” are of primary importance, most likely, will not understand the essence of what is laid. But if you are ready to drop all your business for another hour and make a trip to amazing Sweden - this is the game for you.
Plot
In the usual sense of the word, you can’t find any plot here with all your desire. The story here is hinted and explained without words. This, of course, is a profitable step for people from Sweden, as the game becomes clear to any audience, whether Russians, Americans or Indians. Another thing is that the story itself is poorly viewed. In the introductory video, we are shown an old woman who sits at a table in her hut and looks at old photographs in a frame. She indulges in memories and a smile reflects on her face. But soon this smile is replaced by a sad mine, the granny rises from the table and goes up the stairs, taking with him a basket. A red ball falls out of it, which is unwound into a string and rolled under the table.
In such a straightforward video we are shown the birth of our main character - an anthropomorphic woolen creature named Yarni. He has a rather demonic head shape with horns, but very cute eyes made of white thread. He gets up from under the table, looks around and starts to run around. This is where the game itself begins.
Of course, local history does not only consist of the plot and the alleged denouement at the end. In the course of twelve levels, the picture of what is happening will be collected in small particles into a single whole, like threads in a ball. However, for some, these grains would never risk forming something solid, leaving behind a bunch of unanswered questions.
The fact is that we get to each level through viewing a photo in a frame. That is, Yarni moves through his memories and everything that we see outside the home location is the past, not the present. The protagonist runs around the places captured in the pictures and meets translucent, barely outlined silhouettes of people along the way. This is the past of a granny, when she was still young and lived not alone in the old homestay, when her children were still small and love did not scatter around the corners of the world. But the most touching thing is that simple and understandable emotions are captured here. After all, if you try to recall something from your childhood and youth, sometimes, it would seem, unimportant moments of life can slip in your memory. Here you are carefully wrapped in several sweaters, a puffed jacket, with a ridiculous hat and with mittens on an elastic band, whirl and catch mouths of snowflakes slowly falling from the gray sky. Here you climb a tree, uncertainly leaning on one of the branches and clutching a thick trunk with both hands. And here you are sitting on a hill in the late evening and hugging your girlfriend, who, from fatigue or all-pervasive love, laid her head on your shoulder. And before you stretch hundreds of thousands of lights of residential buildings and the endless starry sky. Here you are with a heavy backpack behind your back to climb a mountain to revel in an excellent view from above. All these memories did not fundamentally change your life and, in fact, were not something especially important. But for one reason or another, they left an emotional imprint on the cortex of your brain. It is this feeling that Unravel is trying to convey. And, we must pay tribute, very successfully.
In fact, the brainchild of Coldwood Interactive does not seek to tell us where the little man runs and why he was created. But during the game, with the help of these finest little things, an inexplicable spiritual connection is established with Yarni, as if his threads were gradually entangling you.
It is curious that at a time when the graphics in the game were created by 3D modelers, all the photos you meet are natural. Of course, the pictures are captured so that we do not see specific faces and do not read a specific character, since this would destroy all magic at a time. Thus, emotion is transmitted to us without reference to specific characters and we can easily project it on ourselves. At that moment when we activate the level, the camera zooms in on the picture and the effect of the so-called parallax occurs - when the image is cut into several layers and placed in three-dimensional space relative to the camera. That is, here we have run into the sea coast and in the foreground stands out a hand holding a small crab. Thanks to this and the addition of a simple animation of the movement of the hand, the effect of presence is created. This is a very profitable and reasonable move on the part of the developers - it plunges into the atmosphere of what is happening.
Music and sound
The musical accompaniment in the game fully meets the requirements of the picture. Starting with the opening logos, and ending with a drum with a list of developers, we are generously poured into the ears of touching Swedish symphonies. Most of the time, calm and pleasant music reminiscent of a home hearth comes from the speakers. Of course, it would be foolish to believe that the whole game is created in one mood - any story, even if told without a word, requires a game of contrasts. A sunny day is replaced by a cloudy evening and a snowy night. Music follows the image and changes the mood so that there is no dissonance. Sometimes it may turn out to be a little more intrusive than it was thought - either from the small timing of the soundtrack, or from the similarity of the compositions. However, in the game we also perform similar actions from time to time, therefore, it is possible that this is necessary. The sound is in perfect harmony with the surroundings, immersing us in an otherworldly atmosphere. A stream murmurs, crabs run across the sand, somewhere in the distance, peals of waves and screaming seagulls are heard. The sound engineer’s work is commendable.
Afterword
Unravel is a game that will not leave you indifferent. Despite the fact that the Swedish project is full of metaphors and philosophical readings, history is poorly viewed in it. The granny who appears at the very beginning, declared as the main human character, immediately after the first clip disappears from the game, and does not appear even at the end. I will not sin on the developers - it is quite possible that I am a fool, but, it seems to me, the game should be understandable to the player, otherwise a dense spiritual connection simply will not form. The game process suffers from self-repetitions and does not develop the claimed mechanics in any way, although some locations sometimes make you move your brains. The difficulty of the last levels increases sharply compared to the previous ones. Again, it is quite possible that my fatigue affected here and the other player would not at all think so. Music and sound coexist perfectly together and complement the overall picture. In the subway, however, you won’t want to listen to the Unravel soundtrack, but before going to bed or evening gatherings in the winter by the fireplace in the company of friends or family - that's enough. You can find fault with the game, but it is impossible to dispute the most important fact at my discretion - it will definitely make you look inside yourself and remember how huge and amazing the world seemed when you were children.