Origin Puts Unravel's Yarny On Trial

Unravel [official site] is currently on trial over on Origin. I assume that means Yarny will finally have to answer for his woolen crime spree*, taking to the stand as a jury of his peers (balls of yarn) listen to witness testimony and shake their heads at the awfulness of... Oh. Apparently it just means that you can try playing the first level of Unravel for ten hours as a kind of trial/demo thing.

I thought there was already a demo/trial for Unravel but after investigating further I must have confused that with the early trial thing EA run as part of their monthly Origin Access subscription program.

I think an Unravel trial is a good thing because it's one of those games where I suspect you might love it or you might want to hit it with a shoe for being twee. Ten hours of access to the first level will be more than enough to gauge your own reaction.

I did the review when it was released and this was the basic verdict although you can read the full Unravel opinion here:

"Being hard as nails wouldn’t suit the atmosphere of this Unravel but the way it does play leaves it in this awkward position for me. I don’t mind lower-intensity interactivity if it’s in the service of delivering an interesting story/idea. But the story here wasn’t engaging. The two elements together produced this earnest, handmade, comfy fug. It was like playing a game based on the Etsy newsletter. It’s not a bad game – I want to stress that – but neither was it an interesting one."

From the comment section I know that other people responded more positively or found the story and staging more emotionally affecting though. It also does have ridiculously beautiful artwork.

If you have an Origin account and are curious to play then this looks like a decent option for dipping a toe in and seeing how you go. If you end up buying it then the progress you make carries over to full version of the game.

Info and download link on the Origin free trials listings page (I'm considering seeing what state Titanfall is in - there's a two-day trial for that too). I'm not sure how long the trial is available for so it might only have a couple of hours left on the listing.

*What do you call a yarn monster who gets involved in organised crime?

String-er Bell