“Okay, I’m through. Just switch to the thief and you can swing over the gap.”
“No, no, no, that would be uncivilised. Just give me a second and I’ll build a bridge from my boxes.”
*twiddles thumbs*
“Any moment now…”
“Alright, times up, I’ve been waiting for three minutes.”
*moves forward to the next section which teleports the wizard there*
“Heeeey, I was this close to making that bridge work!”
Trine is an enchanted, magical, mystical, charming puzzle platformer for one to three players.
Players control three fantasy archetypes: a knight wielding a sword and shield, a thief archer, and a wizard, who makes boxes (okay, the last one is a bit of an odd one out).
Each hero has pretty unique abilities that you can unlock as you level up your characters. The knight can pick up heavy objects and wield a storm hammer. The thief can fire fire arrows and has a grappling hook for swinging over chasms. Lastly, the wizard is probably the weirdest of them all. You would expect a wizard to be able to throw fireballs in combat, or have some strong crowd control abilities. But alas, this wizard can make boxes, planks, and floating platforms.
The story is, unfortunately, pretty weak. Something something undead army, somehow the main heroes meet at the Astral Academy, something something Trine. I had to google the actual story, but apparently the Trine is an artifact that binds souls and it happens to bind the three of them together so their mission is to free themselves. The character switching mechanism is introduced because only one of them can be outside of the artifact while the other two are stuck inside. However, I am not sure how the game reconciles this in the multiplayer game.
The game takes the players through a series of levels in different settings, like forests, fortresses, graveyards, caves, etc . You have to complete platforming puzzles, fight skeletons, and the occasional boss to progress.
The Good
Frozenbyte is the master of enchanted settings. We praised them in our Nine Parchments review and it is also true for Trine. The music is similarly great, the environments are beautiful, the atmosphere is just so magical and enchanted that you can’t help but like it.
The wizard is probably the most unique idea of Trine. The physics engine works beautifully, allowing you to experiment with contraptions, and really try to push the boundaries of what you can do with three boxes and two planks. It is also funny that the wizard’s greatest dream is to learn how to cast a fireball.
The engine of the game is very tight. You only have a handful of abilities to play with and it is really up to you how you solve the puzzles. Sometimes our solutions felt like cheating, but then I believe that is part of the game.
For example, there are these hanging spiky balls in the game, and it can be annoying to jump around them and they do quite a lot of damage if you bump into them. However, the wizard can make a loop using their chains across the beam they are hanging on, so that they won’t reach the players and you can just walk under them. The game never says you can do it, but it doesn’t say you can’t either.
The Bad
There is only one and I do mean just one type of enemy: skeletons. They are not a challenge, just a nuisance you have to get through, which gets boring quite quickly.
The combat in general is very weak, and it is doubly true for the boss fights, especially the last one.
This one is a bit nitpicky, but when we restarted the game to refresh our memories we were surprised that it didn’t reset our characters. Why anyone would want to play it through again on a higher difficulty is anyone’s guess.
From an immersion standpoint it is really unfortunate how you can just swap characters at any time. For example, you can solve a lot of puzzles by using the thief’s grappling hook, and then switch so the other player can also clamber up. You need a dedicated partner who sticks to their wizarding ways to keep the challenge going.
The Co-Op
The puzzles are interesting to figure out together. You also level up your versions of the three heroes separately, so for example my wizard was much cooler than my partner’s, while his knight knew a lot more stuff than mine.
The combat is terrible though, especially with the wizard who doesn’t really have any combat abilities. There is only so far you can get with a couple of boxes.
The Recommendation
Trine is a really cute and fast game. If you are looking for some light puzzle platforming in an enchanted setting, Trine is for you. If you want something more combat-heavy with a similar atmosphere, try Nine Parchments.
Info
| Release Year | 2009 |
| Genre | Platformer, Puzzle |
| Difficulty | Medium |
| Number of Players | 1 to 3 |
| Length | 7 hours |
Rating
| Overall | Mediocre |
| Story | Bad |
| Co-Operation | Mediocre |