Games about love are a rare quantity but Trenched makes me want more love and Doublefine in my games. I've always seen Doublefine as a indie developer who I respect but overall their games don't interest me. They are like the Quentin Tarantino of the game industry. I can see why people like Tarantino's movies but really he's never really clicked with me but there is one movie that did, Kill Bill. And this is what Trenched is to me for Doublefine. Trenched, like Kill Bill, is a game that is pretty crazy and unique while having things that aren't quite as unique. Tower Defense and walking tanks are things that have been done before but Trenched adds a crazy plot, awesome saluts, and the thrill of winning to earn it's place as a great tower defense game. How a walking tank is defined by a trench still mystifies me but the title really works for this game.

A game without co-op is not a game about love and Trenched does co-op very well. Playing with 2 people is a necessity if you want to experience the full game. For most of my time, I played alone and I really lost a lot of things that were great. Playing alone usually means playing the engineering role(the tower builder) which is fun but you miss out on the other half of the game which is the awesome guns. To use those guns usually means having an assault chassis which is really hard to do when you're alone.

When getting to use the guns, they feel great...artillery cannons decimate groups of enemies, broadcasters(with deathplosion) kill groups in a matter of seconds, sniper guns pick off monovisions from afar, and machine guns shred them to pieces. But there are also weaknesses to the guns and the towers. During the campaign, I found that using grenade launchers or shotguns were relatively useless and the game doesn't really want you to ever use them. There's even a shotgun that is pretty much a grenade launcher. The emplacements are also great but I found myself resorting to one strategy which is sticking a mine layer and a dampening generator next to it. This makes the game sorta repetitive in that it becomes the only strategy that works effectively. To counteract this, the game throws Snipe Tuners or Arly's(artillery cannon walkers) at you but those only serve to annoy you by stopping the action and forcing you to stare either at a death screen or tapping the A,X,Y, or B button to revive.

Trenched is a game that I've sunk a dozen hours into and I'm still not done. There are problems, like the non-skippable cutscenes, but most are all minor complaints. This game is a must have title for this summer especially if you have budget constraints. I can finally say that Doublefine can add me to the list of believer's in a game about love.