Developer/Publisher: Pixelopus/Sony Released: June 2014

Played on: PS4 (coming soon to PS3, Vita)

Announced at Sony’s E3 press conference this year, and released on the same day, Entwined is another example of Sony investing in new studios and encouraging them to create experimental gaming experiences. While it is a pretty debut for studio Pixelopus, it doesn’t feel as inventive as The Unfinished Swan, nor does it take us on the emotional journey of Journey.

Nevertheless, Entwined is unique in both story and form. The player controls the souls of an orange bird and a blue fish who long to be together but can’t. The player guides them through nine “lifetimes” and if successful, the two unite to become a cool looking green dragon. There is minimal on-screen text, and any real meaning in the game needs to be derived from interpreting the game’s mechanics and visuals, or reading its’ less cryptic trophy titles (“loneliness”,  “anxiety”, “enlightenment”, “love”etc).

Most striking is Entwined‘s wonderful visual & aural aesthetic. The main gameplay takes place as you zoom through a lifetime, reminiscent of the “Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite” section of 2001: A Space Oddysey, as light and colour dance by you in an eternally sliding corridor. The bird and fish are assigned one analog stick each, and you control them both as they zip through the passing galaxy, divided by an invisible uncrossable line in the centre of the screen. Passing through coloured shapes rewards the player with pleasant sounds and builds the audio landscape as collecting flying comet-like debris builds a meter at the top of the screen. Once each soul’s meter is full, the player holds down R1 and R2 to unite the two creatures. Suddenly music kicks in and the visuals become even more exciting as the two spirits flitter dangerously across their coloured obstacle course until they have manoeuvred well enough to finally unite and become a dragon. Deep.

At times the gameplay can be fun, even addictive. Passing through the coloured gates requires quick reflexes and pre-emptive movements, and the aural feedback is hugely satisfying. Playing with the lights out and the sound up is completely immersive, and the experience can verge on tranquil and meditative, until you do something wrong and are frustratingly disrupted.

As the game progresses, it becomes increasingly frustrating to correctly manoeuvre through increasingly annoying patterns and shapes. While you are not rewarded for successful manoeuvres, you are punished for unsuccessful ones. Most frustrating is when making a simple error during an attempt to “unite” the two fails repeatedly, and requires you to continually build up your meter by collecting the seemingly random comets along the way. It often felt like I had completed sections due to luck rather than skill. Adding insult to injury, I noticed that often after a “unite” attempt had been disrupted, the game’s visuals would suddenly freeze for a second, but the game would play on, meaning that you are more than likely to make yet another mistake due to an error in the game. Hugely frustrating.

Thankfully, these frustrations are not enough to ruin what is quite an endearing game. Notably, the “story” mode is easily completable in less than 2 hours, and might not be considered value for money for some players. There is a challenge mode available, but it is more of the same gameplay and completing the story mode once felt like enough.

While it does take you on a beautiful journey with remarkable visuals and thrilling sound design, Entwined‘s ultimate impact is one of purely aesthetic delight which evokes temporary emotional responses that do not resonate beyond the initial playthrough. The seemingly mythical nature of the story succeeds on an experiential level, but does not carry enough weight to feel truly meaningful.

Verdict: An abstract, immersive and occasionally moving experience, Entwined is a unique game with a simple but flawed mechanic, a short lifespan and limited appeal.

Should Bradley play this: He can give this one a miss.