Rating of
3/5
If at First You Don't Succeed, Trine, Trine Again
Chris Kavan - wrote on 02/01/12
Trine, for a downloadable game, gives you a decent experience for your hard-earned money. It manages to make the 2D platformer interesting again, if only because of the mechanics. If it wasn't for some highly questionable ending levels and a very squirrely camera, it would be a more recommended game.
Presentation
In the looks department, the game is quite good. Both character and level design share some good detail. While the characters don't change (aside from a few weapon changes) throughout the game, the chunky warrior, lithe thief and non-fireball wielding wizard are pretty much presented as well as they can be. The level designs are also well done from forests to village to dank castle - you can even go underwater (thought he warrior sinks like a stone). There's enough variety to make the short game at least look nice.
In the sound department both the voices and soundtrack are adequate if perfectly average. The cut-scenes, the few there are, are done nicely and the cast does a decent job. The music fits nicely with the game, but there is nothing there that particularly makes it stand out.
Story
Trine doesn't go into too much detail - our three heroes manage to find the titular artifact, which binds their souls. In order to free themselves they must bring together other parts of this artifact, and along the way they also manage to snuff out the pesky undead problem their kingdom is having. That means that all the enemies in the game are skeletons, with the occasional giant boney man thrown in for good measure. That also means you have to work together to conquer these levels.
Look - if you're looking for depth of character or story, you're barking up the wrong tree. They give you just enough to kind of care about your character and nothing more.
Gameplay
This is what Trine is all about. Luckily, it does things fairly well. Each of the characters has their strengths - the warrior is your physical power - he can destroy obstacles, smash enemies and block projectiles with his shield. If you unlock his hammer, he really becomes a massive hitter. He also absorbs the most damage. The thief is your swinging scout - she can shoot her bow and arrow, and light the way if she gets flaming arrows - plus she can grapple far and high with her hook. The magician has not true attack - he creates boxes, planks and floating platforms with magic. He can also levitate and move objects - he can use these to kill enemies, but it's not recommended as he is prone to dying.
In the one-player mode you can switch between characters, but when you sit down with friends, each takes over a character. It makes things interesting, but luckily there are spawn points liberally spread across levels so when you inevitably fall into some spikes or get killed by a random skeleton, life is never far away.
The game throws in a few twists too - you level up by either killing skeletons or finding somewhat hidden green vials. Other vials renew your health and magic as well - but it's the experience you want to find. These allow you to increase certain abilities - and you get more as you unlock weapons. These weapons, along with various items that increase health and magic or decrease damage, are also hidden in levels in treasure chests. This variety helps keep things moving along, and gives you something to keep an eye out for.
Yet the game suffers from two big flaws: first, for whatever reason, the designers must have decided the short game would benefit from an ending level that leaves you climbing vertically avoiding lava. If you're just playing single player, this might not be so bad, but with three people, the teeniest lapse will have you plummeting to your death. Over and over and over again. Heck, this was so FUN they made the DLC the same way!
The other big complaint is over the camera. For whatever reason, it always seems to focus on the character who will cause the most trouble, while leaving everyone else in the dark, or worse, simply killing them and making you repeat a large chunk of the level should someone decide to fall back or fall down - the camera will inevitably follow that character. The game sometimes allows characters left back to automatically spawn but it's very random. Worse, sometimes where all three characters die the game can't decide where you put you and the camera just decides to meander around until, hopefully, you spawn back in the right place.
Overall
Trine looks great and, aside from the final level, plays great. Like most downloadable games, it's a little too short for its own good - and the ending levels do nothing except leave a bitter taste. The camera issues also cause no end of trouble. It's enough to drop a solid 4 game a whole level. I would recommend playing this on your own first, then getting friends involved.
Presentation: 4/5
Story: 3/4
Gameplay: 3/5
Overall (Not an Average): 3/5
