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Trine
PlayStation Network
One-Third of a Whole
3/5 stars
“Trine,” the third game by Frozenbyte, a Finland-based indie developer, is a multi-platform PC release available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Surprisingly, despite not porting it to the Xbox 360, Frozenbyte did release “Trine” for the PlayStation 3 via the PlayStation Network. As a 2D Platformer, one of the worst possible genres to play with a keyboard and mouse, “Trine’s” pedigree as a PC game ported to consoles seems the wrong way around. Regardless, its promise of old-school 2D platforming, 3-player co-op, and indie pricing made it too tempting to pass-up.
Presentation
“Trine” is a really sharp-looking game that employs the popular “2.5D” style of graphics in which the game is rendered in 3D polygons but the gameplay only incorporates the X and Y axes. The polygons are smooth and the textures look incredible, featuring a diverse color pallet. The character animations are also quite well done, but for one significant flaw: The Thief’s robe billows and flows a bit too much, making it a liability when trying to land precise jumps.
“Trine’s” soundtrack is nice, but largely forgettable. Aside from the incredible title and credits themes, the music just fades into the background. The voiceacting is also well done, but fairly minimal. Besides the narrator, who reveals “Trine’s” plot during the between-level loading screens, there are only a handful of voiced comments by the three main characters.
Story
The titular Trine is a magical device that can bind the souls of three individuals together, then manifest a projection of any one of those souls. Each of our three heroes, a Thief, a Wizard, and a Warrior (Gee, that’s original!), finds their way to the Trine due to unique circumstances brought about by the fact that, after the death of the King, their home kingdom has been overrun by the undead.
Once bound together by the Trine, the three heroes set out to find a way to free themselves from the artifact, only to discover the cause of the undead infestation in the process. By uniting the Trine with two other artifacts, they can not only free themselves, but end the scourge of skeletons and return peace to the land.
The main problem with “Trine’s” story is that the game is so incredibly short. The entire game can be finished in about six hours, with a little more time tacked-on for multi-player and collect-a-thon-ing all of the items. There’s also not a whole lot of originality, aside from the gimmick of the Trine, to differentiate “Trine” from every other Fantasy-themed game out there. Of course, “Trine” is a platformer, and platformers usually live or die by gameplay alone, so story is of secondary importance, but nice to have regardless.
Gameplay
“Trine’s” main gameplay mechanic is switching between three diverse characters in order to overcome obstacles that require each character’s specialized skills. In essence, “Trine’s” fundamental core bears a strong resemblance to the SNES puzzle-platforming classic, “The Lost Vikings,” in which three diverse characters were required to overcome obstacles using their specialized skills. The Thief can shoot arrows in any direction using the right analog stick and fire a grappling hook into wooden surfaces with the Square button. The Wizard controls an on-screen cursor with the right analog stick and can conjure a variety of boxes, planks, and floating platforms. The Warrior can block projectiles with his shield via the right analog stick, and perform melee attacks with the Square button. Each character can jump the same height with the X button, while the Thief and Warrior can toggle magic-consuming special attacks with the Triangle button. The player can cycle through the three characters with the L1 and R1 buttons.
Each of the three characters has their own health and magic meters, which can be refilled by grabbing the red or blue vials that appear throughout the game. Interestingly, despite each character taking damage and expending magic independently, vials restore health/magic for everyone. Should a character die, that character can’t be used again until one of the surviving characters touches one of the glowing white orbs that serve as the game’s checkpoints. Checkpoints revive all dead characters with 50% of their health and magic, and can be used repeatedly.
Where “Trine” differs from “The Lost Vikings” is the fact that the three characters in “Trine” always occupy the same physical space. Thus the ‘puzzles’ in “Trine” aren’t really puzzles, but simple obstacles. The final level, as well as the $1 DLC level (which is FREE in the PC version), however, break the tone set by the rest of the game by being vertical levels in which the characters must outrun a constantly-rising lava flow in a race to the top. These two levels are incredibly frustrating, as the need to rush through destroys the otherwise-methodical pace of the game.
“Trine” also features some slight RPG elements, in that the characters can collect green vials of liquid ‘experience’ and gain levels to unlock extra abilities. Another gameplay mechanic that adds a bit of depth is the equipment system. By finding the treasure chests hidden throughout the game, the characters can acquire a number of different items that provide useful bonuses when worn. These items are assigned on a character-specific basis, so it’s important to always give the Wizard items that increase his object-building prowess and magic totals, while the Thief and Warrior must share the smaller number of items that provide health and defensive bonuses.
The multi-player experience makes “Trine” a completely different game. The game supports 3-person co-op, but instead of each player being able to switch between the three characters, each player is stuck with one of the characters (in 2-player, each player is free to switch to another character, provided the other player isn’t already using that character). “Trine’s” levels are designed in such a way that each of the three characters’ skills is required to pass specific points, and switching to the appropriate character allows all three characters to progress. But in multi-player, ALL of the characters need to progress on their own. While the Thief can frequently take shortcuts via grappling hook, the Wizard and Warrior must fumble around creating boxes and platforms in order to progress. While there is a strange form of auto-teleport catch-up for characters who have been left behind, I found it to be incredibly unpredictable and unreliable, frequently ignoring characters who were about to die or abruptly teleporting characters mid-jump, resulting in death as the jump resolved in a completely unexpected area. Perhaps the worst part of the multi-player experience is the game’s camera. I don’t understand how it’s possible to screw-up a camera in a 2D game, but “Trine’s” in incredibly broken. It doesn’t zoom out enough to focus on all the characters, it frequently latches onto one character to the detriment of the others, and it occasionally gets stuck when all of the characters die and return to the last checkpoint.
Overall
“Trine” is simply an ‘okay’ game. The incredible brevity and horrible final level make it merely passable as a single player experience, while the terrible handling of the camera and flaky catch-up teleports ruin the multi-player experience, which is the game’s main point of uniqueness. As a puzzle-platformer featuring three characters, “Trine” pales in comparison to classics like “The Lost Vikings,” but still could provide enough entertainment to fans of that genre to warrant a purchase.
Presentation: 4.5/5
Story: 3/5
Gameplay: 3.5/5 Single Player, 2.5/5 Multi-Player
Overall (not an average): 3/5
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