Genre: Action, Adventure, Indie
Developer: Squanch Games, Inc.
Publisher: Squanch Games, Inc.
Platforms(s): PC [reviewed], PSVR
Release Date: Jun 4, 2019
Price: $29.99
In a world of poop and shit, there is Trover Saves The Universe, from Rick And Morty co-creator Justin Roiland and his new game studio Squanch Games. Their first outing is a pretty big and surprising undertaking with Trover Saves The Universe being tailored for VR devices. Thankfully, the game succeeds, but not without a few foibles along the way; almost like having a clone of yourself stick their whole leg up your ass.
On the surface, Trover Saves The Universe is one of those standard VR games that look fun and work okay, but that you always just feel would be a lot more fun to play sitting in front of a TV. You play as a Chairorpian, a species of alien that is tied to their chair and can only move around the world by activating jump point. It’s really silly and highlights the limitations of movement in VR while explaining it away in a manner tied directly to the experience.
And that’s one of the highlights of Trover Saves The Universe. It’s as if the team understood the limitations of VR and used the narrative to work around those issues in really fun ways. They don’t hide behind mechanics, they call them out while using them to tell an interesting and engaging story. Because you are inside this crazy Rick and Morty inspired world, you can easily overlook the mechanical shortcomings that VR has yet to address this generation. In a way, Trover Saves The Universe is probably the best example of what this round of VR can do, instead of being like other games who try to form classic gameplay styles into the VR space.
The fun bit about gameplay is that you are actually controlling two separate characters at once. You jump from point to point and can elevate yourself for a better vantage point, while Trover does all the heavy lifting, fighting, and puzzle-solving. You are essentially the camera given life with the ability to grab and move certain objects, while also controlling Trover via your controller that is mimicked on-screen. It may sound a little weird, and it is at first, but once you get going it feels second-nature pretty quick. It’s nothing new in terms of gameplay, just presented in a new way.
Gameplay itself is broken up in a few ways. Trover has a limited range, so you’ll be jumping to various warp pads as you progress through each world. Along the way you’ll have Trover fighting enemies, collecting Power Babies (these serve as upgrades) and generally exploring the crazy world presented. For the most part, the game plays like your standard action-platformer. Trover has a lightsaber to take out enemies and can earn upgrades along the way to give him more abilities. All standard stuff, but presented in hilarious form.
Trover Saves The Universe doesn’t break any new ground in its gameplay, but it certainly does in terms of storytelling in VR. If you are a fan of Rick and Morty, then you are going to absolutely love this. The game feels like a lost episode of the series thanks in part to the voice acting talents and comedic style employed. VR games usually offer up the idea of exploring new worlds and Trover Saves The Universe is no different.
Each planet you visit is full of its own cast of characters with their own stories. Instead of one long adventure, the game feels like a few episodes of the show rolled up into one. You’ll often find yourself simply sneaking up on enemies and waiting for minutes at a times for their audio to finish. You’ll happily do this because the writing is incredibly funny and will have you laughing out loud on multiple occasion. The world created feels alive because characters will play out their own lives when they think you aren’t around.
A quest might require you to move boxes from one garage to another, push a house filled with pregnant ladies off a cliff, massacre a village of cute creatures and everything in-between. And because the world makes no sense, you never quite know which is the right thing to do. You only know that no matter what you do, the game will remind you of it as Trover yells at you for what you force him to do to people. It’s all one big goof, but I’ll be damed if it isn’t a wicked good time.
Trover Saves The Universe is a fantastic VR experience, but it also comes with a few issues. As is the case with these VR “experiences” is that you just end up wishing you could play on a TV with a controller in your hand. Trover Saves The Universe lets you do just that, and in doing so you don’t lose any of the core experience. Sure, it’s more interesting in VR, but using a thumbs-stick to control the camera instead of moving your head works fine.
And then there is the gameplay itself. There is no real variety as Trover only attacks with his lightsaber without any advancement. There are no combos to learn, no lightsaber upgrades to earn, you simply mash the X-button to win encounters. You do get a strong attack later in the game but I never found myself using it as it’s slow and only leaves you open to attacks. This means even with the game clocking in at only a few hours, combat will start feeling like a chore. I’ll say that if the game didn’t have the strong writing before so many encounters it would have worn thin pretty quick.
And while I didn’t experience any game-breaking glitches, I did need to restart the final boss because one of the required items needed to beat him got lost in the world. I replayed the fight a couple of times and was never able to recreate the issue, but it happened. I spent half-an-hour trying to beat the boss because I had no idea the required item, (there are two) was even missing from the world.
Trover Saves The Universe is also fairly inconsistent at times. Sometimes it runs silky smooth even with tons of enemies on screen while other times it’ll chug when only a couple are wandering around, usually when a cutscene is playing out. The game defaulted to max-settings on out review rig so it does seem like it has some optimization issues.
None of those issues kill the experience, but they keep Trover Saves The Universe from being truly great. Even with some problems, it’s still probably the best VR game that you can get you hands-on. If you are a fan of Rick and Morty then it’s a no-brainer to pick this title up, without VR. Just know that the game is only a few hours long (the case with VR games, unfortunately) at the cost of $30. It seems like a lot for a short VR game, but as a fan of Rick and Morty, I felt it was worth it, especially as free DLC is on the way.
Trover Saves The Universe, on the whole, is a hilarious experience that fans of Rick and Morty are going to want to experience for themselves. It’s the best VR game I’ve played so far and shows that with a strong narrative a VR game can be as solid as more traditional on-the-couch experiences.
“Trover Saves The Universe is the funniest game of 2019 and a perfect reason to dust off that VR headset”
Final Score: 4/5
*A review copy was provided for this piece*
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