Title: Troll and I
Available On: Switch
Developer: Spiral House
Publisher: Maximum Games
Genre: Action-adventure
Official Site: Troll and I
Release Date: Tuesday, August 15, 2017
Where To Buy It: Steam, Nintendo Switch Store
Troll and I does need a lot of improvements. However, it does have potential. It could be a better game if it was not so buggy. At times it does stop you from playing the game, which can get quite frustrating. The actual gameplay was fun and the idea of what this game could be, makes me yearn for a newer version that had more volume to it.
So to begin with, the game starts off with a cutscene that gets me very excited to play it. The excitement ends there. The cutscene consists of a man asking a bounty hunter to find the troll and bring it to him dead or alive. This gets me excited as I start to believe that you are about to become the bounty hunter and you have to find the troll and then decide whether to go along with the agreement or not. Nope. The game cuts to a kid and you have to hunt some boar. Sadly, it just gets duller and duller.
The story is about a boy that tries to find his mother after his village was destroyed by an unknown reason until later in the game. Along the way, you find a troll that saves you and decides to stick around for the journey since he has lost his family too. The cutscenes last two seconds and there is only a handful of them. There is no real reason why the troll and Otto bonded, and to be honest, I still do not understand why he jumped on his back so quickly. I would not. Sometimes when playing this, I forget that there is even a story there. One of the worst cutscenes was when the boy ‘accidentally’ kills someone for the first time. All he says in robotic tone is ‘I did not mean to do that, you made me do it’. The storyline needed more context and I really do believe that it could be a lot better if it had some work to it.
So yes, the storyline is drier than overcooked chicken, but what is even drier is the main character. Otto had the most monotoned voice I have ever heard in my life. It was just awful. He seemed more upset about the Troll, that he met for like one hour, leaving him than his whole village which got destroyed and his mother getting kidnapped. It drove me insane. A change of character and adding more context to his background would have given me an attachment to the character. Even though the character was not the best, I did love the troll. He was silent a lot but he did seem to have some charm about him as he did what Otto told him to. He reminded me of the Big Friendly Giant.
The game itself was badly presented. The controls were clunky and ugly, the mechanic to fight was too simplistic for my taste, and the whole game felt like a buggy version of the first draft of a badly-designed tomb raider game. For a Nintendo Switch game, it was surprising to see that the game was so buggy, to begin with.
In some places, I felt this could be a better co-op game than a single player. A lot of times, games are much more fun with people, like Overcooked. It would be a lot of fun if a friend was playing Otto and I could play the troll, instead of switching between the two constantly to climb a rock. Changing between Troll and Otto, was a pain as Otto really did not do much when you have an overpowered giant destroying beasts quickly. It is probably why Otto kept telling him to stay behind, so he could get some of the action.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF3tBlojL5M
I really do believe that the developers gave up on Troll and I and decided to publish it for some quick cash. But then again, it is priced at $29.99/£24.99! I would say $13/£10 is too much for this kind of game. It could be worth a lot more if it spent another year in development.
The most annoying part of this game is the fact that the potential was wasted. Without the bugs and a little bit more context to the game, it would be miles better. It really was a shame. On the trailer itself, it claims that Gambit Magazine named it the best game of E3. Playing this game made that hard to believe. Sadly, Troll and I should never have left the development stage.
Verdict: Troll and I has wasted potential and would be a lot better without the bugs. My advice is to go buy Mario Odyssey or wait to see if the new Nintendo Labo is good.
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