Welcome to this review of Vinebound: Tangled Together, a smaller title developed by Riftpoint Entertainment and published by Silesia Games. If you like Vampire Survivors, Brotato or other horde-survival games this is a game worth checking out, you can even play it with a friend.
The game has a cartoon vegetable patch type aesthetic with quirky looking characters including rampaging bull-like tomatoes, angry looking pineapples and more. I recommend that you take a look at the below trailer before reading my thoughts.
Gameplay
Vinebound is a horde-survival roguelite game which can be played solo or together in couch co-op. It is very much a Vampire Survivors-like where you're tackling increasing waves of enemies. As a roguelite, it is run-based with each taking a sweet spot length of ten minutes. Every two minutes a mini-boss will spawn until the zone's final boss spawns after ten minutes, so you're forever on your toes and tackling something new. Each enemy has their own individual moves including charging enemies, some that explode into an AOE or others that unleash a barrage of bullet fire in your direction.
Vinebound's twist on the genre is that you're in control of two characters, one each in co-op or controlling both in a twin stick mode as a solo player. Whilst dabbling in co-op, the majority of my playtime was solo and it felt really sharp and snappy, either way you play, you will need your duo to move together to avoid damage and attack enemies as quickly as possible. Between both of your characters is a ping-pong’ing tether that needs to remain at specific lengths otherwise you will be knocked in to the enemies or the maps various hazards. A flower will move along the tether between the duo and when it reaches each character they will dish out attacks – so you can keep your characters closer together for quicker attacks but more chance of being hit; or extend the tether to give yourself more room but the time between your attacks will be delayed.
The game has three unique stages and you need to beat the former to unlock the next. Each stage has its own hazards and obstacles that aim to attack you including attack vines, fire walls and the second stage's tricky and slightly frustrating ice rink.
Like other games in the genre, players can equip multiple upgradeable weapons, perks such as increased damage or AOE and then the game's "˜sauces' which apply varying effects to attacks like burning, freezing or shock. When stacked on top of one another, by the end of your ten-minute runs you can become a real powerhouse. There are many different vegetable weapons that players can unlock and use for their runs including the "˜bow and carrot', the "˜banana sword' and my personal favourite, the OP exploding pumpkins. You can simultaneously equip different weapons for each character and the results can look like real fireworks by the time the final boss rolls around.
Just one more run?
Although Vinebound has only a few levels - which is totally acceptable for a game that's the price of a fancy coffee - I was impressed by its take on replayability. There are a lot perma-upgrades for characters and weapons available that are unlocked by securing golden coins in your runs:
After completing the game's three stages (and I admit, I struggled hard with the second!), you can unlock the "˜spicy' modes which allow you to apply modifiers to your run including enemy health, speed, health and more. Applying more modifiers allows you to unlock more gold coins so there is a real risk/reward on offer.
Visuals and art style
The game's colourful cartoon vegetable is a delight to look at. I love Vampire Survivors, but my not so young anymore eyes often struggle to keep up with everything on screen, however the bright colours in Vinebound reduced that issue significantly.
Each map looks vastly different from the other, there is a lot of variety between bosses and other enemies and attacks light up your screen like in the best bullet-hell games. It is a unique art style that I never tired of seeing during my several hours with the game.
Audio
For a small-budget game, Vinebound's audio is totally serviceable. The soundtrack has different tracks each level and for the menus that I never found myself getting bored of during my many runs. Audio effects however work really well, there are lots of helpful audio cues when you're playing which assist in pre-empting danger. Meanwhile, weapons make their own individual sounds so you know what you're attacking with, even when the screen gets to late-game chaos.
Final thoughts
Vinebound: Tangled Together is a solid bullet-hell game that has a visually-pleasing aesthetic alongside sharp and rewarding gameplay. For a small lower-priced title, there is a good amount of game here with lots of replayability, many items to unlock and upgrade and ways to augment your runs for higher risk and rewards. If you enjoy Vampire Survivors but want something a little fresher, I fully recommend Vinebound: Tangled Together. I look forward to being good enough to complete level 4 spicy runs and I'm excited to grind more perma-upgrades to make that possible.
Vinebound: Tangled Together is now available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and Steam. A demo is available on Steam and there is a launch discount available on selected store fronts. And Xbox code was kindly provided to GSC by publisher, Silesia Games for review.
