Hands-on with 'Unravel Two,' a co-op game with double the adorable

Unravel Two is the follow-up to 2016's Unravel, the first indie game published under EA's Originals brand -- and it is just as adorable and emotionally powerful as the original. Unravel Two stars Yarny, the same anthropomorphized ball of red yarn that carried players through the first game, and it adds a second, blue Yarny, instantly upping the cute factor 100 percent.

Using the strings hanging from their bottoms (See? Absolutely adorable), Yarny and its blue buddy traverse beautiful, sidescrolling 3D landscapes of jagged rocks, busted logs, smoldering forest floors, clear waters and dangerous animals. They swing from branches and wall-jump up the crevasses between rocks, helping each other along the way. The characters can swing from each other, climb up one another's strings, and even tie those strings together to create a thin trampoline that boosts them up the level.

The cooperative aspect of Unravel Two is new, but it doesn't require two players to actually work. The entire game is playable solo, with one person alternating between the blue and red Yarny to solve spatial puzzles. The two characters can also combine into one blue-and-red-streaked Yarny. This control scheme is crucial, especially because Unravel Two isn't an online co-op game -- it's local only. Fostering in-person gaming relationships was important to Unravel developers at Coldwood Interactive, an independent studio based in Sweden. After all, the Unravel series is all about the power of connection.

"We were slightly overwhelmed by the feedback that we got about this kind of emotional game," technical director Jakob Marklund said during an Unravel Two gameplay demo at E3 2018. "And we got some criticism for things, but I think it was quite fair in the reviews. We didn't do everything perfectly, but hopefully we have fixed some of these things in this game."

"With EA, we have plenty of time."

Marklund will know soon if Coldwood succeeded -- Unravel Two is available right now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, following its surprise announcement at EA's E3 press conference. Under the EA Originals program, Coldwood receives funding, publishing and a marketing boost from EA, which then takes a bit of the game's profits in a revenue-sharing model. Before working with EA, Coldwood developers were living a rougher indie life, pressed to churn out a game every year just to stay sustainable. But Marklund says that with EA's help, the team is free to focus on building bigger games with longer development timelines.

"With EA, we have plenty of time," Marklund says. "So it's a completely other world for us."

EA doesn't impose any creative restrictions on Coldwood, either.

"We are totally free to do the game that we want, but they give us really good feedback all the time," he says. So in that sense it's just a perfect situation for us. We can do whatever we want."

Follow all the latest news from E3 2018 here!



via Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2Mg1xPH
RSS Feed

If New feed item from http://www.engadget.com/rss-full.xml, then send me

IFTTT

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Evernote cuts staff as user growth stalls

Image
Note-taking app Evernote has fallen on hard times of late, culminating in its latest spate of job cuts impacting 15 percent of its workforce (54 employees). CEO Chris O' Neil -- an ex-Googler who took the reins in 2015 -- announced the firings at an all-hands meeting earlier today, reports TechCrunch . In a message on the Evernote blog , O' Neill admitted he'd set "incredibly aggressive goals" for the company in 2018. He continued: "Going forward, we are streamlining certain functions, like sales, so we can continue to speed up and scale others, like product development and engineering." The layoffs follow an exec exodus just weeks ago and the company's recent brand refresh (complete with a refined logo and wordmark). But critics are more concerned about its product, especially the free tier, which they claim lacks the perks to...
Read more

The best air conditioner

Image
By Liam McCabe This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter . When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here . After six summers of researching, testing, and recommending window air conditioners, we've learned that quiet and affordable ACs make most people the happiest—and we think the LG LW8016ER will fit the bill in most rooms. This 8,000 Btu unit cools as efficiently and effectively as any model with an equal Btu rating, and runs at a lower volume and deeper pitch than others at this price. Little extra features like a fresh-air vent, two-axis fan blades, and a removable drain plug help set it apart, too. The LG LW8016ER is a top choice for an office or den, and some people will find it quiet enough for a bedroom, too. If our main pic...
Read more

We won't see a 'universal' vape oil cartridge anytime soon

Image
Pre-loaded cartridges of cannabis concentrate are currently among the most popular means of consumption, and for good reason. They're discreet to use and easy to handle, a far cry from the dark days of 2016 when we had to dribble hash oil or load wax into narrow-mouthed vape pens by hand. But, frustratingly, an ever increasing number of oil cartridge manufacturers employ one-off design standards so that their products won't work with those of their competitors, thereby locking customers into proprietary ecosystems. We've already seen this with nicotine vaporizers -- which has a seen a massive rise in "pod systems" in the last few years, each outfitted with a unique canister and battery built to be incompatible with those of their competition. Is it too late for the burgeoning cannabis industry to set a universal standard for their product designs? ...
Read more