Trover Saves the Universe, the new release from Squanch Games—that's the studio co-founded in 2016 by Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland and former Gears of War executive producer Tanya Watson—is now available on Steam and the Epic Games Store. And it brings to us one of the weirdest, most pointless, disturbing, and longest-feeling launch trailers in memory, featuring Rich Fulcher as a deranged man in his underwear with large globs of sentient Play-Doh jammed into his eyes.
First, however, a bit about the game itself: "Your dogs have been dognapped by a beaked lunatic named Glorkon who stuffed them into his eye holes and is using their life essence to destroy the universe. You're partnered with Trover, a little purple eye-hole monster who isn’t a huge fan of working or being put in the position of having to save the universe."
I put a few minutes into Trover Saves the Universe to get a feeling for what it's like, and it seems very on-brand for Roiland and co.: Trover, your purple partner, is very much weird sci-fi Morty, while his boss (whose name escapes me) is obviously Rick. There's a lot of swearing, unless you select the "censored" option (which beeps out the f-bombs), and movement is restricted to teleport pads, reflecting the game's VR roots, although it's playable without VR hardware too.
The humor is very Rick and Morty-esque as well: At one point I killed an elderly Chairopian who was giving me attitude, which led to a throwaway crack about elder abuse and Trover fretting nervously about getting our stories straight and getting away before the cops showed up. Conversations are spluttering and filled with odd asides, occasional bits of stammering, and copious cursing.
Trover Saves the Universe goes for $30/£24/€25 and it sounds like you can expect that price to hold for a good while: Squanch said that it's going to keep the game at full price "for longer than usual" so that it can release future DLC for free. I got a few light laughs out of what I played but it'll be up to someone else (maybe Chris, since it seems to be up his alley) to determine how it holds up over the duration.
Oh, and how about that trailer? Yeah, I got nothing. Sorry.
