Trine
Verdict: absolutely brilliant
In a Nutshell: This is one of the best side-scrolling platformers I’ve seen.
“Trine is a physics-based action game where three characters allow clever solutions to challenges created by hazardous puzzles and threatening enemies. The gameplay is based on fully interactive physics – each character’s different abilities and tactics can be used to invent new ways to overcome obstacles and save the kingdom!”
- Fun Rating: Really Fun
- ESRB: E10+
- Players/Mode: 1-3 player co-op / campaign
- Game Duration: 15-20 hours
- System: PC, PS3
- Developer: Frozenbyte
- Website: http://trine-thegame.com/site/index.php?page=home
- Cost: $19.99 on Steam and on the PSN
- Demo: from Frozenbyte, or find it on Steam
| Would I play this again? | Yes, as soon as I get a better system |
| Would I recommend this game? | Definitely |
| Was the story good? | Yes |
| Was the music good? | Yes |
| Were the graphics good? | Beautiful |
| Was this game difficult? | Appropriately |
| Was this game frustrating? | No |
| Was this game offensive? | No |
| Was this game worth your time/money? | Absolutely |
Playing the game
You start the game as three different characters; a wizard, a thief, and a knight. All of you reach a part of the artifact known as the Trine at the same time and all of the characters are merged into one. The numbers 1,2,3 select which character you want to use at any given time. Movement is with W-A-D (no S in this one) and the respective actions of each character are controlled with the mouse.
The actions are divided into primary with the left mouse button and secondary with the right. The wizard has a primary of summon and a secondary of levitation. For the thief, primary is fire the bow and secondary is use the grappling hook. The knight’s primary is his current weapon and the secondary is his shield. The thief and the knight will eventually gain more powerful items and those can be changed by using either the scroll wheel or the up and down arrows. The wizard is a bit more complicated as each summon spell requires you to use the cursor to make the shape of the object being summoned starting with a box, then a plank and a platform. (More on this below)
What the game gets right
Let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way first. This game is astoundingly beautiful in both the art and audio. The level of detail and thought put into the little things make each level a joy to explore. The difficulty of the enemies and jump puzzles increases steadily and keeps the levels just right all the way through. The story is full of cliches but counters with enough humor so that they add to the experience here.
OMG THE WIZARD HAS TO DO MORE THAN CLICK A BUTTON TO CAST A SPELL!!! This is probably the single most important part of this game that put it way up on my list of all time favorites and sets the bar for all games involving magic from here on out. The wizard gets two simple spells, box and plank, and one advanced one, the platform. You want to summon a box? You have to DRAW a box. You got baddies running at you? Summon a box over their stupid, ugly, not-resistant-to-heavy-things heads! And, as everyone should know, advanced magic is harder. Hence, the platform is tricky to control when you’re standing on top. Yeah, you read that right; you can summon a platform to stand on and levitate yourself to hard-to-reach places and it requires skill to do it. Is your mind blown yet?
What the game gets wrong
The only thing I can complain about is, since each level took me about an hour plus, not being able to save in the middle of a level was a minor frustration simply because of the time issue. If time were not an issue, I would have no problem restarting a level simply due to the amount of fun and the lovely art and sound.
And if I had to pick a second thing, it would be that the mutant lizard/turtle bosses don’t really seem to fit in with the other enemies which consist of skeletons, bats and spiders. The bosses fit in with the story, but seem a little out of place overall.
Sum it up
I’ve had this game sitting around since it came out and had started it at that time. I was immediately blown away with the first level of each character. So why did it take this long to finally play the game? You need a decent system to really run this game and I did not have one at the time (and still don’t). But since this is a fabulous game that I kept wanting to play, I finally decided to suffer through without as much beauty as this game can provide. I had to turn the graphics way down in order to get it in a playable state and the game still suffered from lag. And, if the game had not been as genius/beautiful/fun as it was, that would definitely have been a major deterrent to completing more than a couple of levels. All said, if you have something close to an up-to-date processor and graphics card, you should get this game as it is one more shining example of what independent studios can do that makes the big studios look like slackers.
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