Walking the Trench

Back at PAX East Double Fine gave everyone a glimpse of Trenched for the Xbox LIVE Arcade.  Using a mix of mech combat and tower defense, with a lot of graphic and story flair, Trenched keeps in line with the standard of quality to be expected from Double Fine.  And you can build your own mechs!

Trenched starts off with a story of patriotism and sacrifice followed by some crazy super science, a lot of drinking and cigar smoking, and then finally all out war.  Two impaired gentlemen are monitoring radio signals during the war effort (WWI, WWII? - doesn’t matter) when they get a mysterious signal that gifts them with amazing mechanical abilities.  One modifies the standard military trench, to be mobile (and serve drinks and house cigars), while the other designs a race of mechanical monsters known as the Monovisions, or Tubes.

The game progresses with players (alone or online co-op) going from mission to mission either fighting through or defending from wave after wave of tubes.  Stages each have their own types of assaults including areal, snipers, cannon, and suicide bombers just to name a few.  Even though each stages is has a set type of attackers and defined waves the players will find no limit in the ways they can defeat their foes.  This is one of key creative play elements in Trenched.  You can return to a level using dramatically difference loadouts and tactics each time and enjoy a different play experience each time.  This versatility included by Double Fine gives Trenched amazing replay value as players return to do stages over again testing out new Trenches and loadouts.

It is in the Trench customization and loud outs where you’ll find the next great creative gameplay element included by Double Fine. It is from the deck of the Trench Carrier the USS McKinley that you prep for each mission, get briefings, find online players to join you or for you to join, and customize your Trench.  A little warning here - Trench customization is addictive! Hours will go by as you progress through levels, earn cash, and unlock new parts for your Trench.  You can choose from different Chassis that each provide a certain number of spaces to hold weapons, as well as a sort of “class bonus” for choosing an engineering or assault Trench.  The weapons come in a number of varieties including all the fan favorites like: Sniper Rifles, Flak Cannons, Machine Guns, Grenade Launchers, and so on.   The amount of combinations is too much to add right now, but it is a lot.

On top of creating a Trench to mash around in and shoot the crap out of things with, you get to choose your emplacements.  This is where the Tower Defense element comes into play.  Players can choose from 3 types of emplacements: Light, Heavy, and Support turrets.  Each emplacement is also upgradeable and can be assigned in different varieties depending on what your Trench’s chassis can support.  Your D-Pad selected emplacements can then be used to assist you in combat.  Emplacements can be planted pretty much anywhere in a map, but have a cost.  As you fight through waves of tubes, you’ll collect more scrap to use as currency to purchase more emplacements to deploy.

Trenched delivers a ton of options in customization, both in your Trench and in your Marine, as well as an amazing level of creative freedom in play.  If you have not already taken the fight to the Monovisions personally, then you really are missing out on one of the gems of XBLA.

And if you missed it, here is GamerMade's interview with Double Fine at PAX11 East...