But we do not draw hasty conclusions and proceed with order. Set in the Scandinavian woods of the middle of the last century, Troll and I tells the story of the young Otto who, surviving the destruction of his village, is rescued by a large troll from the attack of some mysterious creatures, escaping from a bright gap in the ground.
The two immediately become friends and leave for a mission that will lead them to clash against dangerous human enemies, led by a shady figure who wants to capture the creature, and fantastic, of which we will learn nature in the advanced stages of the adventure.
The presence of two different protagonists should have already made you understand that the focus of the gameplay is in their collaboration.
Too bad that, despite the many interesting ideas, Troll and I does not succeed in anything that proposes, starting from the narrative side. The good premise is in fact wasted by a writing unable to make at least interesting the relationship between Otto and the troll, which for the whole game seem two friends by chance only united by the hairstyle.
History itself quickly loses its bite, since it is immediately clear where it wants to go and can not even take advantage of the classic clichés of stories with asymmetrical friendships. However, if you have not been discouraged by reading up to here, then get ready, because it gets worse.
We played Troll and I: it’s ugly, and we’re not trolling, read on to find out why
SO MANY MECHANICS … ONE WORKED WELL
Troll and I is an ambitious title. It is understood by the quantity of mechanics that compose it. Too bad that not even one works well. You start driving Otto in a short hunting sequence where you have to capture wild boar.
The source of inspiration seems to be the theHunter simulators, despite some splashes of survival (which will become more evident in the following phases). Eight must create spears using sticks that are found around the forest, then must examine the traces left by wild boar (footprints, excrement) to find them.
Finally, without being heard, he must get close enough to pierce them. The system itself is quite limited and has several problems, the first of which is the change of the color palette after the identification of the traces, which paradoxically makes it more difficult to identify the prey, when the opposite should happen by logic (as happens in simulators) hunting). All right, we said, it’s the first sequence. It is very bland, but perhaps it only serves as a prologue.
It will improve … In fact the second and third are much worse.Returning to the village with his prey, Otto finds him engulfed in flames. His mother meets him and dissuades him from approaching. Although there are no big obstacles between them and she is seriously risking her life,
Otto does not have to say twice and run away, starting an obstacle course where you have to press the action key at the right time to go over or under fallen trees. The bugs and the difficult management of the camera did not stop us from succeeding and we got from our first fantastic creatures to be slaughtered.
We have killed some of them, finally trying the combat system which, basically, is based on the pressure of a single key, with a second key needed to block the opponents’ blows.
However, before becoming friends of the troll we had to face another sequence with obstacles to avoid, placed in a particularly punitive way (how many times have we smashed on the rocks before reaching the bottom?), And we fought again. So the adventure of a real couple began, and the problems multiplied, even though no marriage was celebrated.
