Written by: Alex

 

 

 

"Trine" is an evolution of the classic platformer; what could have happened if graphics and physics had continued to advance, but designers never wanted to evolve beyond the 2D plane. It takes a familiar format and expands it in every direction to produce a deceivingly complex game.

 

Despite its 2D gameplay Trine uses 3D graphics and Nvidia’s PhysX engine to produce its environments and puzzles. This has allowed the Finnish developer Frozenbyte to add a beauty and depth to each stage of the game that is reminiscent of a lavish child’s fantasy novel.

 

 

The fairy tale feel of the game extends in to the clichéd story. In short three people touch the ‘Trine’ (an ancient magic artifact/MacGuffin) and by doing so they fuse their bodies and souls into a single corporeal form. Despite what my description may lead you to believe this does not result in a pitiful mal-formed creature, but instead a character able to switch at will between its three constituent parts and their skills.

 

Unhappy with this new arrangement the three heroes head off on a quest to find the other artifacts necessary to pries them apart. If all that doesn’t feel enough like generic fantasy fair, then imagine it all set to the background of an invading undead army.

 

 

 

A thief, a magician and a knight make up the games leading cast. Each character’s talents allow for a variety of solutions to Trine’s physics based problems. The thief is a ranged class; she is fast and able to evade confrontation easily by virtue of her bow and grappling hook.

 

Power and weight comes in the form of the knight, with a shield and sword he is the only character able to tackle the undead hordes you encounter throughout the game toe-to-toe. His shield also allows protection from falling objects while his armor functions effectively as ballast in water.

 

Finally there is the magician; who possess telekinesis and can conjure a variety of items in to existence. Functioning as the lead problem solver the magician doesn’t really have any direct attacks, but I was surprised to find how effective dropping a 2m³ box on a skeletons head proved.

 

 

Although I had three characters at my disposal the games puzzles rarely depended on my having any single one available. It is testament to the quality of the level design that, even when I was down a party member, I was always able to make progress by finding alternate solutions to the tasks presented to me. My punishment for losing characters came from an inability to reach special items when my party was in its diminished state, but the main path always remained open.

 

On the few rare occasions where I stumbled upon a puzzle that did require a specific character’s abilities the game ensured that I was located close to a checkpoint that could regenerate my lost characters.