Chained Together is the cruel co-op platformer that’s blowing up on Steam
There’s a genre of game I lovingly call “antics generators” — games where the high points include players howling over voice chat and perfectly clippable moments to share on social media. Lethal Company, Fall Guys, and the Mario Party franchise are perfect examples of this phenomenon, and it looks like another contender is emerging: Chained Together, a co-op game about escaping hell with three of your buddies.
Chained Together, which has proved popular on Steam since it was released on June 19, has a simple premise: platform your way out of hell. The catch is — and you may have guessed this from the title of the game — that you and your friends are chained together. You can play solo or in a four-person squad, and the wackiest way to play is with a full team.
As you get out of hell, the climbing becomes increasingly difficult. Even if you play impeccably, a slip-up from one of your teammates sends all of you back to the depths of hell. It’s co-op QWOP.
This kind of game already does well on streaming — consider the success of Getting Over It, or the similar platformer Only Up — but when you add in the chaotic element of co-op, it gets very silly very quickly. There are sometimes moments where you save one of your pals with some lucky chain physics, and at that point you feel like a solid team made up of comrades. But most runs are defined by plummeting back into the depths as everyone shouts at each other.
There are ways to adjust the difficulty; a run can be much friendlier with the checkpoint system enabled, allowing you to try again from the highest point you’ve reached. Or, if you’re particularly devious, there’s a hard mode where lava chases you upward to make you climb faster. To many players, the tough circumstances are part of the charm — it allows for big saves and dramatic victories.
Chained Together is brutal pic.twitter.com/xxrK67ffKf
We beat Chained Together. This was one of the best and most scariest moments.
GG <a
