Troll and I trailer showcases asymmetrical gameplay in the Scandanavian countryside

A new Troll and I trailer showcases some of the core gameplay elements in the upcoming tale of a boy and his giant, dreadlocked, and incredibly dangerous monster.

Troll and I is set in the Scandanavian countryside in the 1950s, where people for some reason believe in the existence of a mythical, dangerous troll who inhabits the area. A local rich guy decides he wants to capture the beast, presumably to put it on some kind of King Kong-style public exhibit—although he's not too picky about whether it's taken dead or alive. Naturally, the goon squad he hires is firmly in the "do it dead" camp, and so their ham-fisted efforts split the Earth open, unleashing an army of Orcs who aren't as excited as you might think about the prospect of making new friends.

Amidst all the excitement, a young boy named Otto meets a huge monster named Troll, and together they set off to clean up the mess. Troll is a huge beast who can soak up, and dish out, massive amounts of damage, while Otto is a quick, agile stealth-meister with the ability to craft various types of weapons. Characters can be switched "seamlessly, on the fly," or controlled together, with Otto riding on Troll's shoulder.

One of Troll and I's biggest features—"the best thing" about it, according to producer Andrew Nguyen—is the split-screen "couch co-op" mode, which lets two players work together through the entire adventure. It's a mode that occasionally gets left out of PC releases—Resident Evil Revelations 2 and Star Wars: Battlefront are a couple of high-profile examples that leap to mind—but publisher Maximum Games confirmed that split-screen co-op will be supported on the PC at launch.

Troll and I is scheduled for release on March 21. Find out more at the Maximum Games website.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.