Vive Report

I have a special relationship with the game Trickster. I was lucky enough to be a beta tester awhile back and really got to see this game grow from a simple but beautiful wave shooter, into a growing full blown procedurally generated adventure game, which keeps getting better with each update. From it’s inception, it had many things right. Great design, great enemies, wonderful level layouts, and a fantastic concept. The more the dev gave me details on what the “Trickster” really is, the more I was intrigued. Back when it was still a wave shooter I was given a hint that the dev had a much more grand concept in mind and the more he unveiled the actual story line, the more I was impressed with the depth of the backstory.

I don’t want to get into the story too much, as there is still more to come and I don’t want to spoil anything. But one aspect that’s interesting to keep in mind: the “Trickster” is the portal! As the game receives further updates more of the story will come into play and by it’s official full launch, I expect we will all learn more about the Trickster and it’s legendary, turbulent history.

It was only just recently that the Adventure mode was rolled out to the early access game, but already you can see that it’s well put together and that there is great promise there. When you first open the game you now approach a big stone table with a scroll map laid across it. You pick up your weapon equipment (sword, bow & arrow, you can opt for throwing blades instead of the sword if you prefer), then you look at the map and have 5 options already to choose from in terms of what mission to start. The mission select has a superb mechanic, you simply pick up a glowing dagger and jab it into the map marker of the mission you want to start. At the time of writing this there are 4 different story missions to choose from as well as the “Portal Defense” which is the wave mode.

The first story mission I tried was one of the “A Murder of Crows” missions. I was pretty blown away by how fast the story missions were added into the game as I wasn’t expecting to see them until 2017. But here we are, it loads up and I see a direct path ahead of me. I start teleporting my way forward onto a wooden bridge connecting the two floating islands. While on the narrow bridge, orcs attack! A variety of 5-6 different orc types appear and start coming at me, bro. I take them out with a few bow shots and my sword, and move on. After making my way through a few different packs of orcs, I walk through a couple of doors, to arrive at the Crow’s nest. The mission is to take out the evil crows, one by one. While shooting at the fast moving crows, orcs start to attack once again. I have to defeat the orcs, while trying to take out all of the Crows. It was a blast taking on these 2 challenges simultaneously.

After completing the mission objective you need to find the portal home, which you can see as a glowing marker across the island easily enough and know to head towards that. Once you arrive at the portal home, you have to touch a Rune-stone on the ground to summon the portal but while you wait for the portal to power up more dastardly orcs appear from a side floating island that crashes into your island and you have to defeat the orcs while waiting for the portal home to generate. Once it fully generates you simply teleport through it and you’re done! Mission complete! You are brought back to the main menu area and are presented with your stats from the completed mission.

Trickster was a great game when it first launched over a month ago. It has a great style that adds to its immersive, fun gameplay. It’s lighthearted and serious in all the right places. Now with the adventure mode added in, along with tons of improvements and new enemies, this game is sizing up to be one of the fuller (and fun!) titles available on the Vive right now.

Check it out for yourself over on Steam Trickster VR $9.99

To celebrate the Trickster Adventure mode update and this review, I have three, 3! (It’s the magic number) Steam keys to give away! I’ve set up a thread over at  r/Vive on reddit. Simply click here and comment on the thread to have a chance at scoring a free key for Trickster so you can jump in and try out Adventure mode for yourself.

Trickster VR Steam Key Giveaway drawing will be held at 8pm Eastern Time September 26th using the “Reddit Giveaway Helper”.