Double Fine's Triple Sweet New Downloadable Title , "Trenched"

While I'm on a bit of a vacation, I planned on doing some writing while gone considering I would have some time for a few small projects I had planned, but this one took priority quickly. So I'd love to share it with you, continue on...

Double Fine's Tim Schafer helped put his company on the map by creating a number of unique and artistic titles including Grim Fandango and the classic Psychonauts, to the more recent Brutal Legend and recent foray into the world of downloadable titles with Stacking and Costume Quest. Each title has been very different from the last, and that trend continues with the third-person, customizable mech combat, co-op, loot grabbing, strategic tower defense filled with manly explosions and aliens...Trenched.


The basis around the game shows a lot of promise for a fun and exciting title. Two WWI vets are stationed at a listening post when a mysterious broadcast comes through, and kills everyone that hears it...except for those two vets. They walked away with super intelligence, but put it to use in two very different ways. One creates mechs for himself and the other wounded war soldiers, called Trenches, and the other invents the television all the while going insane, and trying to take over the world with his 'network' and army of alien television monstrosities.

That lays the foundation for the tower defense portion of the game play. You're there to defend against the menace with the help of your Trench. The enemies will attack in waves, and while some Trench builds will be more suited for direct combat, others can focus on defense and turret building. This is part of the strategic element, considering you can have up to 4 players working together through the campaign together, specializing in different areas will be crucial to the success of the group.


The customization promises to be incredibly deep. Whenever you gain a kill, enemies will occasionally drop items (including rare ones), and little televisions referred to as scrap, which is the game's currency. This is used to build a variety of turrets as well as upgrade their abilities on the fly, assuring maximum TV explodanation (It's a word in my book). Unlocking new parts and guns for your Trench is also necessary. New and different parts can be used to a variety of different play types, and the load-out system we've seen in recent shooters that give players a number of different weapons and suit different styles will be making an appearance here as well. Also, you can customize your soldier and mech with a number of appearance altering options as well. Colors and textures for the Trench, along with clothes and hats for your soldier. They don't give any impact on the gameplay, but the customization freak in me wouldn't have it any other way. Loves me some custom-made suits.

We don't entirely know how the customization will work exactly yet, I can see that Double Fine is putting a lot of effort into giving players choice. I've heard whispers of a leveling system as well, but don't quote me on that (if I can find the article I saw it in, I'll post in confirmation). Hopefully more news will be available soon. I'm also curious as to what will be available after the campaign is completed. Will there be a number of different difficulty settings? Gameplay altering modes or competitive based game types? A horde mode that goes on indefinitely? As long as the content is there (Tons of loot, high level cap, lots of maps and reasons to keep playing them after completion), I see myself playing this for quite a while.


I'm incredibly excited. From the way it looks, to the way the game looks like it plays, it's quickly become one of my most anticipated games of the year. From love Double Fine puts into their games, to the humor and unique premise, to the impressive loot system, customization and gameplay on top of a XBLA price tag, I can't wait. The game is scheduled to release sometime in 2011, and I'll be following it closely until then.