Trine: A charm filled physics based game.

Trine is a 2D sidescroling game, based on physics and uses a system reminiscent of Lost Vikings, but with a dash of little big planet.

Trine's story is one that is fairly simple, although it's not detrimental to the game, as the main focus is gameplay, the main game mechanic here is the game's name, "Trine", it's an artifact which binds people into one being with the ability to change into any of those that have been bound, the unfortunate ones who have fell into the mystical artifacts charm are the games only playable characters.
The game consists of 3 nameless characters,  with their own brief introduction, there's; A Wizard, who's attempting to master a fireball spell to charm the ladies, a Knight who has sworn to protect the treasure which also consists of the Trine, and a Thief who has set her heart on stealing the treasure.
It's through the Thief they are bound, her attempts to steal the Trine awaken the Wizard, and alert the Knight, in an attempt to stop the Thief they grab they all attempt to take the Trine each laying a hand on it, in doing so they are bound together, and so beings the main game, this is also the section where the demo ended.

From here onwards, the player controls 3 characters, each assigned their own number, 1 brings out the Wizard, 2 the Thief and 3 the Knight, all the characters have 2 main gameplay mechanics tied into an RPG system where experience gathered from vials and enemies killed can upgrade each ability certain moves.
Certain moves consume energy to execute, energy is limited but vials can be found which recharges the meter.

The Wizard can conjure boxes by drawing a square, the size of the box is determined by the size of the square drawn, the box allows the player to reach ledges and move objects, later the Wizard unlocks the ability to draw a line of metal, which can be used to make ramps or kill a row of enemies, the third unlockable for the Wizard sticks to the formula of conjuring and gives the ability to conjure a floating platform to traverse larger gaps. Each ability can be upgrade with collecting experience, allowing the Wizard to increase the amount of items he can keep in play at anyone time.
 

The Thief's 2 abilities are the use of an bow and the ability to use a grappling hook. The bow is useful for attacking but can also come into play when needing to cut unreachable ropes, the Thief's upgrades are all based around the bow, the first allows the bow to fire more arrows, the second is based on the Thief's unlockable, flame arrows, allowing for more powerful arrows however using arrows also uses up energy, and lastly the ability to increase the time it takes to ready a shot.
The grappling hook however is the most used of the 2 abilities, because it's the easiest mechanic for scaling the levels, although the grappling hook is not upgradable.

The final of the 3 characters is the Knight, the main offense throughout the game.

The Knight starts with a sword and shield and later unlocks the "Strength of the Titans" ability and finally an Electric enthused two handed hammer. The sword's damage can be upgraded allowing for enemies to be killed quicker. The " Strength of the Titans" ability allows the Knight to pick up boxes either created by the wizard or ones found within levels, and kick them at enemies killing them in one hit, or at a wall or floor of spikes allowing for the option to jump on them avoiding any damage, this move can be upgraded to allow a charge attack which damages shielded enemies and kills weaker enemies. The storm hammer is basically what it says on the tin, it's a two handed hammer and upon hitting enemies it fires of electricity which can damage enemies, the hammer also has other abilities such as a destroying rubble and slamming the ground to fire of electricity.

All of the Knights abilities, except the sword and the shield require energy to use, the most consuming was the Storm hammer, partly because when doing a normal attack it would do the ground attack inadvertently resulting in energy being drained.

The game consists of 15 levels, all with high replayability. Each level takes around 30 minutes to be completed, and the game can be completed in around 8 hours, however each level has experience vials, and several secrets, most of which are items for characters, these provide bonuses such as increased energy/health, or class specific ones such as +1 to arrows fired or boxes conjured.

At any time there's the option at the main menu to go to "Choose Level" here you can see how many secrets have been unlocked within each level and how many experience vials have been collected.

If you've read to this point you'll notice I've not commented much on Trine's story, and that's because there's little to non, the main aim of the game is to try and figure out how to reverse the effects of the Trine, between each level during the loading screens there's narrated text, that gives insight into the story, however due to the loading screen consisting of nothing more than a simple map and the game loading rather quickly these become tedious to listen to although they are nicely written, more animation here would have been welcomed with open arms.

All in all, Trine is a very good game, with high replayability, although it lacks in a solid story, this doesn't impede on the games charm and well executed side scrolling action, however it would have been nice if they'd incorporated extra features because with a short story, and no optional extras, it only does just enough to justify its price tag.
Trine is definitely a game which shouldn't be missed if this has a slight appeal to you, it will undoubtedly win you over, and with the lack of games being released around now, it's definitely worth the purchase.