|
|
Trine
Trine is set in a fantasy world that is under attack by hordes of undead. An intrepid thief decides to break into the Astral Academy amidst all the chaos but finds herself bound to a mysterious artifact. A lone Wizard that stayed behind to practice his magic comes to her aid only to be bound as well. The same fate befalls the knight who took it upon himself to guard the Academy when he comes to investigate the commotion. The trio’s only hope is to work together as they search for the tomb of the Guardian deep below the Academy. Their fate lies in your hands.
While bigger development studios have turned their backs on the humble platform genre, a lot of Indie studios have picked up the slack. Frozenbyte has already proven themselves with the Shadowgrounds series. Trine is their first foray into the realm of puzzle platformers. Judging by the quality of this release, I’d say the genre is in good hands. The fist thing that is immediately noticeable about Trine is the gorgeous visuals. The gameworld is awash with vivid colours and shafts of light. While everything takes place on a 2D plane, the game engine is 3D, which gives the graphics a lot of depth. Each area looks like it burst to life from the pages of a children’s fairytale. The camera also zooms in on the action, so you can see the wonderful animations. There’s no shortage of levels and each one really looks like a lot of effort was put into the visuals. The path through each level is fairly linear and once you complete a stage, there’s no turning back, so don’t expect anything like recent Metroid or Castlevania games. In fact, the game reminded me most of the classic “Lost Vikings” titles by Blizzard. Players are able to switch between the three characters at any time and each one has their own unique skills that are needed to complete the level. The thief can hit targets from afar with her bow and arrows or swing across hazards with her grappling hook. The Wizard never quite managed to learn the fireball spell but is an expert of levitating objects and conjuring things. The knight, on the other hand, is an expert at close range combat and his shield can block anything sharp heading his way. In other words, the thief and wizard are your puzzle solvers, while the knight is there to dispose of critters. A clever tutorial level will let you master each character’s skill while also setting up the story. The levels aren’t too long and it is unlikely that the enemies will kill you, but there are plenty of traps and environmental hazards to content with as well. Each character has their own health and magic bars and if they are killed, you lose control over them until you reach a checkpoint. Zipping around with the nimble thief is fun, especially using the grappling hook (it brought back fond memories of Worms) but the Wizard is the most entertaining. He has no direct attacks, but his ability to conjure boxes and drop it on enemies’ heads is a blast. The physics in the game makes it even more entertaining. Speaking of enemies, this is where the game falters a bit with only a limited variety. You have the undead, which is basically a bunch of skeletons coming at you with bows, swords, shields and even fire. Then there are some pesky bats and a few spiders. Apart from one or two very easy bosses, that is the lot. Combat is not really the focus of the game, so I can forgive this, but it definitely lessens the knight’s role and the few sections where enemies kept spawning did nothing but slow the level down. Scattered throughout the levels are hidden treasure chests that will reward you with a new item if you go out of your way to open them. Most of those items aren’t really needed to complete the game, but can make your life easier, such as the artifact that allows the bearer to hold their breath indefinitely underwater, for example. You get to choose who to give what item to, but some are better suited for one character than the others. You will also notice blue experience bottles propped up all over in hard to reach places. With these, characters can level up like in your typical role playing game and improve their skills or gain new ones. The ability to shoot fire arrows for the thief or being able to pick up and throw heavy objects as the knight, for example. These experience bottles are also tied to most of the game’s achievements, giving some incentive for extra playthroughs if that’s your kind of thing. It took me about five hours in total to complete the game, which is really not bad for the genre. The audio compliment the game nicely and there are some nice background tracks. Before each new level, there is also a narrator that fills in more of the story. I would have really liked to hear more from the characters themselves, as they all just have a few lines here and there. While the game might sound like your typical serious fantasy fare, it is actually quite humorous. The controls work well, whether you are using a gamepad or keyboard and mouse. This is also one of the few computer games I’ve seen that allows three player local co-op! This feature makes for quite a different experience, but is strangely buried out of sight in the options menu. A new bonus level titled “Path to New Dawn” was released for free and is playable upon the games’ completion. It doesn’t add anything new to the storyline, but is still fun albeit short. I must admit Trine exceeded my expectations and had me hooked for its duration. It is one of the most polished and entertaining titles in the genre and with games like this, a scarcity on PC it definitely deserves some support. Hopefully Frozenbyte is able to recapture the magic in Trine 2.
|
System Requirements
TAGS: Trine, Wizard, Knight, Thief, Astral Academy, Undead
|
|
Copyright © 2010 GAMERamble. All rights reserved