Trine

Trine has such an elegant and familiar simplicity to its puzzle-platforming that I sort of wonder if it isn't partly responsible for the increased number of puzzle-platformers I seem to tackle every year with this feature. It's not quite that old - 2009 was pretty far back, but past the nascent Indie boom that hit soon after the advent of the 360/PS3 generation - but I find myself pausing while writing to consider whether or not I should talk about how "traditional" it feels given it may have inspired a lot of similar qualities and features in subsequent games in this genre. Kind of a loaded way to say that Trine is derivative, I suppose, but the quandary is that it... probably... isn't? Good opener, everyone.

Though the three heroes of Trine acquire some additional skills as the game continues - the wizard can conjure flat planks and floating triangular platforms to reach new areas in addition to his boxes, the thief has fire arrows that can light torches for more ambient light and the knight acquires a hefty warhammer with a devastating charge attack - the actual gameplay doesn't differ a whole as the game progresses. But then, it doesn't really need to introduce too many hard swings, because the game finds ample use of the various skillsets and creates that enviable game design quality of increased player agency, where there's usually more than one way to progress. Chances are, you could get past every platforming obstacle in the game just by creating boxes and planks with the wizard and walking over all the traps. Less patient players, like myself, are more likely to rely on the thief and her ninja rope for quickly passing through areas.

The only weak link in the chain is the knight, who despite having the ability to destroy nearby objects with his hammer is really only there to cut down the skeletal enemies that spawn in on a frequent basis. I said it last time, but the combat in Trine doesn't really add a whole lot. The main issue is that it's never more complex than spamming the attack button until they stop coming, and in later stages they'll start appearing in their dozens. Monster experience is just as valid as the experience you find littered around the stage in inconveniently placed green bottles, but even if that wasn't the case you need to take care of them all so they don't interrupt your platforming - they'll often destroy any of the wizards created objects in range, for one. It just feels like the more engrossing traversal and puzzle-solving aspects grind to a halt whenever enemies appear, but then when you consider the game in a nutshell - three different characters, three different styles of gameplay - you realize that it would be hard to extricate the combat from the game's core. Not without creating a new character with a different skillset, at least, and the goofy and easily distracted knight is the only constant source of levity in the adventure.

The combat's not a dealbreaker at any rate, just another one of those cases where the game probably felt it needed to include some sort of direct conflict because that's what video games are "supposed" to have. We've seen it enough times in games more recent than Trine, like Soma and Deadly Premonition, where the more overtly "game" parts don't contribute much to the core experience besides allowing the game to avoid the indignity of receiving "not a game" and "walking simulator" tags on Steam. As always, it's one of those conditional things in game design: some story-driven games benefit a lot from the addition of a well-considered combat engine, in particular a lot of RPGs, while with others it feels shoehorned in.

I neglected to mention it last time, but the reason why the game looks so good - or part of the reason, anyway - is because I was playing the Enchanted Edition this whole time. This remake was created with Trine 2's engine and was released as recently as 2014. I've no doubt they managed to add in a bunch of gameplay tweaks and other fine-tuning to go along with the graphical facelift, so it's likely I didn't get the "true" Trine experience that others did saw in 2009. Still, if it's available, why not opt for the deluxe version?

I still appreciate much of what Trine does, especially little player-friendly touches like saving collectible progress when restarting levels and giving the player the opportunity to bring back fallen heroes by reaching a checkpoint, and I'm looking forward to its sequels largely because it's the type of game that's very conducive to follow-ups: just flawed enough that a sequel might polish the experience to a dazzling sheen, but still playable enough that you'd want a sequel in the first place. Roll on Trine 2.

The Verdict: Trine's a fantastic 2D puzzle-platformer with great visuals and puzzles, but I'm guessing that I'm the last to find out. Four Stars.

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Trine 3 is underrated.

I forgot you could play that game single player. Co-op is so much better.