Tearaway Unfolded Review

Tearaway Unfolded is a refreshing, unique experience on the PlayStation 4.

While PlayStation 4 games have made use of certain DualShock 4 features, this is the first game that truly emphasizes all the controller has to offer. What's more, it utilizes the controller's features in a way that isn't annoying, but fun. Part of that can be attributed to the way in which new gameplay elements are introduced to you throughout the journey.

What Media Molecule does well with Tearaway Unfolded's gameplay is avoid the gimmicks. The world and the puzzles you encounter in Tearaway Unfolded are carefully constructed to highlight the DualShock 4's features. The result is fun, innovative gameplay, and an experience unlike anything I've had on PlayStation 4.

POSITIVES

• As I mentioned before, the world of Tearaway Unfolded is charming and vibrant, ripe for exploration. Each location open and filled with things to do and items to find, but linear enough so that you’re never too lost in this magical dimension. You always know your ultimate goal, but it’s fun to branch off and experience the adventure.

• Whereas most games these days encourage violence and destruction, Tearaway Unfolded encourages creativity, life, and beauty. Many of the game’s puzzles involve you breathing life into the world, whether it’s filling in colorless paper or actually creating the faces or outfits for characters in this world. It’s refreshing.

• Tearaway Unfolded makes great use of all the DualShock 4’s features. The touchpad, light bar, motion controls, microphone, and even controller speakers all come into play during puzzles. What Media Molecule does well, though, is introduce these different elements slowly so that you aren’t too overwhelmed when you must use them all at once in the more difficult stages.

• Unique environments. Despite everything being made out of paper, it’s pretty amazing to see such wonderful creations. Each environment not only offers a unique look and feel, but a different wrinkle in the gameplay.

• PlayStation App’s second-screen experience allows limited co-op experience. I have no doubt that Tearaway Unfolded would be a great game to experience with a buddy. And in a way, you can using the PlayStation App on your mobile device (or Vita). Unfortunately, that experience is limited to sending your own photos and digital paper designs into the game. What’s cool is that it’s context-sensitive so anything you create in the app will appear in the game in different ways depending on what the player is doing. I did struggle with sending some photos, however, as it would appear everywhere and take over the world.

• Adorable and charming. Straight up, Tearaway Unfolded is just a fun, light play.

Negatives

• Awkward camera angles at times.

• Ridiculously slow load times. Whether you’re first booting up the game or restarting a chapter, expect to wait a long time.

• Drawing on the touchpad can sometimes be annoying. There are puzzles in the game that ask you to draw certain shapes or items. While I appreciate the unique use of the touchpad, I wish it were a tad bit larger so I could draw with my meaty fingers. That being said, part of the charm of Tearaway is that not everything is perfect. Everyone’s experience is unique, including your drawings.

Neutral

• Puzzles, for me, weren’t too difficult, which was welcomed. Tearaway is more about the adventure and experiencing this papercraft world. That experience would be marred if I were constantly stuck on the same puzzle. That being said, it’s possible the gameplay was easy for me because I’m used to games. When my wife played, because she absolutely loves papercraft, she had a more difficult time managing some of the puzzles and unique controls. That hasn’t stopped her from playing though.

• I haven't played the original Tearaway on Vita, so I can't say for sure what the new content is. Because of that, I don't feel comfortable calling it a positive or a negative. What I can say is that Media Molecule claims to have been "carried-away" in the process of bringing Tearaway to PlayStation 4, adding "some new regions, characters, collectables, and changed some of the story around."

Since it was released in 2013 — heck, even before that — I was intrigued with Media Molecule’s Tearaway, a puzzle-platformer set in a vibrant papercraft world. Unfortunately, I, like many others, never owned a PlayStation Vita. So I missed out on the game.

Thankfully, both Sony and Media Molecule have come to their senses and brought the papercraft world to PlayStation 4, where more than 20 million gamers can now enjoy this charming adventure.

Tearaway Unfolded is a buddy adventure in which you, the YOU of the world, travel along with a plucky messenger who has a unique message to deliver to, well, you. It sounds confusing, but I promise you it works. In order to deliver this message to you, YOU and the messenger must work together, utilizing each other’s strengths to overcome the various challenges and obstacles thrown your way.

What makes Tearaway Unfolded stand out to me isn’t the actual adventure, but rather, the way it’s presented. Tearaway Unfolded ditches traditional gameplay and graphics we’ve grown so accustomed to in this generation of hardware. The vibrant world that you will explore is built as if it were made entirely from paper, unfolding and coming to life as you explore. Being married to someone obsessed with papercraft, this was particularly appealing to me as the world is built realistically as if you were building it with paper in real life.

As for the gameplay, it’s not terribly difficult, but instead, innovative. Tearaway Unfolded is more about the experience than the difficulty, creatively making use of every unique feature in the PlayStation 4’s DualShock 4.

As you can tell, I’m pretty high on this game, so click on over to the next page for a more detailed breakdown on the positives and negatives.

The Positives / The Negatives

The Verdict