Trine 2 isn't receiving many reviews and it's not getting any attention here at the Escapist and that's a damn shame for such a great game, so I'll start myself.
I always start with the conclusion and then go in further detail, because that makes an easier read.
Conclusion: if you have any interest in platformers or puzzle games, you should buy Trine 2
Summary
1. Trine 2 is: a 2D platformer with physics based puzzles
2. as a sequel: this game greatly improves on Trine 1, the most important things are better puzzles and more varied combat and bosses
3. gameplay: the emphasis here is on solving puzzles, reflexes are important in some encounters
4. replay: very little replay value; it's short, but then it's also cheap
5. sound: the music is generic fantasy stuff: appropriate and forgetable, but the VOs and sound effects are fine
6. gfx: it looks absolutely gorgeous and not just for an indie game, T2 is just that pretty in a cutesy, shiny way
Gameplay and comparisons to the original game
To get a good look at the game, I completed Trine 2 on Hard difficulty and with the hints disabled.
Just to make this very clear, while the graphics in Trine 2 are 3D, the jumping, running and shooting is all done in 2 dimensions.
Personally I love this, because 2D platformers give you a much better overview than their modern 3D counterpart. For Trine 2 this is especially welcome because puzzle contraptions can be quite large in the game.
The game is played with the same 3 old archetypes from Trine 2, the wizard, the thief and the warrior, in both singleplayer and multiplayer.
In singleplayer you switch/transform between the 3 characters at any time (except during the prologue/tutorial).
The party begins the game without experience. The wizard, thief and warrior all have different unlockable skills and beside trying to get through the levels alive, the secondary goal is to collect as much experience (stored in blue vials and globes) as possible.
So Trine 2 has RPG elements, but don't expect much of a story though, it's linear and completely forgetable. This is all about gameplay.
So what do we have then? There's the thief who can wall jump a little higher and shoot rope arrows in wooden surfaces to climb up and to swing the rope. Arrows can be upgraded to freeze enemies, or to set wooden items on fire or to explode.
Her skills are vital for getting around, for manipulating the environment at a distance (commonly wall buttons and explosive barrels) and she's very useful in combat.
Controlling the thief is very smooth with mouse aiming + WASD movement. She's mostly unchanged from the first game. An unlockable stealth skill has been added, which doesn't play a big role.
The wizard has received a big nerf in the puzzle department, but has at the same been made a little more useful in combat. The player can make the wizard conjure cubes and planks into existance by drawing them on screen with the mouse, but gone are the gravity defying triangles that made the original game so easy to solve. With that gamebreaker out of the way, the designers have managed to come up with better puzzles.
Building structures with the wizard is very useful for getting to hard to reach experience vials, so upgrading the number of objects the wizard can have summoned at any time, from one up to four, has high priority. The wizard can also learn to levitate and move monsters this time, which makes him a little more useful against small groups of enemies than in the original. Dropping heavy objects (usually conjured planks for expediency) on enemies still works also, but monsters have become tougher in this game and may require more than one attempt.
The most important change here is that the wizard isn't limited by mana reserves anymore, so players are free to fool around with the spells as much as they like this time round. Stacking can be a little clumsy within the game's physics engine, but unlimited spells alleviates that issue.
The warrior is used most for his shield ability. The shield can be held in any direction, even downwards, while making jumps, and this is used to survive paths that are bombarded by projectiles.
This time round, the warrior does have a real role in the puzzle solving parts, but this is mostly due to destructable obstacles placed within the levels. His hammer can be upgraded to be thrown for this purpose. It's simple, but also satisfying with mouse aiming.
Killing monsters with the warrior usually involves holding block when attacked and then countering with repeated attacks. It works, but it's nothing special. The warrior isn't better than the thief in combat and giving up the faster range attacks for a warrior with a shield is a tradeoff.
Overal I reckon making all 3 classes useful, but different in both puzzle and combat situations is a good improvement over the original.
It would not have much difference if the level and monster design hadn't been improved though. Gone are the bats and skeletons minions from the old game and have been replaced with more varied mobs. The pesky flyers are gone completely and good riddance. Mooks generally come in the grunt, archer and shield variety, with the archers best engaged at range by the thief and the shields being most vulnerable to a warrior charge ability.
Then there's giant spiders and fire mages and crabs, but the most important upgrade are the bosses. Bosses finally amount to anything. In combination with smaller guards, bosses require some reflexes and figuring out their pattern.
I still wouldn't rate the game as hard though, because of the checkpoint system.
Checkpoints are everywhere and if there is one blemish on Trine 2, this is it. Checkpoints revive dead characters and restore everyone to 50% health when a character comes close and the designers placed the checkpoints inside arenas, making relatively tricky fights, way too easy.
A shame really, because the fights are fun when you're not abusing infinite health drops and lives.
The main course then is solving the puzzles. Fluids, air flow and pipes have been added on top of the basic gravity simulation.
Alot of puzzles still involve seasaws and getting vials to drop from high places.
New are the air vents that are used to levitate objects and make high jumps and pipes and bends can be attached to change the direction of the flow. Sometimes burning gasses or acids or water are released. By themselves these new elements are simple.
The better puzzles in Trine 2 are usually complicated by machinery operating on timers. Cogs often exist to jam with loose objects.
Also new are the magical portals, which work like the portals in Portal and can often be moved through levers. So let's compare the challenge to Portal. Solving the puzzles to get to the end of a level is easier here than in Portal, but getting all the optional stuff is harder.
The game is short. I beat it in one short weekend. I don't consider this a bad thing, because it's also very cheap(on Steam) and the game doesn't outstay it's welcome this way.
A completionist could get some replay out of Trine 2 by solving all the optional puzzles (which involves getting to chests and vials in hard to reach spots) and finding all the secret areas.
If I could change one thing in Trine 2, I would remove the abuseable checkpoints in some areas.
I'm recommending this game because it's a different kind of fun from the usual triple-A fare. This is a good game from a small developer. I wouldn't consider them proper indie (published by ATLUS), but Frozenbyte still deserve support. Even big studios rarely make something this fun.
I always start with the conclusion and then go in further detail, because that makes an easier read.
Conclusion: if you have any interest in platformers or puzzle games, you should buy Trine 2
Summary
1. Trine 2 is: a 2D platformer with physics based puzzles
2. as a sequel: this game greatly improves on Trine 1, the most important things are better puzzles and more varied combat and bosses
3. gameplay: the emphasis here is on solving puzzles, reflexes are important in some encounters
4. replay: very little replay value; it's short, but then it's also cheap
5. sound: the music is generic fantasy stuff: appropriate and forgetable, but the VOs and sound effects are fine
6. gfx: it looks absolutely gorgeous and not just for an indie game, T2 is just that pretty in a cutesy, shiny way
Gameplay and comparisons to the original game
To get a good look at the game, I completed Trine 2 on Hard difficulty and with the hints disabled.
Just to make this very clear, while the graphics in Trine 2 are 3D, the jumping, running and shooting is all done in 2 dimensions.
Personally I love this, because 2D platformers give you a much better overview than their modern 3D counterpart. For Trine 2 this is especially welcome because puzzle contraptions can be quite large in the game.
The game is played with the same 3 old archetypes from Trine 2, the wizard, the thief and the warrior, in both singleplayer and multiplayer.
In singleplayer you switch/transform between the 3 characters at any time (except during the prologue/tutorial).
The party begins the game without experience. The wizard, thief and warrior all have different unlockable skills and beside trying to get through the levels alive, the secondary goal is to collect as much experience (stored in blue vials and globes) as possible.
So Trine 2 has RPG elements, but don't expect much of a story though, it's linear and completely forgetable. This is all about gameplay.
So what do we have then? There's the thief who can wall jump a little higher and shoot rope arrows in wooden surfaces to climb up and to swing the rope. Arrows can be upgraded to freeze enemies, or to set wooden items on fire or to explode.
Her skills are vital for getting around, for manipulating the environment at a distance (commonly wall buttons and explosive barrels) and she's very useful in combat.
Controlling the thief is very smooth with mouse aiming + WASD movement. She's mostly unchanged from the first game. An unlockable stealth skill has been added, which doesn't play a big role.
The wizard has received a big nerf in the puzzle department, but has at the same been made a little more useful in combat. The player can make the wizard conjure cubes and planks into existance by drawing them on screen with the mouse, but gone are the gravity defying triangles that made the original game so easy to solve. With that gamebreaker out of the way, the designers have managed to come up with better puzzles.
Building structures with the wizard is very useful for getting to hard to reach experience vials, so upgrading the number of objects the wizard can have summoned at any time, from one up to four, has high priority. The wizard can also learn to levitate and move monsters this time, which makes him a little more useful against small groups of enemies than in the original. Dropping heavy objects (usually conjured planks for expediency) on enemies still works also, but monsters have become tougher in this game and may require more than one attempt.
The most important change here is that the wizard isn't limited by mana reserves anymore, so players are free to fool around with the spells as much as they like this time round. Stacking can be a little clumsy within the game's physics engine, but unlimited spells alleviates that issue.
The warrior is used most for his shield ability. The shield can be held in any direction, even downwards, while making jumps, and this is used to survive paths that are bombarded by projectiles.
This time round, the warrior does have a real role in the puzzle solving parts, but this is mostly due to destructable obstacles placed within the levels. His hammer can be upgraded to be thrown for this purpose. It's simple, but also satisfying with mouse aiming.
Killing monsters with the warrior usually involves holding block when attacked and then countering with repeated attacks. It works, but it's nothing special. The warrior isn't better than the thief in combat and giving up the faster range attacks for a warrior with a shield is a tradeoff.
Overal I reckon making all 3 classes useful, but different in both puzzle and combat situations is a good improvement over the original.
It would not have much difference if the level and monster design hadn't been improved though. Gone are the bats and skeletons minions from the old game and have been replaced with more varied mobs. The pesky flyers are gone completely and good riddance. Mooks generally come in the grunt, archer and shield variety, with the archers best engaged at range by the thief and the shields being most vulnerable to a warrior charge ability.
Then there's giant spiders and fire mages and crabs, but the most important upgrade are the bosses. Bosses finally amount to anything. In combination with smaller guards, bosses require some reflexes and figuring out their pattern.
I still wouldn't rate the game as hard though, because of the checkpoint system.
Checkpoints are everywhere and if there is one blemish on Trine 2, this is it. Checkpoints revive dead characters and restore everyone to 50% health when a character comes close and the designers placed the checkpoints inside arenas, making relatively tricky fights, way too easy.
A shame really, because the fights are fun when you're not abusing infinite health drops and lives.
The main course then is solving the puzzles. Fluids, air flow and pipes have been added on top of the basic gravity simulation.
Alot of puzzles still involve seasaws and getting vials to drop from high places.
New are the air vents that are used to levitate objects and make high jumps and pipes and bends can be attached to change the direction of the flow. Sometimes burning gasses or acids or water are released. By themselves these new elements are simple.
The better puzzles in Trine 2 are usually complicated by machinery operating on timers. Cogs often exist to jam with loose objects.
Also new are the magical portals, which work like the portals in Portal and can often be moved through levers. So let's compare the challenge to Portal. Solving the puzzles to get to the end of a level is easier here than in Portal, but getting all the optional stuff is harder.
The game is short. I beat it in one short weekend. I don't consider this a bad thing, because it's also very cheap(on Steam) and the game doesn't outstay it's welcome this way.
A completionist could get some replay out of Trine 2 by solving all the optional puzzles (which involves getting to chests and vials in hard to reach spots) and finding all the secret areas.
If I could change one thing in Trine 2, I would remove the abuseable checkpoints in some areas.
I'm recommending this game because it's a different kind of fun from the usual triple-A fare. This is a good game from a small developer. I wouldn't consider them proper indie (published by ATLUS), but Frozenbyte still deserve support. Even big studios rarely make something this fun.