One of the things I sometimes dislike about reviewing a game is that I'm not given as much time as I'd like with it. Not that I don't get to finish it, just that I'm not allowed to play at my own pace. But with developer Double Fine's Trenched I just couldn't help myself; within two days I had completely blasted through the campaign, grinding levels over and over again to max out my level and collect that oh-so-precious loot. I'm just going to say it: I love this game.
Trenched takes place in a alternate world, where 1940s-esque soldiers pilot giant anthropomorphic machines called Trenches in an effort to fight a madman and his army of constructs. Part third-person shooter, part tower defense, Trenched challenges you to fight wave after wave of enemies in a variety of stages. Sometimes you're defending one position, other times you're defending multiple, but the goal is always the same: deploy turrets and use the guns on your mech to blast the holy hell out of anything you see. Collecting the "scrap" the enemies drop when they die allows you to deploy additional turrets (or emplacements), which look great as they fall from the sky before they drill into the ground.
A big part of the fun in Trenched is figuring out the right mech for the level at hand. Picking a chassis changes the amount of guns and emplacements you can bring, so once you've figure out your play style you have to decide what armaments suit the enemies ahead. If you want to play it like a shooter, pick a chassis that allows you to take a host of guns , supplementing your combat weaknesses with one or two emplacements. If you're more the sit back and watch type, you can take an engineer chassis with hardly any weapon slots and a bunch of emplacements, to create a network of turrets to hit your foes. Sometimes it's fun to bring an assault mech outfitted with six shotguns, while other times I felt like a badass when I'd manage to construct a mech that could fight long range, short range and everything in between. It makes for a lot of replayability, as you can play levels super aggressively one time, or more strategically later.
The best part about playing any stage, though, is collecting "loot boxes."There are simply few things better than the thrill of getting randomized loot that allows you to min-max your stats and damage output. I'm a nerd for constant tweaking and customization of my trench. It's downright addictive, and makes me replay stages over and over in hopes to get a shiny new gun or chassis.
Besides a couple of boss battles, all the levels boil down to the simple goal of staying alive and defending a point. The reason it never gets old is due to the sheer entertainment that comes from utilizing your mech against a variety of enemy types. One second I find myself firing an artillery round into a crowd of enemies at long range, the next I'd be swarmed by tiny enemies that forced me to utilize my machineguns while falling back. You can never sit on your laurels while playing Trench, because just when you think you're ready for anything you're forced to adapt to a new combination of enemies. Not only that, but unless you've brought the right emplacements, it's up to you to go out there and collect the scrap they drop. Every stage becomes a dance between shooting and looting, and the few seconds between waves become precious.
The gameplay is really well done, but what makes Trenched more than just another tower defense or shooter title is its well-developed atmosphere. The campaign story isn't that important to the levels themselves, but the writing is every bit as witty as I've come to expect from Double Fine. Between levels you return to a hub world on top of an aircraft carrier. Here you can inspect and customize your trench, choose your level, and invite friends to join you in your hub before taking to the field. The setting is just really well done, perfectly capturing the feeling of the alternate mid-20th century.
Inviting some other players to join you in your hub is worth it too, because multiplayer makes replaying levels even better. It's a little too easy to play through stages with four players (despite more enemies or tougher mini-bosses), but with two to three players you can really experiment. One player can take on the role of a tank, leaving the other players to use weaker engineers or exotic combinations of weapons they wouldn't normally take. The best part, though? You get loot every time.
Trenched is a pretty short game, but that doesn't really bother me since you can replay levels for more loot and experience. The things that do bother me are minor gameplay choices like the inability to destroy your own turrets. It sucks to take up a prime piece of real estate (turrets have to be placed a few feet apart) with the wrong type of turret cause you weren't paying attention. I could nitpick just about any game, but Trenched is fantastic despite any minor flaws it has.
Closing Comments
Trenched is the best downloadable game I’ve played all year. Its skillful blend of witty writing, fun shooting, and tactical tower defense makes for hours of replayable gameplay. Take into account the loot grind that Trenched inspires, and the online coop, and Double Fine’s created a title I hope turns into a franchise
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