My new year’s resolution is to play more video games. Specifically co-operative games.

I hate playing competitively (https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2009/12/when-did-you-last-beat-your-wife/); it’s rubbish to achieve victory at the expense of someone else. So I asked for recommendations (https://mastodon.social/@Edent/116051890335937906) and picked the cheapest thing that looked reasonable.

Unravel Two is a little gem! It’s a 2D platform puzzler dressed up in a 3D engine. You and your friend play little string creatures and have to work together to swing between points, lift objects, and pull each other over the lush scenery. It’s the sort of physics-based game which could have been made for the 16-bit consoles of my childhood.

As befits a game this cheap and simple, it’s fairly short. Once you’ve got the hang of the mechanics there are only a limited number of ways to solve each section. But it is great for shouting “No! Go left and pull!” or “We’ve got to time our jumps together” or “You stand on the button and I’ll try swinging”. It’s also possible to temporarily switch to one-player mode - if one of you doesn’t want to do the jumping puzzles, the other player can carry you.

Weirdly, the game is deeply portentous in a rather pointless manner. There’s a story going on in the background about some kids who are either being abused, chased, or getting into trouble. It is utterly superfluous and detracts from the fun of the puzzles. Similarly, the level titles all have subtitles like “In which we find our way out of the sullen darkness and are redeemed.” WTF? This is a silly game of string puppets - not every indie game needs to be “Life Is Strange”!

There’s some replayability. You can see how quickly you can do the levels, there are some hidden collectables, and some extra challenge levels. Which, for £3.51 at time of writing (https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/product/EP0006-CUSA10416_00-COLDWOODPIKE0000) is more than reasonable.

A good casual co-op game - just ignore the vague story playing out behind the action.