Review: Trine

When people think nowadays of side-scrolling platformers, they don't usually think of them as triple-A blockbusters with ultra graphics that pull out all the stops with the backing of mega-developers Activision-Blizzard, EA, Valve, etc. But Trine proves that even a relatively unknown developer Frozenbyte, can come up with a highly polished, and highly entertaining side-scrolling action-RPG fest worth you time and money.

But what is Trine about? To put it simply, it's LittleBigPlanet in its use of physics and side-scrolling platform gaming, Diablo 3 in its RPG-roots and execution, and every old-school fantasy story you can think of.


The world is going to the dogs thanks to two special artifacts that have been captured by the forces of evil. Thankfully, the world hasn't entirely succumbed to apocalypse as the third and last artifact was stumbled upon first by three unlikely heroes, a thief, wizard, and knight. The three accidental heroes have their souls bound as one, and in their attempt to free themselves of the spell, come to realize their true quest which is to save the world from destruction.

The story is nothing to shout about, but it's interesting enough to be an excuse for you to save the day. Thankfully, despite the shallow plot, the production values are exceptionally high from great voice acting of the three characters which give them very interesting personalities, to the grand narration that builds an atmosphere of a traditional fantasy story to lose yourself in. There are no cutscenes though, with the narration coming in during loading screens.

But what about the gameplay? In this game, the physics play a very major role. Platforms can be raised and dropped or turned with weight, ropes go slack and taut, giant balls of spike swing and balls can be rolled off hills, amongst other things. Nowadays, everyone's putting a physics engine in their game because gamers just have a fetish for ragdoll corpses. Dance, my floppy puppets, dance!

So naturally, all the puzzles that need to be overcome are physics-based. This raises interesting gameplay variations in relation to the characters you play. As I said before, the three heroes have their souls bound, so you don't just play one of them, but all.


You can switch between any of them on the fly, and it is a necessity to do so depending on the situation. The wizard has the ability to draw boxes and wooden planks out of the air (with the use of your mouse), so you can traverse pits, stack boxes to reach higher places, or even use them to knock over hard to reach items. He also has the ability to pick up certain objects like a gravity gun, and place them wherever you need it. Unfortunately, he is useless in combat unless you draw boxes over the heads of enemies to drop and crush them.

The thief is the most agile, able to jump further and higher, as well as employ range attack with her bow. She also has a piton which she can hook into any wooden surfaces, and you can swing across ravines or get to out of reach places. The knight is the most simplistic, and is used primarily for his combat prowess. He can block enemy attacks with his shield, and kill them faster with his sword. He gets a warhammer later which lets him break bones, wood, and stone.

So with the interesting and distinct character types, it is fun to utilize all their skills to overcome obstacles. But this is also the major flaw for the game, in that, it becomes blisteringly easy as you just have to "think outside the box" to get pass the more challenging puzzles.

For instance, if a puzzle is designed for you to work with weights to slowly raise a platform to a higher level, you could do exactly that to succeed, or you could just make one single box and have the thief grab it with her piton and raise herself up to the desired height bypassing the platform puzzle entirely.

Need to jump over large pits? No need to actually jump it. Just wedge boxes against the spikes at the bottom of the pit, and prop long planks over the top to safely walk over.

The game is no Braid or World of Goo. I personally am horrible at puzzle games but I could get through Trine without straining too much brain muscle. I couldn't tell whether it was the intention of the developers to have the puzzles be more lite, but if that were the case, then the game falls short. This is because without the puzzles, the game is just moving from left to right in a series of different levels, hacking and slashing through hordes of skeletons that annoyingly keep respawning.

The combat is the weakest part of the game, as it is just a case of "keep-clicking-until-the-enemy-is-dead". The RPG elements comes in when you kill enough skeletons or pick up green vials of experience, to level up and spend points in improving your characters' skills, like the thief firing multiple arrows, the knight being able to execute one-hit-kill blows of his warhammer, or the wizard being able to create a levitating platform. There are useful extra equippable items found in treasure chests that require a little exploration in out of reach places.


Another problem I found was that the character's movements, whilst simplistic and easy to learn, are very hypersensitive. With the wizard and the thief in particular, jumping to very small ledges require too much precision otherwise you'll end up missing it and falling into hot lava over and over. It's irritating and frustrating to require such precision as it is not your intention to miss the jumps. This is a fundamental problem with a lot of platformers, in that there needs to be a fine balance between what is required of the player in executing movements correctly, and giving them the right amount of leeway. Not everybody is a twitchy gamer. Sometimes, devs need to say "Yes, we can see you made that jump. Let's move on."

The graphics are the most deliciously delectable thing about this game. Flames flicker, light sources glow, wet surfaces glisten, and wooden surfaces actually look creaky. If Activision-Blizzard were to make Diablo 3, I'd want them to take a look at Trine and see if they can get that kind of standard of graphics without needing overtly powerful computer systems.

It's utterly beautiful, and the three heroes are highly detailed. Their physicality and movement are so life-like, when the thief lands from a jump, she does so with cat-like grace. The knight lumbers around in his heavy armor. Skeleton enemies hiss and shake their weapons in rage at the heroes, and clamber over obstacles to reach them. They stumble and fall if they are pushed back, and crunch to pieces when killed. The environments in the different levels are distinct and well-designed so that it never becomes tiresome as you trek through.


Music is fine and suits the fantasy theme, but nothing awe-inspiringly Lord of the Rings. Perhaps if they made the soundtrack a lot more rousing, the game would be a lot more compelling to playthrough.

An interesting element to the game is the addition of drop-in drop-out cooperative play. At anytime, your friends can pick up an extra controller and appear as one of the characters that isn't played by you. It's probably a good laugh to trawl through a level with a friend and help each other beat skeletons and overcome obstacles, but I can't imagine how easy or hard it would be to control abilities with a gamepad. A mouse makes it easier to aim with the thief's bow or the wizard's object levitation, and I will test a gamepad soon, and write back on the results.

All in all, an entertaining romp in short bursts. Levels are just the right length each, can be completed fairly quickly, with one or two puzzles to wrack your brain over. If played too long though, it can get tiresome as it is pretty much the same throughout, and there is nothing to motivate you to carry on other than the self-contained fun of jumping around a physics-laden world. There is no real sense of satisfaction at completing a level.

But then again, this game's just an indie-release for Xbox Live Arcade, PSN, along with the PC, not some full fledged blockbuster. It gets the job done, which is to be simply fun, and it should be given extra kudos for being very well put together. Worth a try.