Developed by Thunkd and published by AMC’s gaming division, AMD Games, The Magnificent Trufflepigs is a tale of two friends going over their childhood memories as they find various items on an abandoned farm soon to be converted into a solar field for a major corporation. The Magnificent Trufflepigs is certainly a unique title and is great for escaping from the world of highly challenging and eye-straining video games of today. This is our review of The Magnificent Trufflepigs in which we dust out our metal detector and dig out some childhood memories hidden on a huge farm.
The story of The Magnificent Trufflepigs follows Adam, a friend of a girl named Beth, who gets called to an abandoned farm in order to look for an earring that she thinks is present on the farm. Beth already has the other earring however she wants to find the other one. The timing of this visit is a rushed one as the owner of the farm died and a nearby solar company plans to take over the farm, demolish it and convert it into a solar energy production field for the town. When I first started the game, there was a long chat between Beth and her friend when Beth arrives on the farm and my initial impressions were that I will be playing as Beth in the game however when the gameplay started, I was Adam, an old friend of Beth whom she called over for help.
If you ignore the story of The Magnificent Trufflepigs, it is a metal detecting game. Your main task in the game is to use the metal detector provided to you and use it to scan various fields of the farm in order to find various objects hidden in them. Beth used to visit this farm when she was little and she had been doing this metal detector work for a long time in her childhood as well so over the years that she did not come here, the farm is now filled with various items of Beth’s childhood and other people she knew in her childhood including her family and relatives.
The story of The Magnificent Trufflepigs is told through the dialogue that Adam and Beth have with each other You will either chat with her during your lunch breaks directly or every time you find an item. You both are in contact over the cell phone and a pair of walkie-talkies. The gameplay plays in a cycle where you first scan the ground, if you find anything, you take a picture with your cellphone and send it to Beth with a small comment. If there is a dialogue associated with it, you then take out your walkie-talkie and a hefty dialogue follows in which either you two discuss the item or Beth shares a background story about that item.
In order to find various items, you have a bar at the top of the screen that detects and alerts you about the potential location of that item, you then have to pinpoint its exact location using your metal detector. The gameplay is really simple and there is literally no learning curve. Every day is unique in the game and brings something new to the game. You also get a new field for every day, so it keeps things fresh. However, the game is not that long and the story is rather short. It ends suddenly however the ending is rather a major twist of the game and is definitely worth finding out on your own.
The Magnificent Trufflepigs is basically a story that has a unique way of introducing gameplay in it in the form of a metal detecting mechanic. The surroundings in the game are beautiful and despite you being stuck looking at the ground for most of the time in the game, if you actually stop for a while and look around, you will notice some really cool details about the world around you. Sometimes Beth is currently working so she will need to leave you alone at the farm as well as she heads back to her office in order to deal with some urgent work. Only the first day is somewhat uneventful but as you progress in the main story, you will find something happening in the game out of the regular. Apart from finding various items, you will also take pictures of various scenes around the farm, take their pictures, and discuss them with Beth as well which expands on their relationship and tells you something about the farm’s history.
With minimalistic games like The Magnificent Trufflepigs, the developer really has to make sure that other elements are really well such as the art style, soundtrack, and visuals to appeal to players and The Magnificent Trufflepigs does not disappoint in any of these departments. The farm is located on a hill that is surrounded by vast, beautiful fields and rolling hills across them. The visuals are not that highly detailed as you would expect however everything really suits well and fits the overall theme of the visuals. The days are colorful, despite having just two people talking with each other, the world around shows you signs of life such as a hot air balloon passing over the farm or a helicopter flying over.
Things like these do not matter much to your own gameplay however they show that Beth and Adam are not just two AI voices talking with each other on an empty farm but there are other people in the town as well and you can see them going about their lives as they move around you. While there are no actual characters in the game, even Beth and Adam are just voices and no character face or body is actually shown, the world still feels alive around you as you go around scanning the ground with your metal detector and digging out various objects of interest.
The soundtrack of The Magnificent Trufflepigs is not too heavy on the ears and is pretty soothing to hear in the background as you go around digging stuff out. This is actually good because since The Magnificent Trufflepigs is a dialogue-heavy title, the soundtrack never interferes with the dialogue so it fits perfectly in the background, and you can listen to it when you are not speaking with Beth. There are no technical glitches or issues with the game however I did notice that when the flock of birds gets in the background and a little far from us, they turn into a flock of black pixels which was a little bit annoying to look at. Other than that, the game seems to be in pretty good condition.
Final Verdict:
The Magnificent Trufflepigs is a unique game and features a mechanic which I never thought I will be using in a video game as a primary mechanic. The idea of sending you to a farm for spending your time using a metal detector in order to find new items and getting to the end of a touching story is certainly something that you would not have thought about. For what it is worth, the story is decent, and I had a good time with the game’s soothing gameplay and no pressure-metal-detecting. If you are looking for something that is really peaceful to play with no real challenges and just want to wind down after a tough day, The Magnificent Trufflepigs is the right game for you.
Final Score: 7.5/10
