Trenched – Review (XBLA)

Game Name:	Trenched
Platforms:	Xbox Live Arcade
Publisher(s):	Microsoft Game Studios
Developer(s):	Double Fine Studios
Genre(s):	Tower Defense, 3rd Person Shooter
Release Date:	June 22, 2011
ESRB Rating:	Teen

Following on the heels of Costume Quest and Stacking, Trenched is the latest downloadable game from Double Fine Studios in less than a year. You would think that those games would be a tough act to follow, but Project Lead Brad Muir has not only made the best Tower Defense game on the market right now, he has made the best Double Fine Studios game since Psychonauts.

The game is set in an alternate post World War 1 timeline where two wartime buddies named Frank Woodruff and Vladamir Farnsworth, survive an attack known as “The Broadcast”. Following the attack, both men are on the receiving end of super intelligence and knowledge of advanced technology, however they don’t see eye to eye on how to use what they have gained and Vlad tries to take over the world by creating television way too early and a Monovision army of monsters called Tubes. Frank on the other hand tries to stop his former comrade by creating an army of mobile weapon platforms, known as Trenches.

The S.S. McKinley serves as your single and multiplayer hub, where you can select missions, upgrade your Trench, look for co-op partners, buy and sell loot, or just salute at your friends until you all stop laughing. As you play through the game you gain experience, which ranks up your character and this level determines the type of gear you can equip and bling you can accessorize yourself with. Once you select a mission, you are given the option to customize your Trench before deploying and then it’s on the battlefield.

Missions vary between defending one base or multiple bases, with a few other twists thrown in. Once deployed you will have a limited amount of scrap on hand, usually enough to buy one emplacement. As you kill waves of enemies, you suck up the scrap left on the battlefield and use that to spend on more defenses. The entire time, you are an active participant in the fight, and moving around to defend wherever needed is key to victory. Random enemies, mini bosses and level bosses all drop loot boxes, and you get your spoils after the mission is over. In multiplayer, all scrap and loot is divided equally, so there is never any need to argue or bicker over drops. You are given a limited amount of time between waves to rebuild your defenses, which makes for an extremely tense struggle if your going it alone. The difficulty ramp up actually took me by surprise, but it makes the game challenging, never frustrating.

Between missions, you can deck your Marine out in new hats, each of which bestow you with a different salute, or new coats which make for hilarious combinations. Along with the paint jobs you can put on your Trench, the hats and coats serve no purpose other than vanity and add to the charm of the game. Oddly enough, the salutes almost never made it into the game, because Brad Muir initially thought it was a dumb idea, but later conceded it was actually pretty cool. My first co-op missions, i was paired up with Jeff Gerstmann from Giant Bomb, and we spent five minutes just saluting each other before we even selected a mission. Oh yeah you can also customize your Trenches.

There are three types of Trenches in the game, the engineering chassis allows you take a full compliment of emplacements, but limits your weaponry. The assault chassis let you take the big guns on the field but limit your emplacements, and the standard chassis gives you a middle ground. There are different leg types to equip, either for increased speed and mobility, or better defense and reload times. There are numerous weapon types, such as machine guns, shotguns, flak cannons, explosives, heavy artillery and broadcasters which are kind of like flamethrowers. Each class has numerous weapons and to further add to that, there are rare color coded weapons just like you would find in an mmo. The amount of choices and decision you get to make is almost staggering, and adds multiple layers of depth to an already incredible strategy game.

Trenched makes the most of the Brutal Legend engine, as the colorful art style pops off the screen. This is one of the true instances where graphical fidelity and aesthetics combine to give your senses an incredible visual treat. Sound design is top notch, and depending on the Marine you choose, you get a different set of sound bytes in mission, these are a nice touch but can be a bit repetitive. If your a strategy nut and you want a real challenge, single player offers a challenge that will have your hands sweating around your controller. Multiplayer co-op is how this game is best played, as it alleviates “some” of the difficulty, and is your best chance at getting silver and gold medals. The last 10 people you have played with all contribute to your regiment challenges, which are separate from your personal challenges, even when your not playing the game. The next time you log in to Trenched, you will be treated to free cash or goodies, all based on what the people in your regiment have done since you last played.

At 1200 ms points, Trenched is also an incredible value. There is more content in this downloadable game than there is many full priced boxed releases. If you plow through all of the missions with out failing, it will take you at least 6 hours or so to complete and your still wont even be close to all the medals.  Even maxed out players will have fun going back and re playing missions with friends to try out new weapons and Trench combinations. This is the most fun you will have playing any kind of tower defense game, and it’s a must have for any one that owns an Xbox 360. Trenched earns a solid 5 out of 5.

About the Author

Ron DiBona Ron DiBona is Editor in Chief of GroovyGamer.net and is a passionate game enthusiast. He is a freelance video game writer and is also the former host and creator of the Gamerdork US Podcast and now hosts a similar show for Groovy Gamer.