One day while he’s out hunting, Otto’s world is thrown into disarray by a rich guy sat behind a fancy desk. That British billionaire doesn’t care, though, he just wants the small army of ruthless mercenaries and hunters that he’s hired to find him a mythical creature that can only be found in Scandinavia.
They’ll stop at nothing, but as Otto’s home greets a man-made tragedy, he also meets the terrifying vision of a real, living troll. Understandably, he flees, only to find himself confronted by yet more otherworldly monsters, springing out from light-filled cracks in the world.
It doesn’t take too much for Otto to realise that the troll, whom he imaginatively names Troll, was actually looking out for him – it might have something to do with their similar hairstyles. It’s an interesting relationship that they form, with Troll obviously rather affectionate towards Otto, but not speaking a word of thickly accented English, yet it feels like he understands what Otto is saying throughout. Though I only really got a glimpse of how they work together, it feels like their bond will naturally be based more on actions than words, on sticking together through hard times.
As a player, however, this isn’t like The Last Guardian, where you have to try and coax a large creature to do your bidding. Instead, you can switch between controlling Otto and Troll at will. As you explore some surprisingly large and open feeling parts of the world, it’s Otto that clambers up to high ledges and tries to reach things like the ropes holding a crashed plane up off the ground, for example, but Troll can always help, able to simply pick Otto up and deposit him on a higher point, or holding a broken off wing of the plane above his head to act as a bridge for Otto to run across.
They also work well together in combat and actually need to do so in order to succeed. It’s easy to assume that Troll would be best suited to fighting, able to simply bash enemies around or squish them with a simple stamp of his foot, but some of the evil looking creatures you encounter are easily able to avoid Troll’s swiping and stomping. It’s dealing with those enemies that Otto is a little better suited to, just as he’s a little better for when you want to take a stealthier approach, shall we say. Again, it’s easy to switch on the fly, with the AI taking over the character you’re not using at that time and helping out in the fight.
Of course, the simple presence of Troll implies that something mythical is nestled deep within the story. In fact, he comes from another world, the same world that other creatures are now spilling forth from. Trolls have lived in this part of the world for a long time, though, and have actually created their own magically sealed underground passages. Set in the 1950s, there’s an interesting juxtaposition between the world of fantasy and magic and the rise of technology. Human enemies wield guns and their camps feature things like radios, and your journey takes you through industrial areas, but then there’s the more fantastical side of things that feel like they’re almost hidden in plain sight.
One of the first things you learn to do as you take control of Otto is to hunt for food. You can quickly craft spears from certain bushes, before using his ability to track animals to highlight the footprints (and poo) of nearby wild boar. There’s also further depths to the crafting, letting Otto combine magical stones with spears to open up new paths in the world, a simple form of environmental puzzle. We’ve seen this kind of gameplay before, certainly, and rather recently in the Tomb Raider games, but it shows the ambition behind Troll and I.
Simply by having two main characters, Troll and I is perfectly set up to have cooperative split screen play, which is made all the more interesting by how vastly different Troll and Otto are. Where playing solo would have you switching characters, leaving the other behind as you head off to search for whatever you need in order to join up again. Cooperatively, that doesn’t change in the slightest, the split screen play definitely has a different feel.
For one thing, the game throws a few more enemies your way, mainly so that both players have something to do, even when separated. When you’re together, there’s also the nice twist of Otto being able to clamber up on Troll’s back, having the split screen resolve into a single view point, and having Otto be able to attack from up high on his back.
Troll and I is actually a surprisingly ambitious game. Certainly, Spiral House haven’t got the resources of whatever AAA studio you choose to name, and so there’s not the same depth to some aspects of the game – traversal is noticeably not as fluid, for one thing, and some gameplay moments that feel more akin to previous generations of game – but it’s impressive what this fairly small studio are trying and able to do. With the game coming out next more (and a newly announced Switch version on the way as well, what really matters is how they form and build that connection and bond between Otto and Troll, and how having two very different characters can shape the game.
bunimomike
Conceptually, it’s great to see studios pushing things. Love the idea of this game.