Entwined

It may not be long, but it doesn't need to be, either, and it tops it all off with an abundance of style.

It's games like this that keep me interested in gaming; creative developers working on creative concepts and telling simple, effective stories in a manner that is only possible through an interactive medium.

The game’s occasional lack of identity prevents it from receiving the very top marks, but don’t let that put you off this romantic release.

In a glorious, minimal style, Entwined delivers an experience that’s deep, engaging, and rewarding way past experience points and in-game rewards.

Don’t be surprised to see this small, yet emotionally giant, title competing against the big boys for Game of the Year 2014.

Entwined will put your brain to work and force you to think with both hands at the same time. It will challenge you to do better and keep you going, while at the same time relaxing your senses. It’s not perfect, but it’s engaging enough to warrant the time, money and effort.

Entwined manages to be both relaxing and challenging, and convinced us with an appealing visual style, interesting audio design and addictive gameplay. Low points include the rather short length of the game and the at times inaccurate controls.

It may lack depth in gameplay, and even the visual can get repetitive quite quickly. Still, gameplay is interesting, and perfectly entwined with narration, as the title may suggest, and that's a great achievement.

Entwined blends its gameplay, visuals and soundtrack into one beautiful piece of art that should be experienced by anyone who has the chance to play it.

It may not encircle your heart like Journey but it should have an impact, and that’s what matters.

Just like Flower or Journey, Entwined is an experience toward something more dreamlike.

Entwined is a interesting twin-stick experiment easy to play but hard to master. A zen-experience that you might like if you enjoyed games such as Flower, Proteus and Flow. Too bad you can complete the Story mode in just one hour.

This is a lovely, gossamer experience that lifts you into the clouds and then quietly brings you back to earth, happy for the time spent, and your mind free of the detritus that originally cluttered it.

It's lovely and challenges gamers in an unusual way, but it is also hampered by an awkward (and possibly painful) control scheme and dropped frames.

A beautiful experience, but quite simple when it comes to gameplay. We appreciate it tries to deliver something different, which it does, but as a game it doesn't work that wall.

With the Dyad and Mizuguchi works as a core base, Entwined takes a peep at thatgamecompany masterpieces and tries to be as spiritual and poetic as Jenova Chen's works, and remains behind them, although in some moments almost scratches their surface. Constantly poetic, always metaphoric, this artsy experience has its flaws -some windows patterns too complicated considering the audience this game aims for, always the same routine in all levels-, but it's indeed a short dream to take us away from reality for the couple of hours we are going to be playing it.

Entwined is a worthy game, despite its short lifespan. As the first PixelOpus studio's work, it's strong enough to give the team a good compliment. Small technical issues don't weigh down a superb design and soundtrack.

A missed opportunity. Entwined could have been something extra special, but is ultimately forgettable instead. [September 2014, p74]

Entwined is an interesting experiment, with a compelling tale, clever gameplay and great visuals. The execution is however lacking and the gameplay feels too clunky for its own good.

By borrowing ideas from Rez and Frequency, Entwined offers a "chill-out" experience that can be difficult and challenging at times.

Entwined's too simple to be satisfying, and not thematically deep enough to be interesting.

A disappointingly bare-bones color-matching game that doesn't measure up to its artsy promise.

Entwined has clear objectives and an overall goal, but the reward for "beating" it isn't points or a trophy, it's a sense of serenity and peace. It's certainly not for everyone, but to those who find the idea appealing, it utterly succeeds.

It’s a fun little game with some gorgeous visual and musical style, but it fails to evoke the emotional core that similar games like Journey and Flower were able to. The challenging gameplay and the musical score may be enough for some players, but those in search of more depth will need to look elsewhere.

There's a wonderful nugget at its core, but the final product, when all features and factors combine, never shines enough to recommend it without a series of caveats.

While its skin-deep qualities suggest something artistic and maybe a little philosophical, this middling arcade game packs not enough wallop to be worth more than a bit of a shrug. While not awful, it's certainly not intriguing enough to maintain interest even in spite of a brief running time.

Entwined is a shallow experiment, with dull mechanics and frustrating controls. Its somewhat luscious visuals simply aren't enough.

Bold and beautiful but also irritatingly broken, it's a disappointingly flawed experience. [Sept 2014, p.79]

If we had got to know Entwined before his announcement and immediate release, we probably would have called it a broken promise. Because the idea of basing the gameplay on a Chinese myth is exciting, but the execution in this case is pretty disappointing.

Entwined’s experimental nature reminds me of similar games that I’ve enjoyed, but there’s always a “minus” in the comparison; it’s like Journey minus the community, like Flower minus the message, like Rez minus the action. It is a stylish feast for the eyes and ears, but one that ultimately leaves you hungry.

The concept is the most intriguing part of Entwined. Everything else is rather bland.

Feels oddly hollow. [Aug 2014, p.94]

If you really love this type of game (tunnel/artistic), you may enjoy Entwined. But I ended up hating the mechanics, and that ruined the experience for me. The emotions didn’t come through, and the colorful visuals didn’t make up for it.

Sadly, Entwined never manages to deliver much beyond art and beauty.

It's easy to be hypnotized by stunning graphics in Entwined, but the campaign is unvarying, the music is not in sync and the best segments of the game are also the shortest, unfortunately. Great looks aren't an excuse for a otherwise mediocre game.

We expected Entwined to be an intense, atmospheric experience, but the game definitely failed to deliver.

It’s a shame that poor execution lets Entwined down so badly. The themes being explored here have the potential to be touching and are, unquestionably, underrepresented in videogames.

A nice core bit of gameplay tarted up with unnecessary pretensions and stretched too thin, even over its short playtime. It feels like a minigame from a bigger title – specifically, those minigames from God of War and Dead Space 2 in which you guide a plummeting hero through falling debris. What it doesn’t feel like is a full a game – let alone the artsy indie hero Sony would like it to be.

At only two hours in length, Entwined could have been a short but sweet action rhythm game, but a number of small issues add up to big problems.

The whole production is imbued with stunning environments replete with this trenchant sense of beauty. It's just really a pity the gameplay is rarely as cogent as these ornate landscapes or the gauzy, resonant soundtrack. There's obviously something special at work here bubbling beneath the surface, but it's too subtle and poorly realized to merit delving into.

A quaint idea with a neat gameplay mechanic but poorly executed.

All in all, Entwined is a flawed game with some good ideas, but none of them coalesce in a cohesive, interesting way.

I completed Entwined in about 90 minutes, and I was bored with it halfway through.

There's some almost sublime moments in this, inviting you to think about the more tenderly alluded themes. But you don't really bother, you're just too bored. And if you're honest, you don't really care.

It's a game that strains for profundity and meaning - that's particularly evident in its Trophy titles - but finds them ever beyond its grasp. Some will be soothed by its contemplative mood, others will relish the challenge of mastering those devious patterns, but to me the two felt like an awkward mismatch.

Entwined spins a single passable mechanic into an overlong (but still quite short) experience with absolutely none of the emotional heft or art-game cred it feigns having.

I hate it when developers use pompous artsy nonsense to hide the fact that their game has nothing to offer in terms of gameplay. Entwined is a primitive arcade game with an obnoxiously pretentious ‘love story’. [Sept 2014, p.67]