Trove

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DaHeckIzDat
Posts: 1997
Joined: April 9th, 2015, 1:41 pm

Trove

Postby DaHeckIzDat » March 15th, 2017, 3:14 pm

I discovered an interesting title for the PS4 yesterday. At first glance, Trove seems like a game that I've been waiting a long time for. It's a third person action RPG set in a voxel world, obviously inspired by Minecraft. You can dig, place blocks, and build whatever you want. There's a quest to go on here, and it actually a sense of progression that Minecraft's lacks. The hub world is a giant tower with dozens of portals. These portals bring you to large, procedurally generated blocky worlds. These worlds are dotted with little dungeons with bosses to kill. The dungeons only take a couple of minutes to clear each. Once you kill a certain number of bosses, the next portal opens back at the tower, and the worlds get progressively harder with each portal. There are a ridiculous number of classes to choose from, depending on what playstyle you choose, like Pirate, Ninja, Viking, and Botanist (I chose a gunslinger). Seriously, I've wanted a game like this for a very long time. It has the randomness of Minecraft, but the streamlined questing of a more linear game.

Also, did I mention the game is 100% free?

Unfortunately, not all is well in Legoland. There have been quite a few flaws that kept me from enjoying this game like I should have. First of all, Trove is repetitive to the max. I was running around the first world, and I counted three different kinds of dungeons (all with exactly the same layout) containing the same three bosses. These three bosses are always the same. Same moves, same minions, same HP. And they require next to no strategy to beat, since most of them are incapable of inflicting damage faster than you regenerate. The result of this being that I was bored out of my mind within a couple hours. Only one boss was actually able to provide a challenge, but it wasn't a fun challenge since his punches seem to hit you no matter what so long as you're in the general area in front of him. Ten feet away? Still hits you. Jumping over his head? Still hits you. It's annoying.

Also, for a game that's so obviously trying to be Minecraft, the only reason I can see to go into construction mode is if you fall into a pit and have to dig to get out. There's nothing underground worth seeing, especially since all the dungeons are above ground. I mean, it's there and it works well enough, but in the few hours I played of it I ended up forgetting it was there at all.

Lastly, this game is an MMO. Yeah, take that however you want. For what it's worth, though, it feels like single player game. The only interaction I ever had with the other players was when we all simultaneously got dumped into the world together. Everyone quickly split up and ran off on their own, though, leaving you to fend for yourself in the not-quite-bloodthirsty world. If you're lucky, you'll jump in and help someone finish a boss fight, but that's it. One interesting feature they put in was that each dungeon in each world can only be completed once. Once the boss is killed, a giant X appears over it, signalling to the other players that that one is no longer up for grabs.

And that's about it. I should love this game, but I don't. Though admittedly, I only played the first couple portals. Maybe things will get better if I play longer. I plan to give Trove one more chance, and if it doesn't satisfy then it gets deleted. Then again, how hard can I really be on it? The game is freaking free.

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BlasteroidAli
Posts: 1591
Joined: April 9th, 2015, 7:50 pm

Re: Trove

Postby BlasteroidAli » March 20th, 2017, 7:21 am

Da Trove is by the makers of Defiance. A very good single player MMO. I looked at it the other day and thought maybe I should get this as it is free. Apart from the microtransactions that is. What put me off was the minecraft vibe. I am over that game. Your review does not fill me with confidence. Trion is the maker of that one. Perfect world make Never winter nights and Star Trek online. Both MMOs and both free but with the added evil bonus of the mt to get the good stuff.

I had downloaded it as it was free but had to delete it so i could download the monster fighting game which is evolve. Which i deleted straight afterwards as I hate fighting games. Plus the graphics are pretty duff.

So perhaps it is the time time start Star Trek online?


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