Troll Patrol is a heavenly mix of an RPG with Match-3 mechanics

Sometimes picking up a new indie game release on a whim turns into a new love and that's very much the case with Troll Patrol. Note: this was a personal purchase.

Mixing together Match-3 game mechanics with an RPG isn't anything new, in fact it's likely the developer
Philippe Schober was directly inspired by a much older game named Dungeon Raid which seems to have vanished. The idea is that you're defending against vicious humans, as you fight off waves in a Match-3 game of puzzle and strategy. Match potion tiles to heal, sword tiles to boost your attack, shields to gain some block and more. There's a genuinely surprising amount of content included.

It reminds me of a simpler time, when I was completely sucked in by the first time I ever found Candy Crush on Android years ago. Only this time I'm hooked into the Linux release and it's not trying to get me to spend any more monies since this is a proper PC version. Matching through enemy tiles, gathering enough coin to buy some better armour or weapons, defeating bosses and upgrading my cave—it has it all.

The different enemy types certainly make the combat and challenge of it interesting. They all have different behaviours and abilities. Some can move multiple spaces each turn and poison your potions, some will explode and deal huge damage after a few turns and more. Each has a powerful boss version you need to defeat before you see them as regular enemies too. They really do make it quite tough at times and it's up to you to get them into the position you need to deal a death-blow by matching lots of sword attack tiles into them. There's even some random events thrown in where you need to make choices.

Feature Highlight:

• Over 50 unlockable types of enemies
• 6 unlockable weapon types
• 5 unlockable playable classes
• Endless waves of enemies
• Over 50 active and passive skills and powerups
• Over 40 event cards with multiple choices and outcomes
• Over 15 quests to choose from
• Improve your cave for permanent bonuses
• Leaderboards and Achievements

Admittedly, picking up Troll Patrol wasn't entirely random. When going over new releases, the system requirements caught my eye which I joked about on Twitter because you very rarely see something explained for Linux like this:

Slightly odd but nice to know it's obviously been through some testing. Works great anyway on Manjaro KDE and it's become a personal favourite. I would be perfectly happy to sit here all day matching away with it.

You can pick up Troll Patrol on Steam. It's 10% off until June 29 and even without a discount it's less than £5.