A promising but, in the end, disposable cousin of Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet, Unravel is built around the idea that love is literally a thread - a spool of shimmering red yarn that usefully doubles as a grappling line. Your task as the game's adorable (if vaguely demonic-looking) doll protagonist is to save a lonely old woman from despair by effectively stitching her memories back together - dragging that thread from one side of each level to the other, while searching for tiny knitted emblems that symbolise catharsis and acceptance.
Once collected, these emblems are added to the old lady's scrapbook in the parlour that serves as Unravel's hub, restoring the photos within plus a few wistful sentences of exposition. The moral is that while cherishing the past is important, at some point you have to let go - hardly an original theme even within the world of platform games, and sadly, all developer Coldwood Interactive really does is string the idea out for five to 10 hours or so.
Being made of wool himself, Yarny has some unusual capabilities. He can lasso highlighted objects to swing from them or drag them around, and tether things to each other to create bouncy tightropes or hold moving structures in place. The catch is that there's only so much yarn to work with, and Yarny unravels as he moves, fibre spilling out behind him like a loop of intestine. Jog too far and he'll waste away to a feeble skeleton, obliging you to search for a yarn ball to replenish the stock before you can proceed. It's a touching little commentary on how we grind ourselves down in times of stress, and might have been the basis for some excellent puzzles in the bargain, but the game never quite manages the feat.
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