Trench Run

TLDR: you can STILL play this game with 4 player couch versus.

But the game may not launch on windows 11 due to bugs (as was for me. had to spend several hours to fix it.)
+ this game just has low content so I'm not even sure if it was worth it.

If only it would be updated and slightly more content added - this game could be so much more...
For example - there is a mode where you run to the other side of the screen - but this local match option is only supported with bots in your and enemy's team, not with couch real players. WHY?

i have owned this for years now, i have never seen another player online and i am sure i never will because the servers are dead

Great game, but non existant playerbase sadly.

Okay, so I finally decided to give my thoughts on Trench Run. Here is why this game is not worth it's price tag, and should never be bought for the multiplayer.

UPDATE: The game is now half the price that it was when I wrote this review, so maybe take that into account when reading. Additionally, the online servers are officially dead, meaning you can only enjoy this game in Couch Co-Op or P2P Online Multiplayer.

Disappointment

I really wanted Trench Run to succeed. Honestly. However, it sucks to say that due to awful marketing and general apathy from the developers upon launch, the game died in such a short amount of time, I was not even aware of it.

This game probably does not even deserve to be on Steam anymore, as all possibility of it ever being remotely successful (and for the matter, nearly as successful as King Arthurs Gold) has been killed by the developers. On top of that, the game's servers are so barren that the chance of finding a player in any of the 4 avaliable servers in the span of a month is nigh impossible. This game was only and I say ONLY advertised to players of King Arthurs Gold (and ofcourse players of any other game made by Transhuman Design, but who has any of those?). This means that the already miniscule population of King Arthurs Gold is the only crowd that this game is being propogated to. This is EXTREMELY bad for a game, especially one that relies on a healthy and active community.

Why did it fail?

The answer is simple: the developers thought the concept of Trench Run was interesting. They decided to work on the game for some years, until they decided to release the game bare, to test the waters. The unfortunate part is, they can't just release a game and expect it to take off. As previously stated, a game will not go anywhere without proper care to marketing. Even games that seemingly had no advertising techniques, such as Undertale, took off due to a cult following and hype. This is not the only reason the game failed though.

The game itself is not very unique. Sure, the lobby system is fun to dick around in, and multiplayer, Co-Op or PvP can be fun if you have some friends over or something. The issue is, was this game even that much of a challenge? Anyone who has played King Arthurs Gold will immediatly be able to see that almost everything about Trench Run was ripped straight from King Arthurs Gold in some way. The engine itself is identical to KAG (King Arthurs Gold), the artstyle and movement also have no differences what so ever (aside from the artsy pallette). The gameplay itself is all just a rip of TDM from KAG and run mode is the only new tech they probably even added to the game. I could easily see this entire game being a well crafted mod for King Arthurs Gold, which has a healthy modding community.

What is good about the game?

Well, there is a lot to say about how great this game is. Ofcourse, all of those questions are hypothetical as this game will never reach it's full potential due in part to the previously mentioned.
But there is one salvation that may make you want to sink in a few hours (or less) into the game. Single player/local multiplayer. This is one of the modes THD (Transhuman Design) really wanted to sell when describing the game in forum posts. This mode allows you to play with your friends via couch system, or just play by yourself. The game itself can be quite fun (if not redundant, short living, and frusturating) for a few hours when hanging out with friends. The gameplay it self offers a nice silly and action filled game with 4 different classes that have two different functions unique to them. Not sure if those maybe 3-4 hours of enjoyment are worth the price though.

What is bad about the game?

The gameplay in Trench Run can be pretty fun for a little while, until ofcourse you start noticing the horrible flaws. I have played around 3 hours of the game in it's beta state, and around 2 in its released state. In that time, I have soaked out an adequate amount of time out of each class and gamemode. The result? Redundancy. The game is exactly the same everytime. Same 4 maps. Same 5 classes (one of which is exclusive to the elusive "Run" mode). That is it. There is no other gameplay element at play other than "Shoot/Stab/Blow up the other 3 people and don't get blown up" yet the developers say that this game can be played seriously? I can sum up each class in 10 words or less:
Assault: Left click to shoot, no aiming. Grenades.
Demolitions: Wait a minute, wasn't this the engineer?
Commando: Hold left click + release, die.
Sniper: Right click to hide, click on people.
Medic: Oh sorry, this is only avaliable in "Run" mode.

The classes bring nothing else to the table other than that. The maps get boring and stale fast, as does the redundancy of the gameplay. The only good portion of the gameplay (which hilariously also gets boring fast) is the lobby. Yes, you heard me right, the fucking lobby.

The Lobby

So, when a game decides to focus more so on the literal loading screen of the game more than it does the ACTUAL GAMEPLAY, you know there is a problem. So, what is so great about the lobby? The fact that 90 percent of the entire attention of THD was focused on making that place pimp as fuck. There is a bar, where you can pick your choice of beer or wine, listen to some of the legitamately good music that the band there plays, or hang out in the VIP club which has various bonuses. There is a pet shop where you can buy some neat pets to follow you around the lobby, there is a hat shop to make your character look sweet. Most importantly, though, there is a basketball court where you can play legit games of basketball that are sometimes more engaging than the actual game. The lobby even has a creative way of announcing updates (on the billboard) which are non-existant and queing you for a match (via truck). The problem with all of this? You actually need to play the game to use the lobby. Playing the game provides you with coins, which you need to do ANYTHING in the lobby. Honestly, even if the lobby was technically incomplete (they had many more plans to improve the lobby further), I feel like the coins system is my biggest complaint about it.

Final Verdict and TL;DR

So? Final thoughts? Should you buy this game, or even follow it at all?

I think its plain to say that the answer is NO.
The amount of time (and frankly, fun) that you get out of this game is so limited in its current state (which will most likely be its permanent state) that it is not even worth the small price tag.

Every function of the game (not even mentioning the amount of bugs in the game) is detrimentally flawed in some way.

TL;DR Trench run should not be purchased and is not worth the money. This is because the community is more than dead (it has transcended dead, somehow) and the gameplay itself is not even all that spectacular.

Similar Game Recommendations

If you liked the concept of Trench Run, but want a game that is alive, here are some:

King Arthurs Gold: If you are here, you probably know about this game. If not, you have at least seen me refer to it a lot during the review. It is essentially Trench Run with mod support and a semi-active community.

Multiplayer Terraria: Another game you probably know about. Multiplayer servers on Terraria provide plenty of free for all or team PvP fun.

Broforce: A combination of epic pixel graphics, badass gameplay, and sweet campaign that can also be multiplayer make Broforce an awesome counterpart to Trench Run.


With that I shall conclude the review.
If you fully read up this point, I thank you. This review is probably the one I have spent the most time on.

My experience with the game was limited to its main "Run" mode. Unfortunately, even accepting that the game's extremely limited player precision, weapons, effects, enemies, and level variety are somewhat inherent to the retro genre it portrays, I would not recommend this game even to diehard fans of retro / 8-bit, as its gameplay is so utterly simplistic and inaccurate.

I had no idea I was buying some "arena" game where the primary purpose is moving from left to right on very small maps before the opposing team (or in my experience, bots...) gets to their "side of the level" first. It's a really odd mechanic and doesn't seem to fit this design very well. The game itself lacks much of the implied "fast pace" action as seen in the trailers, and instead you meander your way from left to right (or right to left) over a short distance within a limited 1:00 minute time span for each map, clumsily lining up shots and grenades and hoping you can make it to your side of the level first instead of the other team. The strange multiplayer insistence really hinders what could have been a cool aesthetic for a military game with a campaign / progressive levels with more of a through line. Instead, you face off on 5 levels which all mostly look the same (this one has snow though!) to see who can get to their side first the most, best out of 5.

Your character despite having full controller support seems to steer incredibly vaguely, with there not even being a traditional jump button. Instead you hold right and / or up / down and watch as your character automatically bounds over whatever is front of them, which makes for really imprecise shooting. You can't seem to aim up or down with your regular machine gun. You can stop to press A to awkwardly align a reticle over the area you want to shoot a missile or grenade toward, but then it's mostly crossing your fingers that the enemies happen to be within range of it, and it seems like most of the time you just end up clipping some outcropping barely in front of you and killing yourself instead. While this is funny the first few times, it makes for a frustrating, inaccurate experience before too long. Your medic seems to crap out health / revival orbs at random and the game advises you to "stick close to your medic" but with most all the characters on either side of the game looking like the same pixelated, small design it's hard to distinguish which one that is.

The old school military graphics, explosions, and ragdolling / amputated crawling the characters do all looks good, and overall the design / aesthetics replicate the feel of an old NES game well. The sound effects seem fitting to the events on screen with funny but brief character moans and screams amidst explosions and the like. The soundtrack is easily the worst part of the game for me with its incredibly repetitive, out-of-place plunky / lighthearted guitar and feels more like they're squeezing out a song made for the main menu across every single level. It reflects the light-heartedness of the game, but I wonder if the game had embodied more of a Medal of Honor / epic orchestral type soundtrack if it would have been a little more immersive and less elephant in the room, in your face all the time.

It appears only 2 people made this game for what it's worth. While it was worth a chuckle or two and I think the graphical style is cool, I will be trying to get a refund. It may be more fun local coop in its versus mode, however I never had the chance to play this option. I could see it still wearing thin pretty quickly.

Somehow smaller playerbase than kag.

That means its dead.

Any smaller than kag is dead.

Like really really dead and rotting.

I mean some people say kag is dead. But i say it isnt.

So if the woman who says kag isnt dead says this game is dead.

You really know its dead.

I will make this short, this game is dead.
Do not buy it.
The gameplay does not save it.
It is too expensive

I cant write a real review about it, nowadays, since the game was really dead as i got it longer ago. I refund it since i was not able to play it, the last 2 servers which were running (i duno if even 1 server is now running...) were all the time empty.

I mean it, avoid buying it now, you will not be able to play it anymore...

Great game, very fast pased and fun, great pixel art, the only problem is no one plays it. :/

I'm sorry to say this, as I very much support the developers, THD, but don't buy this game as it is. Sadly, a fun concept that didn't really take off, coupled with areas for improvement and glitches in the gameplay early on, have lead to this game becoming fairly desolate.

In the future, it may see more popularity, and if it does, I encourage you to buy it. It's a ton of fun when people are on to play with.

This game is ok.
the only reason i say that is because there is no one ever on
and singleplayer is not too good
i rate it 5/10 would shoot the ground again

Nobody plays it, and I was sceptical when other people said that, but seriously, nobody bothers.

Plus, I can't even play singleplayer because.........

uh

i don't actually know, i just don't spawn in

I really want to like this game. Its visuals have a charme that is appealing to me, but:

(at first, but this is a one time negative: Fullscreen does not run with Windows 10 without deactivating "High DPI Mode". Once you fixed that, it's fine.)

- The game's menu is not controllable without a keyboard: Want to play in your livingroom? Always have to connect your keyboard
- Controllers are buggy. We always had one controller controling two players at the same time. Making this not playable with 4 players.
- The game's controlscheme consists of 2 buttons + a joystick. While this is not necessarily bad, I feel that lots of opportunities are missed here.
- 0 configuration offered: Always play until 8 points. That's it. We couldn't even disable bots.

Sorry. I loved King Arthur's Gold and even though I knew this would be simpler, it did not deserve the blind trust I had in the studio.

So I bought this game thinking it would be like KAG (King Arthurs Gold) or similiar to the quality or depth of KAG with mechanical differences. To my suprise the game lacks really any depth and while I didnt play it for very long I was hit with immediate problems. First the resoulution is strange and smaller than what 1920x1080 is atleast thats what I was using. That aside I was brought to a screen asking for a username and then controls but apparently I needed an account so I was "Landmeow9". The controls are oddly mapped considering this game came out this year and from the same devs of KAG I don't understand why movement is mapped to arrow keys and actions to Z and X. As I went through I found it littered with weird design choices and not what I expected. Not to mention a glitch with trying to play single player, worked the second time. Then after being in singleplayer finally being able to play the game I found it...lacking. Maybe I was comparing it to much KAG, and I'am comparing as it is the only other game from these devs. While its neat it just feels like it needs a bit more polish. Id say buy it if its cheap and maybe wait if until servers get more populated and the game functions a little better, though im not sure if it will. I will not be playing this Im sorry maybe I had a bad first experience but unless Im convinced otherwise this game isn't really worth the buy unless on sale, ESPECIALLY IF YOUR LOOKING FOR DEPTH LIKE KAG.

Controllers don't work on OSX and Linux so am unable to play with friends. Developers have confirmed that they don't know how to fix this issue.

Maybe if it had players, but it doesn't. And the game's forums are plagued with "wait until it comes out on steam, it'll get players then!" sort of posts, which makes it a running problem.

It's also an inherently simplistic game, so it won't have staying power.

I was a big fan of King Arthur's Gold, which is what brought me to this game. Overall I feel this game is pretty disappointing. The core game itself is pretty shallow. There are two game modes. One is FFA, and one is Team Battle mode. The games last on average between 2-5 minutes. This game is very fast-paced. You will spend an equal time waiting between matches as you will playing them.

The game tries to redeem itself with a lobby area. Here you can buy things with coins (earned from winning games) such as beer, wine, clothes, pets. This part of the game feels pretty tacked on, and is unrelated to the main part of the game. There are not very many people online right now, and filling up games is very difficult. The game seems to be using the exact same engine as KAG, which makes the experience feel more like a cheap reskin than a full new game.

I felt the core game to be pretty uninteresting, and you can see the majority of gameplay in about 20 minutes. This game definitely feels like an Early Access game, and I was suprised it wasn't one. I hope the developers can turn it around, because at the moment I feel that purchasing this game is not worth the price.

Trench Run is a 2D multiplayer shooter that is exclusively about shooting people, blowing them up, and having fun in the process

The gameplay is very simple: you control your characters using only only 2 buttons and direction keys (you could play with a NES controller), the maps are small, there's no story, no base-building, no leveling system… You can immediately buy the game, join a server and blow stuff up. The game is very fast paced, with explosions all over the place, corpses flying across the map, buildings getting blown up, it's very hectic and hilarious to see.

There are 5 classes available that play quite differently:
- the assault has an automatic rifle and grenades
- the demolition has a rocket launcher and C4
- the commando has a knife, flash grenades, can climb walls and defuse C4
- the sniper has a sniper and can camouflage
- the medic, only available in “Run” mode, has a shield, ammo boxes, and can revive his teammates

There are 2 game modes: Run and Skirmish. Skirmish is self-explanatory, it's 4 players trying to kill each other, the player with the most kills win.

Run is a team vs team mode where the goal is to run to the other end of the map while dodging enemies and killing them. There's a bit of tactic involved : you can try to be sneaky, hiding in a bush or using a flash grenade, or defend a strategical corridor from a window, or be a medic and help your teammates with ammo and health.

Outside of the 2 main modes there's a lobby where players can meet in between matches, chat, play basketball, buy pets and costumes and drink beers.

There could easily be new modes, maps and even classes created for the game as it's entirely moddable, and you can run your own private servers.

So this game is awesome, but it has a population problem. There's generally always someone to play with, but the most I've seen online was 6 players and sometimes I have to wait 10 minutes in the lobby for someone to connect. You can still play with bots, they're not too bad, but playing with real people is obviously way more fun. If you're lucky and have irl friends who are into fun games, you could play with them in local multiplayer too (up to 4 players).

Fast, accessible and completely hilarious mayhem. You have two game modes to choose from and one of the best online multiplayer lobbies I've ever seen in my life. There is the Skirmish mode, which is a free for all single life per round game mode. First to get eight kills wins the match. Second there is the Run mode, two teams try to reach the opposite side of the map. First team to cross, or eliminate the other team, wins. Match is the best of five rounds. There are simple yet distinct classes to choose from, based on classic shooter archetypes.

And the lobby is seriously entertaining too. Hang out and chat at the barrista, play a pick up game of 2D basketball, or pick up a fancy outfit or a pet. Of course you can always spend your hard earned winnings the old fashioned way and get hammered at the bar.

The game also boasts crisp and responsive controls and totally over the top physics. Round that out with online and local multiplayer with full bot support so you never have to go without a game. Totally worth the price of entry and then some.

I'm sorry, Michal, I love your work but this one just isn't quite doing it for me.

So something not particularly well addressed in other reviews is, exactly what IS Trench Run? In short, it's sort of a Smash Bros. take on 2D arena combat games like... well, like Soldat. Except it's kind of pared down. You have two real game modes: free-for-all and team play, supporting up to 4 and 8 players respectively. The twist is that nobody ever dies; although you score "kills" for walloping the hell out of another player, it's more like a game of tag. If you're "killed" you're reduced to crawling and hopping around at a gimped rate, and can't attack. If you can snag a random medkit, you're back in the game but the healthier players can and will swipe these to keep them from you.

There are all of two modes available: Free-for-all deathmatch, and team play (4 and 8 players respectively). Free-for-all is simply a series of single-screen arenas that will shuffle when one player is left standing, and the first one to 10 kills wins. Team play features objectives like "reach the other team's end zone" and maybe other stuff I dunno.

When starting a game you can pick a class that determines what two things you can do; sniper can disguise as a bush and snipe, demolitions can chuck missiles and set mines disguised as crates, etc. This is all well and good, but... it's where I start to realize that the game is minimalist to a fault.

There are two bare-bones game modes. The maximum players in any game is either 4 or 8, even online. The arenas are tiny. You have two action buttons per character. Only the winner gets coins to spend in the lobby, on things like booze, coffee, costumes, and pets which only persist in the lobby where you can't really do anything. On top of all this the game's color palette, which while undoubtedly an accurate recreation of an EGA palette or something, hurts my eyes. It's predominantly sickly tones of yellow, brown, and green.

And finally, we're about two days out from the Steam launch and the servers are DEAD. As I type this there are no player-hosted servers, and nobody at all on the US server. There was apparently a record of 31 people playing throughout the entire day.

I admire the concept and it's briefly amusing to watch the sprites ragdoll all over the place, but I just don't think it has an ounce of staying power as it is now. It looks like it's maybe still in active development(?), but if that's the case it really should've been listed as Early Access.

Please just put Soldat on Steam, already.