Review: Entwined

Posted by Curtis H on June 17th, 2014 | 4 Comments | Tags: Entwined

Entwined is a small game by a brand new team of recent students called PixelOpus. I don’t like to draw comparisons too much, but to me it reminded me of thatgamecompany’s first game flOw. Something small, a little experimental, and overall just a neat little game. (This isn’t something that’s going to blow you away, but it shows potential and gives reason to be excited for what this team might do next.) Entwined tells the story of a fish and a bird who are in love, but are unfortunately always separated. The gameplay has you controlling each with one of the analog sticks as you fly down a tunnel collecting orbs and passing through colored gates. After collecting enough orbs the fish and bird can join together and transform into a dragon. As a dragon you can fly around an open area at your leisure and eventually “paint the sky” before traveling into the next lifetime.

The story in Entwined is rather abstract and I don’t think there’s really a clear message that you’re supposed to get from it. To me, it’s just a rather peaceful and relaxing game. Whatever you think about whether or not these two lovers are able to finally end up together by the end is up to you.

The tunnels you’ll fly through in Entwined as well as the open areas at the end of each lifetime all look fantastic. It’s a really nice looking game that is accompanied by a really nice and somewhat soothing soundtrack. If you’re able to I’d recommend playing with headphones on as doing so allowed me to just zone out for a bit.

Entwined also has a challenge mode that is there, especially if you’re looking for a challenge. Each level provides you with three lives in which you’ll be tasked to travel as far as you can. These challenge levels are a bit faster and are overall much more difficult than the stages you’ll find in the story mode. Unfortunately Entwined has an issue where the game tends to hitch every so often which, considering some of the timing that’s required, can cause you to make mistakes. It’s not a common occurrence, but it does happen just enough that it can be annoying.

Entwined is a pretty neat. It’s nice to zone out to the visuals and music while flying through the tunnels. While it’ll only take about an hour or so to get through the story the challenge modes are difficult enough where I can people spending a lot of time with them. If nothing else I’m curious to see what PixelOpus does next.

A copy of this game was purchased for review purposes. For more info on our review policy click here.