Unravel - Review

When Microsoft first announced the XBOX One they showcased a number of games that would be available on launch including Unravel.   The game looked like a fun puzzle platformer with a cute protagonist called Yarny.  I didn't buy the XBOX One on release & ended up forgetting about the game until recently.  I decided last week that I had waited long enough to play it & so started my journey with Yarny.


I like to make comparisons between foods & the games I have played.  Smaller games always feel like snacks to me, some of them leave you wanting more while others remind you why a proper meal is better.  While playing Unravel I had to decide was it a tasty treat like GÜ Millionaire Flapjacks (which for some reason Tesco no longer stock & I wake up in cold sweats wanting them) or a Twinkie that seems okay at the time but after you have a had a few you think 'meh, there not that great & now I feel horrible'.

Unravel follows the story of a little red creature called Yarny.  His mission is to help recover memories of a families almost forgotten past by collecting badges.  This is achieved through entering photos in the house & traversing that moment in time.


As you explore these memories you see many happy ones along with some very dark painful ones. One of the main themes of the game is family & how important it is.  The other is nature, it's beauty & how it's destruction is so devastating, not only to people but also the environment.


Unravel may appear like a simple story at first glance but is actually full of depth, emotion & heart. As always I won't reveal anymore about the story as it's an adventure you need to experience for yourself.

The game looks stunning & proves once again you don't need to be a big studio to produce high-end visuals.  There is just so much detail in every area of the game, the background is just an impressive & important as the foreground.  There were times when I was playing that I would just stand still & admire the beauty of the game.


As is my way when discussing games I won't go into much details about the various levels, that being said I would like to mention one of my favorites.  Mountain Trek was my favorite part of the game for so many reasons.  It features outside areas & caves, scary enemies, magic mushrooms & you get to ride a fish.  In case you wondering is riding a fish as cool as it sounds yes, yes it is.


The music used in the game was very interesting & has a very Nordic sound.  Violins & pianos feature heavily in the soundtrack which help create homely & folksy sounds.  There are two composers who worked on Unravel, they are:

Frida Johansson; who is from Sweden & not only composes but also plays music, mainly violin & piano.  She has worked on music for radio, theater & has featured on many other musical collaborations.

Henrik Oja; who is also from Sweden & has been part of multiple groups including Spacious Mind.
who are; David Akerlund, David Johansson, Jens Unosson, Niklas Viklund, Thomas Brannstrom. Their albums include; Take That Weight Off Your Shoulders, Sailing the Seagoat, Organic Mind Solution & many more.


Some of my favorite pieces included: 'Yarny's Theme', 'Mountain Trek', 'Snowfall', 'The Sea (parts 1-4)' & 'Credits'. The music has a very distinct rich sound that works really well & adds the already impressive atmosphere in the game.  Overall a solid soundtrack that helped make something good into something great.

At first glance Unravel looks like just a fun & entertaining game but at closer inspection you see it for what it is truly is, a masterpiece of emotion, character, feeling & depth.  I think the game would have been better suited to be called 'Yarny' because without him the game wouldn't be the same.  You could argue some other character could have filled his place but I would have to disagree.  The game is visually impressive in it's own right but I feel it is Yarny who is the really makes the game.


I found myself emotionally connected with Yarny in the early parts of the game.  He is bursting with personality.  For example the first time a butterfly appears he jumps with surprise but also looks in wonder & awe.  Like with Sonic if you take no action he starts to get bored or will cross his arms looking contemplative.  Throughout the game you see him get; scared, inquisitive, happy, sad & so much more.  As you move along the level his body unravels & the smaller he gets I found myself panicking looking for more yarn to save him.  To put it simply Yarny is amazing, powerful & is highly memorable.


Yarny's key tool to solve puzzles is the lasso & for the most part it works really well whether you need to; climb to a higher area, swing across somewhere, create a bridge or any number of things. Random animal encounters are not only cool but can help you navigate areas or try to attack you (feckin' birds).   The hedgehogs were one of my favorite animals not only from a visual stand point but they just acted so cute.


The gameplay I felt overall was strong with one main exception & a few minor ones.  The main one was on the level Last Leaf.  I found that when dragging the lantern it was not always successful & seemed to get stuck on something invisible.  I restarted the level a number of times & each time I did I got a little more frustrated. In the end I clearly the stage but with significant perseverance.  The minor exceptions were that some puzzles did not always work on first try even if the solution was correct & Yarny's lasso sometimes failed to work as intended.





So after over 8 hours gameplay how did I feel?  Overall I really enjoyed the game & Yarny feels like a truly magical character.  While there were some flaws in the game it was never enough to make me give up.  I would say the game is great & I like forward to future projects by the studio.

Resident Evil Biohazard - Review

January is over & I thought to myself  'I deserve a new game', so I decided to pick up Resident Evil 7 Bio Hazard.  I remember seeing some of the early gameplay & thinking 'damn that looks freaky'.  It seemed more intense than a lot of the other games in the series. Generally speaking, I am not the biggest horror game fan but I was more than willing to give it a go due to how much I enjoyed some of the other games in the series.  This is the first big new release title I played this year so was pretty excited to play it.


Who else here like's burgers?  Juicy, tender, meat-filled burgers, so many toppings & condiments to choose from the possibilities are almost endless.  Outside of your standard meaty goodness, you have some alternatives like spicy bean burgers.  I find it hard to consider them burgers as they are so different to what I'm used to.  That being said they have their place & can be a nice change from the heaviness of meat.   Playing Resident Evil 7 Biohazard I found myself wondering am I eating another tasty meat-filled burger or some spicy veggie alternative?

The story starts with our protagonist Ethan receiving a message from his wife Mia.  She has been missing for three years with no word until now,  so naturally, he is pretty excited to find out she is still alive.   Ethan's destination is a house located at an old plantation in Louisiana, so it's time to take a road trip.  It's terrible but when I think of Louisiana I find it hard to picture anything else but swamps, swamp boats, old beaten up wooden houses & people sitting on porches giving everyone the stink eye.  Basically, it's the perfect setting for a horror game.


The games start out dark & clouded in mystery. Why was Mia here? Where was has she been for three years?  Who would live here?  Very quickly you find Mia who is a little worse for wear & is scared because of Daddy.  Who is Daddy & what does he do?  He freaks you out & tries to kill you every chance he gets.  The rest of the family is even worse, Mommy is a scary old lady who likes bugs & then there is their son Lucas who is just completely insane.  Things don't get any better or any easier for Ethan but like any good protagonist he doesn't let anything keep him down.


Ethan's mission, should he choose to accept it is to explore a creaky old house, take on a crazy family & save his wife Mia who may have gone a little nuts after three years.  This Resident Evil game is so very different to the others in the series that I found it hard to draw any comparisons between them.
There are sprinklings of the Resident Evil Universe scattered throughout the game but overall there is very little tie-in. That's not to say the story is bad,  in fact, it is really good from start to finish I am just unsure as to why they found the need to use the Resident Evil name.

Visually speaking the game looks fantastic & there is no real difference between cut sequences & gameplay.  The attention to detail is amazing & disturbing, for example in the kitchen there were old plates of food with maggots squirming in them - ewww (slightly shivers).  Initially, I found Ethan's movement's to be a little disorientating as it really feels like you are looking through someone else's eyes.  The look & feel of the game makes it really immersive, I would love to play the VR version as I can only imagine how intense it would be.  When it comes to visuals this game does not disappoint.


There are many composers that helped create the Resident Evil 7 Bio-Hazard soundtrack, they include:

Akiyuki Morimoto  - who worked on; Monster Hunter 3, Lost Planet 2 & Resident Evil 6.
Miwako Chione - who worked on Monster Hunter 4G.
Satoshi Hori -  who has a fantastic self-titled album that I highly recommend listening too.
Brian D'Oliveira - who worked on; Spirits of Spring, Tearaway, Little Big Planet 3.
Cris Velasco - worked on Mass Effect 3, Overwatch, The God of War Series.

Some of my favorite pieces in the game were; 'Atmosphere - Swamp Encounter', 'Main Hall', Into Madness', Welcome to the Family', 'Garage', 'Molded I', 'Safe Room', 'Tatari', 'Apprehension' & 'The Beast'. At times I felt like the music was almost crawling up my spine. Strings feature heavily in many of the pieces helping to create an almost claustrophobic feeling. Overall it a very eerie, well-crafted soundtrack & listening to it all again made me realise how integral it was to the game.

The game offers a few difficulty levels; Easy, Normal & Madhouse - the last one unlocks once you finish the game on normal.  I would not describe the overall gameplay as hard even though some of the puzzles did have me scratching my head, often because I had missed something small.


There are so many details big & small that make this game feel amazing.  It looks to freak you out as often as possible, have you ever seen a chain link fence with lots of baby dolls attached them or a ball bouncing past you but yet there is no one in the room - I have.  The game never wants to make you feel safe & even in the save room I always felt on edge.  I loved the way your character opened & closed doors, in many games you just run through a door without thinking about it.  When Ethan comes up against a closed door he will cautiously open it which always leaves you in a state of suspense.  Most of the time you have nothing to worry about but other times, well other times you get a horrible surprise.  I died a number of times in the game & some of the deaths were pretty dark.  I won't go into specifics too much but let's say getting cut down the middle is pretty damn gruesome. While most of the game you play as Ethan occasionally you will get the opportunity to play through someone else's eyes.  These are available in the form of VHS movies, each one of them helps give the game even more depth.  I would say my favorite one featured a birthday party, not the nice kind where you have fun, but that's not to say there isn't cake.  These side stories not only give an insight into other characters but can also help you work out ways to get into a previously inaccessible area, solve puzzles or find new items.


Resident Evil games have always been a little scary but this one is truly terrifying & the Baker Family are a big part of that.  They are creepy, crazy strong & are a pain in the backside when they attack you. Lucky enough you have a small arsenal of weapons, my weapons of choice were buckshot & blades.  As a whole I had little to complain about with regards to gameplay, I was constantly on guard & never felt relaxed.  This works really well in a horror game but I would not recommend playing it before bed.

So after 12+ hours of gameplay how did I feel? Freaked out.  A brilliant game, with a great story, impressive visuals & an unnerving soundtrack.  It is hard to pick fault with the game, the only stand out one is that it just not feel like a Resident Evil game.  I wish they had released this as a stand-alone game rather trying to loosely tie it into the Resident Evil Universe.  Overall I would have to give a big thumbs & recommend it to any horror game fans.