Tryst

Tryst (by BlueGiant Interactive) can best be described as a copycat. It tries to go toe-to-toe against many other real-time strategy titles that are in the market these days. Besides its extravagant name, however, it has nothing to show for it.

The player assumes the role of Oliver Petrovich, a commander of the new regime within a recently built colony. The colony is quickly attacked during the game’s introduction by an alien force called the Zali for unknown reasons.  Thus, the game has the player go through different parts of the colony and try to recruit rebel forces to counter the Zali. During the campaign, a total of five missions are available, each one unlocked by completing the previous mission. Each of them last a total of an hour or so depending on player experience and abilities.

As you control Oliver, the game has you focus on building your troops while also attacking the enemy, much like any other RTS would have you do. In Tryst, a small difference is added, which is the concept of choice. Each mission gives the player tons of options, from either saving a group of medics that could heal up the team before a giant battle or a group of soldiers that would outright destroy the alien forces. It’s a method that’s far quicker than taking your time by dealing with the medic issue. These are just the basic decisions. As the player goes further into the game, the game grants the player many opportunities to play the game differently than their previous playthroughs. For example, players can either save and complete the mission quickly by attacking a Zali base or wait until reinforcements arrive.

Sadly, this is the extent of the campaign. Aside from the very quick base-building using engineers and going head on against the Zali forces by utilizing small forces can be enjoyable -- invigorating, even -- this can also be considered a downside. This is mostly because of the faulty AI, terrible graphics, and even worse, the soundtrack. Every troop -- from Oliver to the engineering class -- can be considered useless unless given instructions. Why? That’s because Tryst focuses on utilizing every troop that is available on the map, regardless of the position. Even though this might seem like a very nit-picky type of problem, it really isn't.

Most if not all the battles have the player split up their forces based on a party that is mainly used for attack, and one that is used for defense. The party that isn't selected and controlled during the moment can and will be butchered by the enemy AI. They won't even bother picking up their weapons to shoot at them.  And even though engineers can create sentries, they take a total of 10 hits before they die. What's worse is that engineers sometimes stop working on their projects for no reason whatsoever, and they must restart the project to finish it completely.

If that's not enough, Tryst is a prime example of a muddy game. Everything, from the character models, to the structures within the game and the graphics look hideous. It's all gray, black, and weirdly utilizes purple whenever it gets the chance to prove that it's trying something different. This is clearly seen from the game’s first cutscene. This is the same for the terrible soundtrack and voice acting. The voice work feels forced, and sometimes feels as if it was created utilizing text-to-voice software. Sadly, the soundtrack feels as if it's draining the life out of the players at times, giving boring and very much stereotypical energy gun noises, building bases, and terrible dialogue.

Multiplayer, however, is an additional concept to the game, but doesn't exactly make it better either. Tryst’s community doesn't truly exist. Most of the online setting up matches is faulty, and at times doesn't even bother doing its job in the first place. Even when the online match is going perfectly fine, sometimes one player leaving makes it impossible for that side to win. Sadly, the only way for the multiplayer to truly be an amazing experience is through buying four copies of the game and playing with your friends online.

Overall, Tryst can be summarized as a pathetic attempt. It's obvious from the start that Tryst acts like a cool title because of its name. However, digging deeper into the title, this is clearly not the case. Its campaign is worth a shot if you are truly a hardcore fan of RTS titles. However, the multiplayer, along with the terrible AI, as well as the graphics and soundtrack are atrocious and lack any taste. This can honestly easily be skipped for a better game like Paradox Interactive's Starvoid.

Zeeshan Sajid, NoobFeed.