Platform: XBLA, (4.5/5).
Because WWI trenches, as games teach us over and over again, were loads of fun. And kind of had a steam-punk vibe to them, which is always cool. The style of Double Fine's Trenched, pushes those ideals as far as they can reasonably be expected to go in an alternate history where soldiers parade around a turret-studded battlefield in mechanical “trenches” (Created by a man named Vladimir Woodruff so that he, and those with his affliction, might walk again. Of course.).
Inserting your own character into a tower defense game, with the ability to take an extremely active role in action-packed battles, is not unique, but it's far closer to it than either facet taken on their own. The two sides are integrated in a way that begs you replay through the levels too: You could choose a vehicle that sprouts chain-guns from every orifice but then you'd sacrifice the ability to implant automatic guns into the dirt, or you could engineer the perfect defensible position but not be able to accomplish a whole lot once the battle gets started.
Fast paced is not normally how I would describe a calculated tower-defense title, but between the alternate history stylings, the astonishing variety of enemy types and the action gameplay it absolutely feels that way.
Trenched
