I was really looking forward to this game until I started to notice in the Quick Look how heavily focused it is on multiplayer, with the regiment challenges and such. I have no interest in playing it online, mainly because it's 360-exclusive and I don't want to buy a gold account subscription any time soon, but I find the subject usually glossed over in reviews, even Jeff mentions it only in a single line towards the end. Would Trenched be worth the admission price if I only intend to play it by myself?

In my opinion, no, not really. You'll have fun with it while it lasts, but there's just not that much there.

I'd say it totally depends on how much 1200 MS points is to you. I imagine it could still be fun for a while playing levels over and over again by yourself, perfecting your strategy and trying out/grinding for new gear. Then again if a gold subscription seems too expensive for you, maybe it won't seem worth the 1200 points.

If you are interested in the mash up of the genres, I really think it is worth it just for single player play, as long as you are interested in the idea of going after all gold medals, so replaying each of the missions several times to get better gear and make the gold possible.

Online there are currently a ton of bugs and the potential to have a 4 trench load out that is almost incapable of completing a level, so I found myself loading into some missions solo after having played them with 3 other people in order to get some gold medals, and the game is still extremely fun.

If you aren't interested in going after golds, you will probably end up blasting through all of the missions rather quickly and have little reason to go back or grind loot.

It's a pretty solid game, but plays more like a tower defense game when you are solo. Turret placement becomes a lot more important than it would be in multiplayer. It's got some really good Double Fine humor, and the mech customization is fun, but like Jeff says in his review, if you play alone you will probably just end up using very specific builds for each level. If you aren't going to play online, maybe wait for a price drop. I love the game and will keep playing that's with the multiplayer.

I personally thought it was a blast. If you want to get all the medals, you'll definitely need to replay levels too. I certainly don't regret the purchase, though I do wish there was more.

It be a lot harder of a choice. Most of its fun is in the co-op for me.

I don't have Gold and I ended up getting it. Then again, it being a Double Fine game was enough for me to get it. I'm not super far into it, but I've been satisfied with it so far. 
 
I will say that this has been the only game I've played on the 360 that has ever made me think that Gold might be worth the cost.

I think it's a lot harder if you play alone. I managed to get about halfway through before just getting completely overrun so I joined some pick up groups to do the rest.

I personally love it and I've yet to delve into the multiplayer all that much. As everyone else has already said it is much harder alone - the difficulty does not seem to scale for multiplayer, and the it's seems the default difficulty is set so that it is not possible to get all the gold medals if played solo (I may be wrong on this one - please correct me if so :)).

Having said that you will not have a situation where it is impossible to complete a mission alone, but I found it very tough towards the end. But maybe that just my skill letting me down :D)

So IMHO I would say go for it - it's more "Mechwarrior" than "Plants vs Zombies".

Currently my connection to X-Box Live is messed up so I haven't been able to play with my friends that bought it (thats the main reason why I bought it), but I have been playing the single player and I am enjoying myself with the single-player mode.

I cancelled my Gold subscription about a month ago, and in that amount of time I saw a bunch of ads popping up in the My Xbox tab offering 1 month of Gold for $1. If you haven't had Gold for a while, and you don't have any 48-hour codes lying around, I'd say shell out a buck for the month. In my opinion, you'll have seen everything the game has to offer before that month is over.

The only way I could see a solo player get gold medals on the last 5 levels would be to memorize enemy waves.

It is a great game, but I blew through the game in a few days. I unlocked majority of the challenges and all the achievements. I think it would be easier to recommend if it was $10 as opposed to $15.

Well, I have to say I've lost quite a bit of interest in the game after hearing a lot of comments like this.. The delay in Europe is really going to kill the sales.

I would pay for Xbox Live to play Trenched. It's one of my favorite games of the year. The co-op is sublime.