One Chain, Two Fools, and Endless Falls - Chained Together

If you want to do a fun activity with your loved ones and want to annoy them a bit, many co-op games are designed to do exactly that. Some of them require a lot of coordinated moves and almost perfect communication. One such game that I played recently is Chained Together.

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This one came out last year. In it, you are tied to your partner with a physical chain that restricts your movements. The game is a 3d platformer about trying to get out of the depths of hell together.

These types of games have gained a lot of popularity recently, because of the challenge they offer.

There were multiple modes to choose from, and we went for the 'beginner' one, which is less punishing. You can restart from the checkpoints so you don't have to climb up every time you fail a jump and fall.

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We start in hell, hearing the voice of the devil saying he got bored and set up a challenge for us. We are free to try it and get out of here.

The game isn't too polished and gives you the raw indie feel. You can see that they used every 3d model they could get their hands on and put them in place, creating a challenging platforming game.

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It becomes less difficult with the beginner mode, and I can't even imagine sane people going for the normal modes. It is so easy to miss one jump and fall back to the depths of hell. My respect for those who completed this game on the hard mode.

There are moving platforms, spinning disks, large fans, ladders, stairs, stones, rotating wheels, railing to grab, and even water sections once you get a bit higher up.

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One of my favorite parts is driving the vehicles. Only one of us can drive it while the other sits patiently as the car gets knocked out of the track with a giant windmill.

All these shenanigans led to a lot of funny moments, but they were fewer compared to the constant disagreement over whose fault it was on the last failed jump. Those could get spicy, and that forces you to communicate better. I can't imagine playing this without at least a voice call. There is no way you can sync your movements without it.

Some Clever Puzzles along the way

There are many interesting puzzles too. I liked the one where you had to remember the path and then the blocks disappear, making you walk on invisible blocks. There is always room to save the other player by pulling them up but it doesn't work when the platforms are too thin or if you are standing on a rotating one.

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The developers threw in many platforming challenges, but many were not very creative, like doing a section in x amount of time before everything disappears and you fall.

Some involved making the patterns on the display to match the pattern on the tiles. Others involved some crazy fast spinning disks and big spinning trailer boxes.

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As we ascend from hell, we cross many regions like City, the Temple, Construction sites, gardens, railway tracks, bus stations, and even an Asian themed section with beautiful aesthetics. It is a big mix of things which involves climbing up and up and ultimately gaining freedom from hell. It teaches you a lot about your partner, especially how bad they are at pulling you up once you are down lol.

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There were a few collectible wings along the way, but we didn't pay much attention to them, so we missed a few in our journey. This website suggests it takes about 5 hours to beat it. But we took much longer than that, about 8 hours in total. This was mostly because of multiple sections where we got stuck for a while.

Would I recommend it even if it gets frustrating? I would say, Yes. It is worth playing, even though some sections could be improved and the auto-grab mechanism was a bit more reliable... It still is a fun title. Getting over that one thing where you were struggling gives you a lot of satisfaction and makes you keep going.