Among the various genres that have been (for the most part) trampled by the march of gaming history lies the side-scrolling platformer. Much like the adventure game, this once proud breed has been reduced to indie titles, flash games and minor releases. However, occasionally a game comes along that tries to breathe new life into the genre. One such game is Trine, available for the PC and PS3.
The setting and the plot is vague, likely on purpose. The unspecific story of a kingdom overrun by the undead, ancient guardians and powerful artifacts won't win any awards, but it is unobtrusive and in nicely narrated. It's obvious that it's there just because something has to be. It tells the story of three unwilling heroes whose souls get bound together by the Trine, one of the three ancient artifacts that once protected the kingdom. Finding themselves in a strange kind of existential schizophrenia in which only one of the three people can manifest at any one time, they embark on a quest to find out what's wrong in the Realm and maybe untangle themselves from the mess they're in.
The basic gameplay revolves around three characters and their various abilities. The Knight is a straightforward basher who can use his shield to protect from attacks and environmental hazards, and later on smash stuff with a large hammer. The Thief has a small assortment of bow attacks and can swing around using a grappling hook. Finally, the Wizard can use telekinesis to move objects around and cojure boxes, planks and platforms out of thin air. As mentioned before, only one character is active at any given time, but you can freely switch from one to the other. For instance, you can use the Thief's grappling hook to swing across a chasm and then switch to the Knight in mid air to smash the skeleton on the platform bellow.
The game has a simple RPG-style advancement system. As your characters gather experience by killing enemies and exploring the environment they'll recieve skill points that allow them to improve their various skills. Firing more arrows, conjuring more objects, doing more damage, etc. Also, throughout the game you'll find treasure chests containing useful items. Some of these will be easy to reach and will unlock core abilites for each of the characters, while others will be well hidden and reward the exploring players with special items. These can be freely traded between characters and give bonuses to health and energy regeneration, damage reduction and other minor bonuses. Of all this, you'll only really need the chests that unlock the core skills, but the other things (skill points and items) will serve to make the game easier.
The game utilizes a fairly well done physics engine in which various puzzles will be presented. The fun part is that most puzzles don't have one single solution, but can be solved in a number of ways. For instance, you could use the knoght's shield to protect from Fireballs, or you could use the Wizard to conjure objects to block the fire. You could excecute a series of well timed jumps on narrow platforms to with the Thief, or you could conjure a stack of boxes and climb to the safe and easy path above. You can even break the puzzles somewhat at times by jamming stuff where it's not supposed to be, but it's all fair game. A degree of imagination is required and the game will not hold your hand through it.
The difficulty is somewhat on the hard side. While rarely requiring lightning-fast reflexes, there's plenty of trial and error, as well as quite a bit of extra error due to the finicky controls. Enemies are relentless and can quickly drop your characters. There's a fair share of fatal drops and it's even possible to break some puzzles in such a way that they actually become harder (granted, you have to become more creative at this point). There's no permanent penalty and you can't "die". At worst you'll get knocked back to the last checkpoint. All in all, it's a nice challenge with occasional bouts of frustration.
Visually, the game is stunning. The graphics are well crafted and the design is superb and colorful. From dank dungeons, through ruined castles to enchanted forests, it's simply pleasurable to look at the game. It's not too much of a hardware hog, so I'm sure most people will be able to run it.
It's not particularly long, clocking in at under 10 hours, but it in this case it's for the best, since it might overstay its welcome and make the entire thing more of a chore.
However, there are some downsides to the game...
First of all, character usefulness. Wizard trumps all. He's the best equipped to counter the various puzzles and traps. In fact, if you're stuck you can likely solve your problem by conjuring and stacking boxes. Somewhere. The Knight is mandatory to dispatch the waves of Undead and does so quite competently. However, the Thief is just not that needed, especially early on. She can't fight well until fully upgraded and her only special skill is the grappling hook which is often made redundant by the various Wizard skills. Later on in the game, the becomes more valuable, but still lags behind.
Second, the controls are at times unresponsive and sluggish. I played on the keyboard and there's nothing in the control scheme that would require a controler. It's nothing major, just a number of small annoyances that add up. Precise jumps onto small platforms are tricky, the Knight needs a second or two to raise his shield while fighting (usually a second too late), levitating objects can be tricky, etc.
Third, while the required experimentation is one of the game's strong points, I can see how it might turn some players off. Since there's no one solution, there's also often no obvious solution. Also, some minor mechanics depend on you stumbling on them. For instance, the Thief can (with a bit of practice) grapple and then jump on platforms. This is tricky to perform and I discovered it by accident. Also, the boxes conjured by the Wizard can be freely impaled on spike traps and neutralize them that way (and provide handy platforms as well).
Fourth, the game insists on throwing waves of respawning enemies at you, especially later on. These are just plain annoying and serve no other purpose than to detract from the fun parts of the game. A slight reduction in the respawn counter for many enemies would be welcome indeed and make the game more fun.
Fifth, the price. The game costs a solid 30$ on Steam. While the game is good, I'm not convinced that it's particularly good value for money. To make the matters worse, the PS3 version is 10$ cheaper, for no apparent reason. Basically, I'd suggest waiting for a price drop on the PC.
Finally, I'd like to mention the co-op mode. I haven't mentioned it before because I didn't have a chance to test it, but it deserves a few words. Up to three players can play together, controling multiple characters in what somewhat resembles a multiplayer version of The Lost Vikings. The game changes somewhat since you need to get all three characters through the various challenges instead of just using the most convenient one for the situation. Also, the co-op mode is buried in the game's options screen (under controller settings), so some people might well enough miss it. And you'll likely need controlers for the co-op, since you can't share a mouse
Overall, Trine is a good game. Assuming the price drops a bit I'd reccomend it to just about anyone, but especially to old-school gamers who miss the platformers of their youth. It's a thoroughly enjoyable experince, if a bit short. For those of you who like numeric grades, let's say a 8/10 would do nicely.
The setting and the plot is vague, likely on purpose. The unspecific story of a kingdom overrun by the undead, ancient guardians and powerful artifacts won't win any awards, but it is unobtrusive and in nicely narrated. It's obvious that it's there just because something has to be. It tells the story of three unwilling heroes whose souls get bound together by the Trine, one of the three ancient artifacts that once protected the kingdom. Finding themselves in a strange kind of existential schizophrenia in which only one of the three people can manifest at any one time, they embark on a quest to find out what's wrong in the Realm and maybe untangle themselves from the mess they're in.
The basic gameplay revolves around three characters and their various abilities. The Knight is a straightforward basher who can use his shield to protect from attacks and environmental hazards, and later on smash stuff with a large hammer. The Thief has a small assortment of bow attacks and can swing around using a grappling hook. Finally, the Wizard can use telekinesis to move objects around and cojure boxes, planks and platforms out of thin air. As mentioned before, only one character is active at any given time, but you can freely switch from one to the other. For instance, you can use the Thief's grappling hook to swing across a chasm and then switch to the Knight in mid air to smash the skeleton on the platform bellow.
The game has a simple RPG-style advancement system. As your characters gather experience by killing enemies and exploring the environment they'll recieve skill points that allow them to improve their various skills. Firing more arrows, conjuring more objects, doing more damage, etc. Also, throughout the game you'll find treasure chests containing useful items. Some of these will be easy to reach and will unlock core abilites for each of the characters, while others will be well hidden and reward the exploring players with special items. These can be freely traded between characters and give bonuses to health and energy regeneration, damage reduction and other minor bonuses. Of all this, you'll only really need the chests that unlock the core skills, but the other things (skill points and items) will serve to make the game easier.
The game utilizes a fairly well done physics engine in which various puzzles will be presented. The fun part is that most puzzles don't have one single solution, but can be solved in a number of ways. For instance, you could use the knoght's shield to protect from Fireballs, or you could use the Wizard to conjure objects to block the fire. You could excecute a series of well timed jumps on narrow platforms to with the Thief, or you could conjure a stack of boxes and climb to the safe and easy path above. You can even break the puzzles somewhat at times by jamming stuff where it's not supposed to be, but it's all fair game. A degree of imagination is required and the game will not hold your hand through it.
The difficulty is somewhat on the hard side. While rarely requiring lightning-fast reflexes, there's plenty of trial and error, as well as quite a bit of extra error due to the finicky controls. Enemies are relentless and can quickly drop your characters. There's a fair share of fatal drops and it's even possible to break some puzzles in such a way that they actually become harder (granted, you have to become more creative at this point). There's no permanent penalty and you can't "die". At worst you'll get knocked back to the last checkpoint. All in all, it's a nice challenge with occasional bouts of frustration.
Visually, the game is stunning. The graphics are well crafted and the design is superb and colorful. From dank dungeons, through ruined castles to enchanted forests, it's simply pleasurable to look at the game. It's not too much of a hardware hog, so I'm sure most people will be able to run it.
It's not particularly long, clocking in at under 10 hours, but it in this case it's for the best, since it might overstay its welcome and make the entire thing more of a chore.
However, there are some downsides to the game...
First of all, character usefulness. Wizard trumps all. He's the best equipped to counter the various puzzles and traps. In fact, if you're stuck you can likely solve your problem by conjuring and stacking boxes. Somewhere. The Knight is mandatory to dispatch the waves of Undead and does so quite competently. However, the Thief is just not that needed, especially early on. She can't fight well until fully upgraded and her only special skill is the grappling hook which is often made redundant by the various Wizard skills. Later on in the game, the becomes more valuable, but still lags behind.
Second, the controls are at times unresponsive and sluggish. I played on the keyboard and there's nothing in the control scheme that would require a controler. It's nothing major, just a number of small annoyances that add up. Precise jumps onto small platforms are tricky, the Knight needs a second or two to raise his shield while fighting (usually a second too late), levitating objects can be tricky, etc.
Third, while the required experimentation is one of the game's strong points, I can see how it might turn some players off. Since there's no one solution, there's also often no obvious solution. Also, some minor mechanics depend on you stumbling on them. For instance, the Thief can (with a bit of practice) grapple and then jump on platforms. This is tricky to perform and I discovered it by accident. Also, the boxes conjured by the Wizard can be freely impaled on spike traps and neutralize them that way (and provide handy platforms as well).
Fourth, the game insists on throwing waves of respawning enemies at you, especially later on. These are just plain annoying and serve no other purpose than to detract from the fun parts of the game. A slight reduction in the respawn counter for many enemies would be welcome indeed and make the game more fun.
Fifth, the price. The game costs a solid 30$ on Steam. While the game is good, I'm not convinced that it's particularly good value for money. To make the matters worse, the PS3 version is 10$ cheaper, for no apparent reason. Basically, I'd suggest waiting for a price drop on the PC.
Finally, I'd like to mention the co-op mode. I haven't mentioned it before because I didn't have a chance to test it, but it deserves a few words. Up to three players can play together, controling multiple characters in what somewhat resembles a multiplayer version of The Lost Vikings. The game changes somewhat since you need to get all three characters through the various challenges instead of just using the most convenient one for the situation. Also, the co-op mode is buried in the game's options screen (under controller settings), so some people might well enough miss it. And you'll likely need controlers for the co-op, since you can't share a mouse
Overall, Trine is a good game. Assuming the price drops a bit I'd reccomend it to just about anyone, but especially to old-school gamers who miss the platformers of their youth. It's a thoroughly enjoyable experince, if a bit short. For those of you who like numeric grades, let's say a 8/10 would do nicely.
