Tethered is a new and charming strategy game for PlayStation VR and HTC Vive and Oculus Rift on PC. At first sight, the game looks adorable cute but underneath is a title with a surprising amount of depth. Tethered is a god simulator where you’ll control a bunch of tiny blue minions which you can control and allocate to outposts on islands. That also means you’ll have to do resource management, make sure the minions have plenty of food and the whole gameplay dynamic shifts when night comes.
Evil worms will explore the island you’ve been managing, and you’ll have to defend your settlements and minion workers in order to succeed. Thanks to the VR headset, you do kind of feel like a god in Tethered with the God-like field of view. You can also change this perspective by pointing to a different cloud. Read Rebelheart’s full Tethered review below.
Gameplay
In Tethered, the player is almighty and you play as a sort of god. The game features thirteen different levels, all with major changes in the layout of the islands which in turn results in very different playing styles. At the beginning of a level, a few of these blue minions are born – they’re called the ‘Peeps’. The can link these Peeps to a certain activity on the island, like gathering resources or attacking an enemy worm. This also explains the title ‘Tethered’. In the game, the objective is to gather as much Spirit Energy as possible to fully unlock all the possibilities the island has to offer.
This Spirit Energy is collected into a sort of totem that will also serve as the storage location for all your gathered resources. Slowly but surely, the island you’re on starts getting greener thanks to the activities you’re planning with the Peeps, and you’ll unlock new buildings along the way. Farms, a military basis or science buildings to research new technology: it’s all there. The weather also plays a very important element in the game, as sunshine, rain, storm, and snow will greatly affect the way your Peeps will behave. And since we’re busy playing God anyway, you can also unleash a thunderstorm or rainbow yourself.
In all the thirteen levels, gameplay is fairly similar: you start with a small Peep, that’ll be hatched from an egg. You can hatch other eggs with some much-needed sunshine or by breeding it with another Peep. There is one caveat, however. If you leave an egg alone for too long, they’ll go bad and instead of a Peep being born, a slimy and evil worm will hatch instead – definitely something to avoid. Each level takes about thirty minutes to complete and you’ll be given a certain score at the end of the level, depending on your performance based on the number of Peeps and time. The level is complete when you’ve gathered enough Spirit Energy, which can be earned by doing basic tasks such as collecting crystals and defeating enemies.
Even though collecting Spirit Energy is the main goal here, it’s equally as important to keep your Peeps happy. You’ll need to make sure there’s enough food, but Peeps can also become bored if they don’t have anything to do. In other words, make sure you ‘tether’ every Peep to a specific activity. Once you’ve built up enough resources, you can place buildings such as extended farms, use upgrades or place defensive structures.
Out of natural resources? No problem, because you can influence the weather with some divine intervention and restore your resource pools. Buildings are of the essence in Tethered. For example, there’s a tavern that serves as a resting and healing place for Peeps. In the barracks, you can promote Peeps to a stronger version of them, Heroes. You can also appoint Peeps with specializations to increase their effectiveness in certain activities. While you’re busy handling all this – you also need to make sure that the Peeps will be able to defend themselves when the night comes.
When your Peeps are under attack, they’ll forget their current activity which means you’ll have to ‘retether’ them afterward. There’s no point in doing nothing, because they’ll get depressed and will even try to jump off the floating island. With its thirteen different levels, Tethered is definitely a game with tons of content – although a sort of Endless mode would’ve been a nice touch given the gameplay elements we’re working with here. Except for beating your own scores, there’s little reason to return to the campaign in terms of replayability. You can always choose to replay a level and try to solve it in a completely different manner, it is a God simulator after all.
Graphics and audio
Tethered looks great in terms of the art style, character details, and environments. The top-down VR overview works very well and the intuitive camera switching ensures that you always have a good view on your Peeps. Tethering your minions just feels natural, and I have to admit – they just look pretty darn cute too.
Conclusion
Tethered is most definitely a unique virtual reality title and a really fun-to-play God simulator. The game offers hours of content, surprisingly deep gameplay and a high cuteness factor. The controls in VR work just fine and feel natural. If you’re into simulators and strategy, Tethered should definitely be high on your to-get list.
Tethered is available on PC (HTC Vive and Oculus Rift) and PS4 (PSVR). Image sources: official Steam page.
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