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Trove Review
This is another voxel-based game. Even the most cursory glance at Trove’s voxel-heavy landscapes and characters is enough to determine that it owes some heavy debts to Minecraft, and as with Minecraft, exploration and crafting lie at the heart of the experience. Trove’s unique approach to massively multiplayer games is that all zones are randomly generated. Each zone can also be accessed via level-appropriate portals located in the hub world. You can find deserts and tundra in Tron. Tundra is open to open oceans, where you can fish and steer a ship. As with Minecraft, nearly all of the material can be harvested for crafting. Most crafting takes place on player homes, called “cornerstones”, or in a special zone designated for “clubs”, where players can create their own worlds one voxel at time. Read the rest of the Trove review below and find out if this game is for you!
The downsides
The downside to single-player homes is the small plots; I was unable to create a basic replica of the Alamo on my plot. However, other players have done a better job with these limitations than I, and they usually go up. My favorite cornerstone was Sauron’s tower at Barad-dur. It shot so high into the sky that it made me marvel at the player’s inability to fall while building it. Others seem to represent Mega Man levels, as they require a seemingly endless succession of timed leaps to reach the player’s health potion refill station or other service boxes. Cornerstones are convenient because you can move them around to any randomly generated world as you need. This adds both convenience and allows you to display your skills or patience.
The weapons
The experience Trion Worlds offers is called Trove. It refers to the small loot troves at the ends of the mini-dungeons scattered across the landscape. However, it also points out the wide variety of displays. There are a variety of collectible helmets and masks, ranging from sombreros and Viking beards to baseball caps and kabuki faces. They also offer a lot of customization options. There are many weapons, from guns and swords to be frightful to funny. Trove’s beauty is that Trove allows players to create many of these items, making looting far more enjoyable than if Trion was responsible.
This variety also affects other aspects. Trove is not plagued by either too many classes or a lack of variation from the traditional MMOGs like warrior, wizard, or rogue. Trove’s Steam launch had 11 classes. Trove does not have a story and isn’t compelled to stick with lore, consistency, or even a sense of humor. This is the ideal recipe for a diverse cast. Take the Boomeranger, which pays homage to Link from The Legend of Zelda with its ability to switch between boomerang and sword. The Dracolyte can transform into a dragon to burn the voxel terrain. My time was mostly spent with the Pirate Captain. This minion class can throw out a huge cannon or make a puppet to taunt enemies. His parrot companion can also bombard them with his cannon.
The various abilities
Despite the fact that most classes have only three abilities, they feel very different to each other. Although they are well-designed and allow each class to be a healer, tank, and damage dealer, this restriction means that the gameplay becomes repetitive over time. This is not always the case for all classes, but some, like the Pirate Captain, are better at it than others. My Candy Barbarian was able to perform a whirlwind attack to recover my health, but I found it tedious. That’s not really a problem, though; assuming you’ve bought another class either with cash or in-game currency, you can switch between classes in an instant (although, as in Final Fantasy XIV, you’ll have to level it separately).
The enemies
There are many enemies that can be found in the open world, but the majority of the action is located in the many dungeons scattered throughout the countryside. Trove is about this, more than crafting. You must fight, jump and kill the boss to clear a dungeon. This boss can be anything, from a dragon or a formless blob. Then you get your loot. These dungeons can be quite short but they are all impressive.
These are not only absurd for some powerful classes, such as the Candy Barbarian, but they can also be a joke. Although Trove is an MMOG, almost all its content can be done solo. Boss kills (and therefore personal loot drops, and XP), count only if you happen to be within the same area as another player who is killing. It is often as simple as looking at the map to find other players riding to see what’s happening. Trove is not known for his ability to socialize. I often forgot to open the chat window. It is not easy to join more than five clubs. Often, it is just waiting for someone to invite you in chat. What is the saving grace? Trove is a great community. Its generosity often makes up for any shortcomings.
Trove review: Is it fun to play?
This is generally a fun game, as long as you have access to it. Trove has been extremely popular on Steam since its debut on the platform on July 9. I’ve had to wait for up to 30 minutes before I can access it. One episode of Louie was so long that I watched it all before I was able to go back to my business of breaking blocks. That was last week.
It’s especially saddening since MMOG developer Trion should be no stranger to this kind of stuff–although similar problems affected the company’s release of ArcheAge last year–but it’s a testament to Trove’s quality that the waits don’t seem to affect its popularity. Every time the queue slows down, I find myself in a heap of newly logged-in players and rush to the portals to explore the worlds with all of the joy that children just released from the playground.
Even though I have played for hours, the feeling isn’t completely gone. However, I think I will soon need to leave Trove to preserve it. Trove is all about exploration, hoarding and crafting. In the absence of any other MMOG standbys such as story quests and PvP the burden of repetitive tasks starts to nag a little beyond level 10. Trove tries to fill in these gaps by offering other options such as leveling up, building dungeons worthy of inclusion in the game or collecting cosmetic items from boss kills. But for me, Trove doesn’t offer the MMO addiction that makes me want to play more after everyone else has gone to bed.
This is the beauty of the free to play model. Trove and its treasures will be waiting for me if I need to take a break for a while. Trion’s newest MMOG is as free-to-play as it gets. You can easily accumulate most of the premium coins required to purchase items such as new classes and new mounts. Trove also allows players to purchase in-game gold and performance boosts, but it doesn’t matter much since there is almost no competition.
Trove review: the verdict
Is Trove the type of MMOG I would like to spend some of my day in? It is not. It is an MMOG I enjoy visiting every once in a while, sometimes several times per week. Trove is a success because of its fast updates and randomly generated worlds. Every visit feels different.
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