15. Past Cure (2018)

There’s sordid plot, shoddy action and oddly ilfitting puzzles in a supernatural third person shooter…and then there’s Past Cure. The development team was small and fairly inexperienced, thus resulting in uneven AI and performance. However, that doesn’t excuse the story which was just a meandering mess when it wasn’t outright dull.

When first getting my hands on Troll and I, I was actually quite amused with the way the game handles its mechanics. The game features several variations of game genres in third-person…you’ll be doing a lot of platforming, climbing, carry out stealth kills and solve puzzles, and that too all within the first hour of this game. It’s actually quite astonishing how the developers, who possibly don’t have a massive budget, managed to mash such a variety of genres into the game. Unfortunately, most of it doesn’t work as intended.

Right from the start you shouldn’t expect much from the story. It’s an interesting concept of monsters coming out of an unknown, magical portal-like area that begin attacking the local residents. The co-lead character Otto (a.k.a. the title character “I“), is a teenage boy who gets caught up in all of this commotion when monsters rain out of nowhere in the wild forests of Scandinavia. Interestingly enough, he doesn’t seem startled or surprised at their presence. Your job as Otto will be to gather and shape sticks into staffs, kill the biped rat-looking creatures, goblins, orcs and other mythical monsters.

"With two simple button presses you can switch between Otto and Troll at any moment. The game allows you to call the other to follow, or having Otto ride aboard Troll’s shoulders, and even attack when the enemies are on you."

Eventually Otto gets into a seriously sticky situation where the monsters get over his head and begin to heavily outnumber him. Alas, center stage, comes Troll. Troll defeats the numerous enemies in a few swift strokes and saves Otto from certain death. It’s from that moment that Otto and Troll form a bond that allows them to work together and stop the growing number of enemy forces.

An interesting part about Troll and I is that you don’t always have to play as Otto. With two simple button presses you can switch between Otto and Troll at any moment. The game allows you to call the other to follow, or having Otto ride aboard Troll’s shoulders, and even attack when the enemies are on you.

There is some variation in attack styles between the duo. Where Otto has to use stealth and dodge and attack variations, Troll simply smashes and punches his way through waves of enemies. The cooperation between the unlikely duo is met with challenges such as gaining access to difficult areas, or helping one another out in achieving specific goals.

The game also supports couch co-op. Grabbing a friend and a second controller allows one player to control Otto while the other controls Troll. Helping one another along for the journey becomes a lot more fun than having to switch between characters while playing alone.

"But the sluggish controls make Otto and the slow moving Troll a pain to navigate at times."

As Otto has a broader range of combat, he is able to gather material and craft various types of melee weapons along the way. The weapons list shows what materials are needed and they shimmer in the wilderness so its easier to spot them. The crafting is fun for better and stronger weapons, but it doesn’t have a full range of interesting and unique styles.

This all might sound fun and interesting, and to some extent it is. But the sluggish controls make Otto and the slow moving Troll a pain to navigate at times. And like many unpolished games, there are moments of running, jumping and dodging that have to be so precise that being slightly off will almost always result in death and a restart. Add to that the lagging frame-rate and the shading issues where the game began to flash between dark shade to light shade under the tree canopy in the daytime. Other bugs did occur as well: such as invisible enemies that weren’t there, and weapons that went through enemies and didn’t cause damage.

"Troll and I had some great ideas on paper but its execution is flawed."

Don’t expect the voice act to be stellar. Otto’s voice sounds like he was forced to read what was on the script page. The voice acting tries to grab hold of the player’s feelings, but never really manages to achieve it. The only saving grace is the game’s soundtrack which can be pretty exceptional at times.

At this point Troll And I is suffering from several bugs, uneven voice acting, and several graphical issues. With a stronger story, better elements, and smoother graphics, this game could have actually been very close to a new triple-A franchise. It focuses a lot on genre crossover ideas, which the team should be lauded for, but its implemetations can be best described as passable. Troll and I had some great ideas on paper but its execution is flawed. In the end what we have is a unpolished game with frustrating controls that isn’t worth anyone’s time.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox One.

Troll and I appears to be a delightfully enchanting action adventure game. Coming to us from developer Spiral House, the game is set in post-World War II Scandinavia, and combines harsh reality with a folkloric twist. In the game, you play as Otto, a young boy, and Troll, a fierce supernatural creature with whom Otto forms a rare bond, as they struggle to survive the wilderness, their inexperience, and bloodthirsty hunters on their trail.

The game promises to be charming and incredibly compelling to play if it lives up to its initial pitch and promise- which I sincerely hope that it does. The game fuses combat, exploration, story, and puzzles all together, meaning it should be a bit like Tomb Raider or Zelda.

You can check out a trailer for the game below to see if you’re convinced and on board. Troll and I will launch for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on March 21, 2017 in North America, and on March 24th in Europe.

Square Enix are expected to publish the game as part of the Square Enix Collective program which will see the game being launched on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC in Q4 2015.

• 1. Development
• 2. Story
• 3. Gameplay
• 4. Characters

Development

Troll and I was brought into being with the aid of a program that is offered to smaller independent studios by Square Enix. This program is called the Square Enix Collective where a developer pitches their game to the company and from there, it is put down to popular vote. The most popular “curated” titles receive public feedback, then some manner of funding and eventually distribution. For Troll and I, voters were heavily in favour of its public funding, with 92 percent voting “Yes”.

The game is going to run on an internally developed rendering engine which, according to the developer, “just keeps getting better!” The engine pushes out impressive visuals with the Troll character looking particularly impressive thanks to thick and dreaded hair.

Story

Troll and I makes use of a dual narrative of sorts. The game follows two diametrically opposed characters, one of which is a young boy called Otto and the other a giant magical Troll who is already an impressive size despite being rather young.

Set at some time in the 1950s in a currently undisclosed location in Northern Europe, we follow the adventure of these two strange characters drawn together through adversity as they form an unlikely friendship.

Gameplay

The developer is building the game around the player’s experience. Troll and I features hand to hand combat as well as ranged combat and stealth mechanics. The stealth portion of the game will require a fair amount of keen observational skills to be put to the best use.

One of the more interesting aspects of the game is that the player can play as both Otto and the Troll. The Troll is a large and intimidating target that can smash enemies easily. Through various sequences, Troll will help Otto to reach areas otherwise inaccessible to the boy. Each character will be given access to a progression tree that will open up new opportunities and abilities. Otto will be given access to, Agility, Stealth, Melee, Ranged, Crafting, Hunting and Cuckoo skills which all open up new avenues of gameplay.

The Troll, being a magical creature, has access to it’s own set of abilities, including the power to revive fallen companions, invisibility and the ability to project an aura of fear towards his foes.

Characters

At this time, two characters have been announced for the game:

• Otto – Otto is a young human boy living in the 1950s, currently adventuring in Northern Europe.
• Troll – The young, yet massive, Troll currently has no known name though it is a formidable ally in possession of considerable strength.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.