Trolls vs Vikings: Reborn – Review
Except for perhaps Candy Crush Saga and Angry Birds, we believe that Plants vs Zombies was one of the most popular mobile games before the massive boom in the mobile games industry. The title was loved by many but also uninstalled by quite a few gamers after it became a microtransaction hell. Even so, we had a lot of fond memories of Popcap’s zombie ‘tower’ defense game. When we laid our eyes upon Trolls vs Vikings: Reborn, we were immediately hit by a wave of nostalgia, as this game gave us the feeling of a reskinned Plants vs Zombies, with its own unique units and possible game modes. While this proved to be true for the most part, it does lack some polish to be considered a clone that outperforms the original.
Story
While there is some story to be found in Trolls vs Vikings: Reborn, it takes the backseat for the most part. You’ll be playing as the trolls, who simply want to live peaceful lives. Someone, however, has been convincing the Vikings to attack the trolls, claiming they have riches beyond belief. The slightly dim-witted Vikings are easily swayed and launch a full-scale invasion on the troll homeland. That’s basically the premise of the game. You’ll be treated to some dialogues here and there, as well as the occasional cutscene with still images and text. While the story could have been fleshed out a tiny bit more, we did quite enjoy the light-hearted narrative.
Graphics
Graphically, Trolls vs Vikings: Reborn is a fairly good-looking game within its respective genre. The game reminded us a bit of old-school browser-based Flash games, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The different character and enemy designs look good, even though there might be a slight lack of variety here and there. Nonetheless, the animations are fluid, the artwork is colorful, and everything looks polished. Sadly, the arenas look rather lifeless, as these are extremely static. The cutscenes also look a bit cheaper by comparison, but they do the trick for a title such as this. The menu design was a bit wonky for a PC title, as it reminded us more of a cheap mobile game. Some items felt blown out of proportion, and we lacked an overview in, for example, the menu for the additional missions. That being said, the menus are still clear enough, but we expected a slightly tighter design for a PC title.
Sound
The general soundscape of Trolls vs Vikings: Reborn is decent, albeit forgettable. The music is a bit bland, but the sound effects are functional and provide decent audio feedback. We, however, quickly turned off most sounds and just enjoyed our own playlist while playing this casual title. Accessing the sound settings can only be done via the menu and not when you’re in the actual levels themselves.
Gameplay
Trolls vs Vikings: Reborn is basically a clone of Plants vs Zombies, with a nordic theme slapped on top of it. Is this a bad thing? Not really. Trolls vs Vikings: Reborn offers a fairly laid-back experience for the most part, even though you’ll have to think about your team composition from time to time. It’s basically a spin on the tower defense genre, where you have to prevent the enemies from reaching your base. In Trolls vs Vikings: Reborn, you’ll have to defend several lanes by placing units on them that can block or attack your foes. You’ll need moonstones to purchase new units, and moonstones often spawn at regular intervals. Moonstone production can also be boosted by units. Some levels have a fixed supply of moonstones, with which you’ll have to make do. It’s all straightforward stuff, but it’s reasonably fun.
As you play through the levels, you’ll unlock shards, which you can use on a skill tree of sorts to unlock new units, spells, passive upgrades, and so on. It’s quite fun to see a slow but steady progress in terms of new units and abilities, but even when you complete everything the game has to offer, you won’t be able to unlock everything on your skill tree. This is a shame, especially when you have already completed all stages from the main story and the side quests. These side quests feel heavily underdeveloped, as they just have a specific theme but no explanation whatsoever what the theme is about. Also, after completing a side quest, you’re always thrown back to the main story map rather than the side quest sequence you were playing through.
Truth be told, that’s pretty much all there is to the game. You pick a level, you try to beat it, and you move on to the next one. It’s a simple concept, and it works. We simply weren’t blown away by the different challenges, and when we were able to, we almost always picked the same unit combo that worked for us. It’s fun to see what all the units do, but ultimately, you’ll have your favorites that will probably be part of your team in almost every single level. You do have some content to plow through, especially with the additional side quest missions.
Conclusion
Trolls vs Vikings: Reborn is a fun Plants vs Zombies clone, albeit somewhat rough around the edges and a bit monotonous. While that may sound bad, it’s actually still rather entertaining to zone out with. While we didn’t care that much for the higher difficulty modes, we can imagine completionists wanting to try every difficulty level available. When doing so, you’ll find a very affordable tower defense game with interesting characters and solid gameplay mechanics. We just wished it was polished a bit more.
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