Recensioni di Trenches - World War 1 Horror Survival Game

At last, we can see here a Slenderman-like survival horror with a truly original concept. I mean it, the main idea behind this game is surprisingly fresh. I won't give you any further detail, because it would be a huge spoiler, but let's just say this: Trenches intelligently mixes together the classic Slenderman gameplay with the amazing mood and atmosphere of Silent Hill, thus offering a truly frightening experience. This is probably one of the scariest games I have ever played, it fully manages to convey a very strong sense of helplessness and vulnerability. Sound and visual effects are just great, and the monster design is pretty original. There are only two important things I didn't like. First, there are way too many jumpscares, and they are way too violent, to the point that, while playing, I was much more afraid of them than of the monster itself, which shouldn't absolutely happen in a game like this. Lowering the game volume helps a lot in making the scares more bearable, without affecting the gameplay too much (IMPORTANT: see the update below on this topic). And second, I didn't like the monster AI. Precisely, the monster is predictable, it usually has a very hard time in finding you, but once he does, it is very very difficult to get rid of it. So, this translates in what? The best way to beat the game is to constantly stay as much away as possible from the monster, in order to never alert it, not even a single time. Basically, I managed to beat the game without catching even a single glimpse of the monster, thus the hiding spots have been totally useless. I saw it a couple of times at my first attempts, when it caught and killed me, that's why now I can say that escaping from it is very difficult. Personally, I would have preferred the opposite: an intelligent monster that can easily spot you, but easier to outrun once triggered. But that's my personal opinion, of course, as well as the jumpscares thing above. Overall, this is undoubtedly a very high quality indie game, I'm sure it will get the success it deserves, also considering that the (solo) dev is very active, he constantly updates his product with new content, which is not bad at all for his first experience here on Steam! Cheers guys! IMPORTANT UPDATE: after listening to my advice, the dev implemented a perfect "no jumpscare" mode, where all the random jumpscares are removed, leaving only the scripted (and thus fully predictable) ones. It is a facultative mode, you can play either normally OR without the random jumpscares, so that everyone is happy! The monster AI has also been improved, as well as the optimization. This dev is really doing great. You know, it is exactly people like him who derserve our trust and our money, I definitely renew my wish of luck and success!