Reviews// The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes

Four Swords Adventures was designed so that players would be sitting together in the same room as they took part in missions. With Tri Force Heroes, Nintendo has embraced aspects of online multiplayer to the extent that it is clear that the game has been designed with the expectation that the majority of play will be undertaken between people who are not in the same physical location. As this is a Nintendo game, voice chat is not available. For a game that relies so heavily on cooperation I was intrigued as to how they had solved this problem.

The solution is functional and generally works quite well. On the bottom screen the player is presented with a row of icons that, when tapped, will send a message to the other players in the group. These range from ‘over here,’ to ‘item,’ ‘throw’ or ‘totem.’ The number of possible messages is limited, but there are just enough to make communication reasonably efficient. Overall, the effectiveness of a team is more related to the extent to which they are on the same wavelength. This brings me to the not-inconsiderable issues that there are with multiplayer.

Upon starting a session, players are asked whether they would like to play with random people or friends. A connection is then made and the game matches the player up with either two friends or two random players from across the world. Over the time I played online I had a decidedly mixed experience. Although there is no voice chat it is perfectly possible for other players to act in an obnoxious way, either by deliberately obstructing progress or by ignoring the rest of the team.

Another problem is that quite often if puzzles are tough players will drop out, which ends the game for everyone else. This is particularly frustrating, especially when a mission is close to its conclusion. In addition, there are often quite considerable problems with lag and some games I attempted became unplayable. Initially, I thought that this was probably because I was playing with people far away, but the game suffered the same problems when playing with friends in neighbouring cities. Perhaps this will be fixed with future patches, but as it stands it can seriously limit enjoyment.

There is one final aspect of the game that I have yet to touch on that I have been dreading addressing - the single-player portion of the game. As the game has been designed primarily as a multiplayer experience, the inclusion of single-player does feel like a bit of an afterthought. The extent to which this is true became apparent to me after a few hours of play which ended in extreme frustration.

In single-player the part of the other two players is played by ‘doppels’ that the player can also control by tapping between them on the bottom screen. The player is then expected to move each ‘doppel’ either individually or as part of the totem to solve the same puzzles as in the multiplayer portion of the game. Selecting doppels by tapping on them is extremely frustrating and solving puzzles often becomes both time consuming and irritating. Combat in particular is a nightmare using this system, as precision is lost and confusion reigns.

I would strongly advice anyone who is considering buying the game to play alone to reconsider, as the way in which gameplay is executed in this mode is woeful. It would have perhaps been better for Nintendo to have introduced single-player as a kind of training mode, rather than allowing the player to tackle the whole game alone.

The sad thing is that when Tri Force Heroes clicks it is extremely enjoyable. When the connection holds up and players work together it provides an amazing sense of achievement. However, the times when this happens are sadly too few. I found myself wondering whether Nintendo had chosen the wrong platform for the game. A Wii U release, even if it had been limited to two players, one on the TV, another on the gamepad, may have provided a more consistent experience.

Zelda may traditionally work best as a solitary experience, but multiplayer can still provide tremendous fun. There’s a lot of content in Tri Force Heroes, but the way in which multiplayer works provides a barrier that prevents full enjoyment of the game, and the single-player mode deserves to be ignored. There is certainly potential here and I hope that this is not the last multiplayer Zelda game we see, as the formula does work. It may, however, be better suited to a different platform that does not rely so heavily on Nintendo’s online expertise.

Pros:
+ An amazing amount of content.
+ Costume collection provides depth.
+ Multiplayer, when it works, is highly enjoyable.

Cons:
- Connection problems damage online.
- Will the online community stick around?
- Single player is less fun than the Bed of Chaos.


SPOnG Score: 6/10