Double Fine, a company known for critical darlings like Psychonauts and Brutal Legend, have had many attempts in the downloadable front already. Both Costume Quest and Stacking have put humor in a cute, clever way. Trenched is the same also, backing up the humor with a unique twist on tower defense games. In Trenched, you not only control the towers, but you are in the battlefield as well, in a sort of Tower Defense-Third Person Shooter hybrid. In a world full of First-Person Shooters and futuristic combat, it’s not easy for a game to present originality and have it met with success. Trenched does just that.
The game is silly, and is even sillier by trying to take it seriously. Of course, the funny is still there, but if you don’t pay attention it won’t catch your eye, unlike other Double Fine games. The story is simple, but clever. It begins with two World War I veterans who both survive a terrible laboratory accident. In the process of healing, the two vets become super-geniuses, but become paralyzed in the process. One decides he wants to see the world for himself, so he builds bionic legs. The other, however, wants to bring the world to him, and invents the television. As the vet starts in television, he becomes corrupt, and creates bionic monsters (called “Tubes”), and, guess what? Wants to take over the world. In response, the other vet upgrades his bionic leg technology into an entire mech, meant to protect the world from the evils of the Tubes. Honestly, the story is there to set up the fun parts of Trenched, but is humorous still.
The best part of Trenched is, obviously, the mechs, called “Trenches” in the game. In the game, there are different towers (called Emplacements) that do various things. Mortars, Turrets, Goop, all these and more are designed to hinder the waves and waves of Tubes. Also, the Trenches can have different guns at their disposal. Sniper Rifles, Grenade Launchers, Shotguns, even machine guns can be attatched to the Trenches. However, there is a catch. The Trenches are divided into three classes – Light, Medium, and Heavy. Light Trenches can carry the most Emplacements, but the least amount of firepower. Medium Trenches carry average of both, and Heavy Trenches carry the most firepower but the least amount of Emplacements.
Finding the balance of what you want – firepower or defensive towers – is part of the fun of Trenched. Trenched on its own is very fun, but it’s the most fun when you’ve got a group of four distinct Trenches, teaming up to defeat the Tube menace. Having all the possibilities at the disposal of four Trenches can get to be very interesting in the later levels.
Another interesting component of Trenched is the Call of Duty-esque ranking system. The higher the level, the better the weapons and Emplacements you get. And the more you use a specific gun or emplacement, the more powerful it becomes. However, the menus are daunting to newcomers, and are cumbersome to navigate if you want to do a particular upgrade or purchase.
For a game that seems like a bizarre amalgamation of two contrasting genres, Trenched competes surprisingly well. Killing various Tubes with your vivid arsenal is entertaining, to say the least. All in all, this is hands down Double Fine’s strongest downloadable title to date. The game is humorous, the gameplay is outstanding, the customization is unprecedented in downloadable titles and for the price of $15, it is one of the best Xbox Live Arcade games released. The experience is hampered if you decide to go it alone, but get a group of four buddies together, and you’ll have one of the best arcade game experiences in the last decade.
9/10.
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Yeah, Clash of Heroes! The best PSN title of 2011, I absolutely loved that game. Sadly it was overlooked by most people.
Love Double Fine and tower defense games. I'll have to try this out when it drops in price. What do you mean by "It's not in Europe for some reason"?
There's weird copyright things happening, some guy says he has the rights to the word 'Trenched' in Europe. Should have elaborated on that.
is it really not in Europe cause i thought it was a WWI game also not being in Europe is a dumb point don't act like ign