For the sadistic gamer in all of us, there's Trapt. For everyone else, there will always be other games.
In Trapt, the story begins in a tragic way. King Olaf visits his late wife's grave with his daughter and his new wife. At some point, the King is murdered and the Queen accuses Princess Allura of the murder. While the Queen sends the guards to capture the Princess, Rachel the maid comes to her aid and helps her escape. They flee into the forest and Rachel advises Allura to hide in an abandoned mansion while she distracts the guards.
All by herself now, Allura runs to the mansion where a demon awaits. Finding his visitor suitable, the demon possesses Allura, giving her the power to manipulate a number of traps so she can harvest the souls of those who choose to enter the mansion. Because as you can imagine, demons feed on souls.
If this intro seems lengthy, it's because it is. The long cutscenes are actually an annoyance throughout the game. Each time someone arrives to the mansion or each time you kill someone, you get a cutscene. But seeing as each "level" takes but a few minutes to complete, you can't help but think they get in the way of gameplay.
The voice acting is all done in Japanese, which isn't a bad thing, but places some of the fun in the "Engrish" subtitles. And I'm a sucker for Engrish...
But on with the gameplay, and of course, the traps. You have three types of traps that you can use: ceiling, floor and wall traps. You can only use one of each type in a room at any given time, though you can swap a trap with another of the same type as you go. Pausing the game lets you access the traps menu, where you can pick those available, assign them to a button and place them in the grid. You only start with a limited number of traps, but you can purchase more by using Warl (consider it the currency of the game) which you pick up from fallen enemies.
Setting the traps is not a difficult task, since the game itself shows you where you can place them and in which direction they will work. This is useful, since it allows you to plan trap combos, such as a spring floor that launches someone into a spiked wall, or a moving wall that will push someone right in front of a pendulum trap.
That is the first part of the game. The second part consists in actually activating the traps. To do so, you run around with Allura (now I see why the name wasn't kept Alicia, as you can clearly hear it in the Japanese voices) trying to lure those who are trying to capture you into your pre-set traps. Once they're in the range of a trap, press the corresponding button to activate it.
You can burn, maim, crush, slice and electrocute your pursuers to your heart's content! And in case you're wondering, no, it's not as gruesome as it may sound since the scenes are "graphically incorrect" (kind of like the Barbie and Ken dolls of violent accidents). But that is where the fun really is, in watching all these executions take place.
It's not as simple as it sounds though, since enemies have strengths and weaknesses, and they will be more resistant to some traps and more vulnerable to others. A small interesting detail is that every time you kill someone, they will utter some last words. The game also offers a sort of a post-mortem memorial, where each enemy's profile is displayed after their deaths.
Ultimately, Trapt mixes good doses of strategy and action in a unique type of gameplay that will lead you to think you're not such a nice person after all. Yes, because for the sadistic gamer in all of us, there's Trapt. For everyone else, there will always be other games.
Review text part of Grrlgamer.com
http://www.grrlgamer.com/review.php?g=trapt