May 3, 2011

Trine - the belated yet short review

Trine has apparently been an indie gaming darling for quite some time now, which is really odd, as I had neither played, nor even read a review of the thing before grabbing it with the latest Humble Bundle. I guess the army and that lost year of my life are to blame... Oh well, no permanent harm was done. I happily enjoyed and finished the game a couple of days ago.

Trine plays like an updated mix of classic side-scrolling fighting game Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara and Blizzard's platform-puzzler The Lost Vikings. It is thus a fantasy-themed, scrolling, platform game with heavy action, CRPG and puzzle elements, that successfully implements a modern physics engine and three vastly different player characters: a mage, a thief and a fighter. Combining said characters' skills is obviously necessary in solving the rather imaginative puzzles and progressing through the more or less exciting set pieces.

What really sets Trine apart though is neither it's selection of interesting features, nor the hefty experience it provides. It's the combination of said qualities with some lovely and technically proficient graphics (that only rarely are a bit too shiny for their own good), an interesting and excellently narrated story, an atmospheric soundscape, beautiful, varied levels and mechanics that simply -almost intuitively- work. On the downside, there are moments when the controls feel a tad to, well, to loose I suppose. Oh, and constantly fighting almost identical undead warriors can get tiresome...

Verdict: A lovely, genre-blending action-platformer-RPG-puzzler with minor flaws and a brilliant narrator. Have a look.

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5 comments:

  1. I love how you can replay old levels with newer abilities you gain. The most useful being the Magician's ability to create more and more larger blocks.

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  2. It's nice to see another post, it has been a while. I loved Trine, especially because of the grappling hook. Always fun. As a sidenote, this comment box does not like Chrome...

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  3. @ Josh: Indeed. Besides, getting all the experience from each level can take more than a few boxes...

    @ Ithmeer: That's slightly weird as I'm also using Chrome, but I'll try to look into it. Oh, and I do hope to post quite during May my friend. Cheers!

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  4. The physics-based platforming and dark fairytale environments were a joy, I can’t wait for the sequel.

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  5. Indeed they were. A sequel eh? Well, it does sound like an excellent idea.

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