The Tribulation Entanglement

Needless to say, the Indie Skunk was pretty upset when It read our previous article. It considered an outrage that The Stinky Way is not the one and only religion followed by Its disloyal minions.

Its Stinkiness called us many names (“filthy heathens” was Its favourite by far), made brother Tagonius write “there is not such a thing as Cachuli” a thousand times and tried to shame yours truly, reminding me how I defended Barbie Girl during the bizarre disco events of the sixth day of Next Fest ’22 and questioning my loyalty to “the metal thingie”.

Its Most Glorious Grace has also enforced what It likes to call “the Stinkysition”, commanding us to persecute our own filthy heresy. It obviously escapes Its Stinkiness that it doesn’t really make much sense to expect Its minions to do that. But such is the nature of religious fanatism after all.

With that out of the way, today this minion would like to talk about The Tribulation Entanglement, an insanely cool title by Anxious Neck Games.

There may be some metal references that I will not persecute.

An absence of light—The world

We wake up, or are born, to a beautifully crafted black & white world. We seem to be in another planet. Everything is strange, alien and somehow organic.

Our purpose is as obscure as our surroundings. All we know is that we must advance, what for will only be revealed at the end of our journey.

The uneasy atmosphere that surrounds us is punctuated by an unnerving soundtrack, reminiscent of the ones composed by John Carpenter.

Welcome to The Tribulation Entanglement, an atmospheric, bizarre and unique adventure.

Genetic superior cell—The gameplay

In order to reach the end of our tribulation, we will need to jump between platforms and fight outlandish creatures (some of them bosses) using melee and special attacks, in what can be the strangest metroidvania ever made.

There is a nice variety of hellish cool enemies and a couple of twists to the platformer mechanics.

Populated by the fathomless and unbearable—Opinion rhymes with minion

The Tribulation Entanglement is a sweet and SHORT experience (it took yours truly 2.4 hours to complete the game).

This minion of the Indie Skunk did appreciate its shortness. Sometimes long games do not get better for being, well, long, and tend to feel repetitive and cumbersome after a few hours.

The Tribulation Entanglement feels more like watching a good movie and does benefit from its length. It never feels repetitive, thanks to the variety of bizarre creatures that you will encounter in the many, different environments that you will come across.

The atmosphere is top-notch and brought me back to another era of gaming, reminding me of titles like Frightmare (1988) and of the good old days of the Game Boy.

It is for all those reasons that the minions of the Indie Skunk recommend you not to miss this one, dear follower.

That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more Stinkysition. Also for more reviews of the most amazing indie games.

Hail the Indie Skunk!