Symbols of all that is original and unique in the world of video games, Double Fine, have decided that symbolism is probably rubbish; and, with that in mind, are making Trenched, an XBLA-exclusive that is all about the brave, brave soldiers who everyday fight aliens from outer space. I think I saw that in a game somewhere.
In the spirit of this development (get it?), I'll borrow this next part from Eurogamer:
This is a game about really quite horrid aliens killing humans. But those humans have muscles of their own - metal muscles; they stomp around in giant customisable mechanised robot suits, blasting the blue-tinted baddies with cannons the size of cars.
The link also contains screenshots and some sort of trailer. Anyways, I am probably/hopefully being too harsh on the usually-creative Double Fine. We shall see.
Source: Eurogamer
For someone who is quite critical of Stacking and Costume Quest, this one is still a day one purchase. Fanboy pride, I guess, but I'll support them until they make it clear they are no longer trying.
I think it'd be somewhat self-limiting for DF to stick to doing "weird" and "wacky" ideas, especially since Trenched seems so far to be more an exercise in fun gameplay design than in mind-blowing high concept. That said, while it isn't the most original concept in the world, this game still looks plenty "wacky" to me. At least it isn't taking itself too seriously.
But seriously, when I first saw this, I would never have thought it was a Double Fine game. Anyway, as long as it has the storytelling and humor of previous DF games, I'll buy it. I mean, each of Double Fine's games are different than the rest, so I think they deserve to have one with a more conventional approach.
Still, the DF Ron Gilbert game had better be fantastic.
I agree with you though. This does seem remarkably... mainstream (that's the nicest word I could think of to describe it). The Xbox Live exclusive thing is also a bit unusual, unless Microsoft themselves are publishing.