At E3 2014, Sony invoked 1995-era SEGA with the sudden announcement of a product that was available right now . That product was a brand-new PlayStation 4 game -- Entwined -- and unfortunately, the way it was randomly announced and released is probably the most remarkable thing about it.

Entwined is beautiful -- arrestingly so -- but unfortunately, it's also a game constructed around a contradiction. For as much as I appreciate its thoughtful approach and Thatgamecompany-like attempt at atmospheric storytelling, the fact remains that its pensive nature and understated trying-to-tell-you-something plot is obscured by its occasionally frustrating gameplay. It was hard for me to take its wonderful aesthetic in when I was left inevitably annoyed by the end of every stage, taking me out of the heady experience in the process.At the core of Entwined is a simple and easy-to-understand gameplay morsel most reminiscent of the cult-hit PS3 game Dyad . A majority of the experience takes place in a series of endless tunnels, and within these tunnels rest a litany of orbs and obstacles colored blue and orange. Using DualShock 4's dual analog sticks, you take control of two dueling creatures -- a fish and a bird -- that each occupy their own 180 degree portion of the tunnel. Blue orbs should be collected by the blue creature, orange orbs by the orange creature, and occasionally, a green block means both animals should collide with it simultaneously. Entwined is, in premise, easy to pick up, play, and understand, even with very little in the way of typical text-laden tutorials. Its accessibility is one of its strengths.Regrettably, for as easy as it is to understand, its finicky controls can quickly lead to frustration. Each of the campaign's nine chapters require the collection of those aforementioned orbs to build up the dragons' respective meters to maximum, all the while colliding with successive like-colored barriers to sustain the meters' growth. Miss a barrier, and the like-colored meter takes a hit. Things are easy going in general until the end of each level, when a requirement to fuse the two dragons together by holding L1 and R1 rears its ugly head. Make a short series of mistakes, and the dragons become separated, requiring a new fusion attempt. It's easy to get caught in this cycle for minutes at a time, especially as sequences become more complicated, and the longer I was caught, the more removed from the ethereal nature of Entwined I became. It's truly a shame when a game this pretty and atmospheric makes you want to bang your hand on the table in frustration.This comes back to the flaw at the heart of Entwined: it's trying, at least in premise, to be the kind of art house game the PlayStation ecosystem has been so well-known for, joining the likes of Flower, Journey, and The Unfinished Swan. But its literal interpretation of what a game actually is removes greatly from its narrative power, especially because -- unlike Thatgamecompany's classics -- you're constantly reminded that you're playing a game, rather than being immersed in a unique experience. Entwined's Achilles' heel, for as well-intentioned as the entire project is, comes back to that simple point: if the adventure only lasts 90 minutes like Entwined (or like Journey before it), shouldn't it be a truly special 90 minutes? Or should it be littered with both promise as well as little annoyances?With only an hour and a half of gameplay in its Story mode, Entwined also comes packing a Challenge mode you can mess around with if you want, but otherwise, it's fairly barren of content, even at its affordable price. It's hard to take issue with its lush color palette, beautiful soundtrack, and overall atmosphere. I just wish that if Entwined insisted on reminding you that you're playing a game, that it did it with more subtlety and nuance, and less frustration.