Review by: Danielle Riendeau

The concept behind Trenched is so fundamental – the melding of two complementary genres – that it’s almost a wonder that no one has tried it before, at least in the mainstream. Marrying the fast-paced, immediate feedback of Tower Defense strategy with even more frantic 3rd-person shooting (in a giant mech, no less), it’s a rock solid, addictive experience.

While the characteristic Double Fine humor and attention to aesthetic detail are certainly present (the theme is basically an over-the-top parody of WW1 and WW1 machismo), the focus here is entirely on gameplay. Thankfully, the mechanics are as satisfying as the massive “Mobile Trenchs” (mechs) you pilot.

For each mission, you customize your mech with weapons and emplacements (think turrets). First, you’ll select a chassis – assault types carry more firepower, while engineering chassis enable more (and more kinds of) emplacements, for example. Then you’ll decide on legs, specific weapons, and your emplacements of choice. There’s impressive variety on offer here and leveling up will enable bigger and badder means of destroying the insectoid “tubes”.

The tubes are your enemy – weird, alien-looking contraptions made of old-school TV-sets and glowing blue pipes, and they are deployed by your arch enemy, Vladimir Farmsworth, a crazed dude who wants to spread “the broadcast” to everyone around the world. Hence, the motivation for all the firepower.

Once you have your tank set up, it’s off to the battlefield, where you’ll strategically set up your turrets, upgrade them when possible, and otherwise worry about blasting the hell out of the waves of enemies who are hell bent on assaulting your base. It’s a very fast-paced game, with extremely short breaks among waves – stages that go on upwards of 15 minutes feel as if they’re actually only half that long, and more than once I found myself having to massage sore fingers from gripping my controller so hard. Life in the trenches is intense.

In terms of resource management, things are kept simple and (characteristically) frantic. Whenever you destroy tubes, they leave a trail of glowing blue “scrap” which you’ll use to set and upgrade emplacements, the real meat of the strategy portion of the game. You do have a magnet on your trench that pulls in nearby detritus, but once the waves start coming fast, you’ll hardly ever have time to gather it all. Thankfully, scrap is plentiful, keeping frustrations low even when there’s plenty of currency lying around just out of reach.