Games Trove Review Voxel Populi

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Trove Review Voxel Populi. by Leif Johnson

on July 24, 2015

Yes, this is another voxel 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. Yet these elements also allow Trove to differentiate itself from almost every other massively multiplayer game by making all zones randomly generated, and each can be accessed from level-appropriate portals in the hub world. Deserts give way to motherboardy landscapes straight out of Tron, tundra gives way to open seas where you can fish or steer a ship, and as with Minecraft, almost every bit of it can be harvested and used for crafting. Most of the time, that crafting occurs on player homes on player plots (called "cornerstones") or in a special zone for "clubs" (i.e., Trove's version of guilds), where groups of players can build their own world one voxel at a time.

One downside is that plots for the single-player homes aren't particularly large; I was barely able to get a rudimentary re-creation of the Alamo up on mine. Other players have made better work with the limitations, though, usually by going up. My favorite cornerstone was a re-creation of Sauron's tower of Barad-dûr, which shot so far into the sky that I marveled as much at the player's ability not to fall while building it as at the design. 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. The best thing about cornerstones is that you can move them around to each new randomly generated world you visit as needed, adding both convenience and a way to show off your skills (or patience).

Trove is an apt name for the experience that developer Trion Worlds delivers. On the most basic level, it refers to the little troves of loot waiting at the end of the mini-dungeons that dot the landscape, yes, but it also calls attention to the sheer variety of displays. Collectible helmets and masks ranging from Viking beards and sombreros to baseball caps and kabuki masks seem to number in the hundreds or thousands, offering a wealth of cosmetic customization. Weapons share the same variety, with items like guns and swords running the gamut from fearsome to silly. The beauty of Trove is that many of these items are made by players themselves, making the looting experience far more rewarding than it would have been if Trion were responsible for it alone.

 

 

A variety of enemies walk the open world if you'd like to try your skills on any ol' thing, but most of the action takes place in the many dungeons dotting the countryside. This, even more than crafting, is what Trove is all about. You fight and leap your way through a dungeon, kill the boss (which can be anything from a dragon to some formless blob), and take its loot. All of these dungeons are short, but some are impressive, especially those that require jumping puzzles before engaging a boss or those that require you to use your mining beam to dig your way to the lair.

Admittedly, with some of the more powerful classes (such as the Candy Barbarian), these are almost a joke. Trove may be an MMOG, but virtually all of its content is soloable, and boss kills (and thus personal loot drops and XP) count if you just happened to be in the area of another player doing the killing. Finding a group is usually just a matter of seeing where other players are on the map are riding over to see what they're up to. Indeed, socialization is hardly Trove's strong suit. Half the time, I forgot that the chat window was even there, and while you can join up to five clubs, joining them is often just a case of waiting for somebody to announce open invites in chat. The saving grace? Trove has a wonderful community, and its generosity usually makes up for missing features.

That's the beauty of the free-to-play model, of course. Should I decide to step away for a few days, Trove and its troves are right there waiting for me, just as I left them. It doesn't hurt that Trion's latest MMOG has about as benign a free-to-play model as they get, as you can amass most of the premium coins needed to buy items like new classes or new mounts fairly easily. What's more, Trove allows players to spend real cash to buy in-game gold (along with some performance boosts), but that matters little since there's almost no competition involved.

Is Trove the kind of MMOG that I'd like to spend a part of every day in? No. But it is an MMOG that I'd enjoy visiting every now and then, possibly several times a week. That's enough to make Trove a success, and its speedy updates and randomly generated worlds help make every visit feel different from the last. Now, if they'd just get those queues in line, I'm thinking about making the Alamo 40 stories high, and I don't have time to wait.

have a good fun with that

Edited July 26, 2015 by ŞüÞêŕmàń