[These first impressions are also available in a video along with the gameplay footage I recorded for further context. Click the annotations for the link.]
If you recall the first Steam summer sale not too long ago, there were various indie games given a limited showcase to the general public. Today, we're going to talk about one that immediately caught my attention, Trifox.
As I said before, this demo was available only during Steam's previous sale, so the footage you're seeing is what I could record before the demo was taken offline. Additionally, some footage comes from the trailer because those features were not present in the available build. Now, you can play the demo for yourself until July 3rd as part of the Indigo 2020 Online event—of course, the catch is that you would already have a ticket because they were sold out weeks ago. So if you want to see more gameplay besides my condensed thoughts, then you can check the footage I recorded without commentary.
So that just leaves us with two important questions, “What is Trifox and is it worth your time?”
To cut right to the first answer, TriFox is a triad of various inspirations that all cultivate into a unique twin-stick shooter, action RPG, and collect-o-thon hybrid. If that description sounds like one too many developers trying to pitch their ideas for a game, then let me make a simpler picture: Imagine you take the build and gameplay systems from Transistor, the cutesy 3D platformer level design from games like Super Lucky’s Tale, and put it all into a top-down perspective. That’s essentially what you would get, although not all of those features are present within the demo.
For right now, you are only allowed to play with fifteen out of the thirty planned skills across the three archetypes: the Engineer, the Warrior and the Mage. In the final release, you will be able to mix and match these play-styles to create a more personal build, which will also unlock other exclusive abilities. If you watch the trailer footage, you can see a few seconds of this idea demonstrated, so I imagine the reason for the current limitation is to properly balance these primary skills first before allowing players the ability to combine them, but I’ll come back to this point.
As for the other two components, they both play a role in this game’s level-design and encounters without any major innovations. More specifically, if you’ve played Super Lucky’s Tale, then you will find that this game follows the stages with a top-down, fixed camera. Now this demo only showcases one stage at various angles, but, given the twin-stick nature of the combat system, I imagine that it will not change all that much.
Why? Well, most of the combat mechanics revolve around having enough spatial awareness to keep enemies away as the defensive mechanics only offer a brief respite. Some situations may have traps or other additional hazards on the map, but the real obstacle is balancing your offensive and defensive abilities to get through gauntlets of enemies. Compared to the action RPG elements, there really isn’t anything noteworthy to mention when examining these elements in isolation; however, it’s when you put all these ideas together is where you begin to see the beginnings of an idea—but that’s the extent of the whole experience.
Considering that there is no planned release date, I can only assume this demo was more of a playable proof-of-concept rather than a small taste of the final product. In fact, there are far too many core gameplay blemishes and balancing issues here to believe all the mechanics have been finalized.
For example, while the demo automatically assigns you as the Engineer, its skill-set is nowhere near as effective as the other classes. The remote bombs will likely harm you or your own defenses before they damage your foes because of the slight delay after deploying them, which is the only effective way you can directly attack enemies besides your wimpy minigun. Instead, you’re encouraged to group up the enemies before deploying the traps or to plan them out in advance. Secondly, the Engineer’s helicopter ability makes precise platforming way too unpredictable compared to the simplicity of a teleport or a leaping attack. Third, and what doesn’t make sense, is that the spinning enemies are invulnerable to your remote bombs while attacking, which seems like the most obvious way to break their defenses. (As a side note, no class can break the enemy out of that animation, but the Engineer will have the hardest time dealing with them.) As a result, these problems show a lot more flaws than the developers likely intended.
This isn’t to say the other two classes are not without their share of problems, but they are better equipped to handle the situation. If any one class feels overpowered it’s the Warrior who can easily dash through crowds and send them away with a whirlwind attack, which basically breaks the boss fight at the very end. Additionally, the class’s energy usage is way too generous and easy to mow down tougher encounters, making him the ideal play-style for speed-runners. On the other hand, the Mage has the most balanced move-set of the three, but due to the unpredictable nature of the projectiles it can take too much control away from the players, a concession likely from the fact that the game is primarily designed around a controller.
Normally your choice of input devices wouldn’t affect your game, but there is a world of a difference in playing Trifox with a mouse and keyboard versus a controller. To be fair, the demo heavily encourages you to use a controller, but this point is necessary because the options’ menu is robust enough to make it viable. In truth, I didn’t have all that much trouble playing the game with either setup, but I found myself preferring the controller because of how the movement system works. The real culprit is that the character always faces the direction of your mouse, not where you’re going, which I understand why that was decided but that makes movement more annoying outside of combat, especially for precise platforming. For classes like the Mage and the Warrior, the precision of a mouse doesn’t affect the game all that much; for the Engineer, however, it can become irritating to line-up your shots from afar or to face the right direction when evading an attack. Again, the issue here has more to do with the class itself not being all that gratifying to play, but this control method will improve the overall experience enough to warrant mentioning.
Now I might come across as a little harsh, especially for a demo that I had otherwise enjoyed, but all these little shortcomings are what I would expect to be addressed in the future. The only reason I focused so much on the negatives is that I am limited by one stage, so I cannot tell you about anything more beyond that experience about what works and what does not. Hopefully in a future build we can see the skill combinations as well as additional changes to combat to give the game more depth—or at least more stages to show us how the game will work within its own limitations. Overall, if you go in knowing that what you’re playing is a prototype, then you’ll more than likely enjoy your time.
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