Troll and I

Troll and I has a bit of a reception for being a notoriously bad game, and while it is indeed a game, I don't believe it deserves the low reputation it has; far from it. The game tells the tale of a forlorn teenager named Otto, like the bus driver in The Simpsons, and a monstrous looking eponymous troll as they work together to return back to their families. You fight, solve puzzles and collect secrets through beautiful Scandinavia while the villain Nico and his men hunt the troll down. It isn't just man that threatens you, it's also the diverse nature hazards and the hostile mountain goblins that use a variety of weapons to hurt both you and Troll.
The skeleton crew that made this game have been extremely ambitious in their attempt of creating a bond between man and monster, and sometimes they succeeded. Each have their own strengths such as Otto being able to sneak, get back-stabs, craft gear and gather food while Troll can throw rocks to disable goblin spawn points, bellow at enemies to stun and even go invisible. And it all works pretty well. The main issue is where they work together as it often provides no main benefit that you can't get from playing separately and having the AI badly handle their own combat encounters. A perfect example of this is ordering the troll to follow you; many times he would get stuck in terrain that is relatively easy to avoid and instead it's quicker to simply mount Troll and guide both at once. Often it is visually cool to see a large battle between three forces fight but those situations are extremely rare.
Many of the issues I had with the AI could be solved by playing in co-op mode. The issue I have is of course, being a loner. It has no online co-op limiting you to a controller for one person, and keyboard/mouse for the other. So I can't really comment but I'm sure it will make the game even much more enjoyable. However, there are definitely touching moments through the campaign that are heartbreaking and I think the game should be played for these very few moments even if alone.
The world design is impressive and similar to Dark Souls believe it or not. Multiple times you will come across rocks that block locations because you do not have a spear strong enough to break them. They are just a colour swap of the spears so it is difficult to remember these locations as they blend it with the rest of the environment, which is simply just plains, rocks and trees. There is also no map, but still a mini-map for some reason, which can further complicate things when wondering if backtracking is necessary. As the game progresses you do come across buildings that have good vertical design with many floors and plenty of secret idols are well hidden. These idols can be used to upgrade your characters skills such as health but they don't introduce new combat mechanics.
Going on this adventure being hunted should of course have a mental impact on Otto, and initially it does. However not long after, Otto seems to show no remorse for the humans he is killing and would even finish off people with a flurry of combo attacks long after they died. Maybe because there is no blood effects, these “people” aren't actually human but that seems too deep of a story for this game. One neat thing about these animations is that they change depending on what weapon you are using, but the parry animation stays the same.
A concern I have for potential buyers is the prevalent issue of bugs (not the insect kind) that worsened as the game went on. Some weren't too bad such as getting stuck at the top of stairs and throwing invisible spears, but there are a couple that require restarting the chapter because Otto gets stuck in the air continuously falling. One bug was so severe that I had to restart the game from the very start due to Troll being stuck in a unmovable state that didn't fix itself. This could have been softened with the ability to save in multiple slots, but you can't. What hardened the blow was the new game I created DID save into a new slot.
Overall, Troll and I might be a hidden gem as absurd as it is to say. The game takes clear nods from The Last Guardian and The Last of Us, and sometimes comically so, but those aren't bad games to take inspiration from. It can feel quite monotonous exploring such similar environments over the course of 7 hours but the story segments that show off an incredible friendship are worth witnessing even if like me you have to redo 75% of it.

PAID: $2.99. Full price is $29.99 as I write this, regularly going on steep sale.
HARDWARE: i5 3570, Win10x64, 16GB, GTX 1070, SSD.
I'm going to give this a positive review, although I'm a llittle irked right now.
The opening cinematic was well-written and well-acted. The first view of the environment, I thought was evocative. Then I was in the game proper, on my first mission, and...the WASD keys did not work; I could not move. Every other key worked; if I pressed CTRL, I walked, and if I pressed SHIFT, I ran. But I could not STOP moving or change my direction.
After some debugging on my end, a web search indicated this was a known game bug that was supposedly patched out shortly after release. I force-validated my STEAM files, and...no patch. So I attached an Xbox 360 controller, and was able to play with that (and it's probably a better choice anyway, as the overall keyboard layout, which did not appear to be remappable, looked rather irritating to use).
There's no excuse for such a class "A" bug to still be in a release build a year after launch.
Anyway, the game: You're given a partial tutorial which does a good job evoking the forest game environment, and then dumped right into the (melo)drama,.And then come the Indiana Jones insta-death reflex puzzles, the first of which I repeatedly failed until I memorized the pattern. And immediately after that... a second insta-death reflex puzzle! I decided I'd had enough after getting impaled and splatted a few times, and decided to play something more relaxing, like Amnesia.
Takeaways:
- You need a controller.
- You need to enjoy timed reflex puzzles. There may be exploration, combat and platform climbing later, but the first few minutes of the game, at least, are all timed reflex puzzles that you must pass to progress.
- There does appear to be some fun to be had, and the negative reviews seem in large part to be relative to the price paid; apparently this was AAA priced on release. The other complaints seem to be mostly about dysfunctional co-op play, but if you're like me and intend to play alone, that won't matter.

I bought this game to play with my Wife on local co-op. Really, it's not that bad. A lot of the people I think reviewed this based on the price/gameplay comparison which is fair. Would I pay 10 dollars for it? Hmm, maybe, but I didn't. I got it for about 5 dollars, so I'll base my review on that price.
This game is a fun couch co-op game that I'd say reminisces of an older PS2 game. If you go into the game with AAA expectations, you'll be disappointed, but if you go in knowing that it's an indie game that has issues, you'll be fine. One of the issues I noticed is a couple of crashes, nothing major as the game has auto-saves, but it was a little annoying. The controls can be clunky at times, but nothing you can't get used to. A couple other things would be poor voice acting and at times there is nothing for one player to do but wait on the other player. If you're like me though and playing on couch co-op, you just watch the other players screen and try to help them through their part of it. All in all, I'd say this game is flawed, but fun if you can get it for a few bucks. My wife and I are only halfway through the game and we're having fun with it.
Summary:
Pros:
Fun couch co-op game
Steam Achievements (For completionists)
Kind of a neat premise
Local Split-Screen
Mashes several popular gaming elements together (puzzle-solving, resource management, crafting, skill tree, co-op)
Cons:
Feels like a PS2/PS3 game
Some bugs, but not a whole lot
Poor Voice Acting
Maybe slightly overpriced ($9.99 at time of review) - I'd say this game is easily worth 4.99.

After 4 years of owning this video game, I finally have a device that can run it :(((

Before this game, I had nothing. My family threw me out on the cold, summer streets of Chicago. All I had was $5 in Walmart gift cards (yes, multiple) and my desktop PC in hand. Although this game cost more than $5 and this is not Walmart, I somehow managed to acquire a copy. That's when my life changed for better or for worse. When you've hit the lowest point, there is nowhere to go, but up. Troll & I was my, "up". This game is an emotional journey from start to finish. The relationship between the player and the troll is reminiscent of the brilliant character development and relationship displayed in Michael Bay's Transformers™ franchise between Optimus Prime and whoever the hell Shia LaBeouf played. Never before has a form of media touched my heart like this game has. Thanks to this game, I cleaned up my act, my family took me back and my wife forgave me for whatever I did. I'm still not really sure, she gets pretty irrational when she's angry, I'm not gonna lie. If you were hesitant to buy this game, because of the low reviews, do it anyway. For your $30, more or less depending on the seasonal sales, you will gain a deeper understand of yourself, those you care about and trolls. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you may or may not experience minor gastrointestinal discomfort. Troll & I is truly the perfect video game. If you're a fan of Super Mario 64, Dark Souls and/or Jimmy Neutron Attack of the Twonkies for GameCube (I haven't, played the other versions, but I really enjoyed that one. I also hear the version on GameBoy Advance was pretty good.) you will love Troll & I. 5/5 Stars. HIGHLY recommend!

I bought this just so I could do justice to this game in a video:

If I remember this game was pulled from steam stores so Im happy to own such a rare item