Review: Trenched

Double Fine’s Trenched is the latest Xbox Live Arcade downloadable title provided by the ever-creative team behind other indie darlings such as Stacking, Costume Quest and the wonderful Psychonauts. Over their past few titles, Double Fine have shown a flair for games that have a twist, and Trenched is the newest game to demonstrate this.

Trenched is a twist on the classic tower defence formula of placing defences and attack emplacements to fend off waves of enemies. Here you have the added bonus of a mobile ‘Trench’ – essentially a mech that you can kit out with various weaponry, and up to 4 slots for emplacements that you can drop around the field. This third-person shooter element makes the game a lot more involving, with you dropping emplacements between rounds of enemies, and moving yourself back and forth to cover the gaps or stop enemies before they get too close to the area you’re defending. A high level of customisability in your Trench lets you feel very in control of how you handle each skirmish, with different chassis and trench legs offering benefits in speed, defence and number of weapon loadout slots. Cosmetic customisations in the form of paint jobs for your Trench and outfits for your Trench pilot are also a welcome but not required addition.

The pressure is always on in the game, as you’re lucky to get as much as ten seconds between enemy waves to add or upgrade your emplacements and move into position to defend your base. Between this and the multiple enemy origin points, you’ll find yourself cursing the ponderous speed of your Trench as you struggle to get line-of-sight on the newest group of bastards trying to take out that shotgun turret that you just placed don’t destroy that I can’t afford another one god damnit.

Your enemies are the Tubes – mechanical enemies covered in TV screens that plan to spread your arch-enemy Vladimir Farnsworth’s “Monovision message” . This message appears to be ‘watch TV and stay in your house’ which is kind of ironic, considering it’s coming from the bad guy in a console video game. As you move through each battle you’ll be introduced to new enemy types and weapons/emplacements to combat them, making every battle fresh. Your focus also moves occasionally from defence of a home base to pure offense, and one mission midway through the game changes your defence point mid-way through, forcing you to scramble to deploy all your defences all over again before new waves of enemies arrive. Following your General’s suggestions for each battle will usually put you at a good chance of victory, but if you don’t ensure you’re covered effectively you will lose, and you will lose spectacularly.

The enemies in Trenched are visually distinct enough that you can recognise them and formulate your strategy from a distance. Changes in enemy colour separate your dark-blue standard enemies from your red take-them-down-quickly types such as suicide bombers and snipers, and light-blue emplacement destroyers. Most enemies have a reptilian look to them, offering a stark contrast to the blocky shape of your own Trench and emplacements.

The game also displays the trademark Double fine sense of humour. Your Trench pilot constantly spews lines full of bravado and shows little flairs of personality in their animations – my favourites being the ‘light-my-cigar-with-a-pistol-shot’ victory animation, and kicking the Trench’s controls to get it started after suffering too much damage. Your leader Frank Woodruff is the clichéd gung-ho soldier, with his dialogue framing the whole attitude of the game.

All up the game offers a robust experience, with a constantly-evolving rollout of enemies and weaponry to keep it from feeling like a formulaic ‘defend area X’ game. The dialogue and visuals are well-presented and of the usual high standard expected of Double Fine’s XBLA titles.  Whilst not a fan of the tower defence genre I did enjoy my time with Trenched,and hopefully we’ll see DLC to extend the game in future. I’m giving this one 4 Arbitrary Objects.