2D puzzle platforming, the foundation of games as we know them, seems to be a forgotten genre for consoles and PC gaming alike. Considering this, its a delight whenever a game like Trine comes along. The game's classic roots shine brightly throughout the play style, and a nostalgic trip back to my days with the ol' SNES is always welcome. However, to play a game like that, one need only log onto their favorite flash game site. Any number of them will have an abundance of fantastic puzzle platformers that could easily satisfy that nostalgic itch. Granted, they won't be as pretty as a game made by professional developers, but at least they're free. That being said, seeing Trine's 30 dollar price raised my eyebrow. Could it possibly be worth it?
The game is pretty easy to understand. You play as one of three characters: a mage, a thief, or a warrior. You are able to switch between them at will throughout the game as each character has a unique quality that allows them to solve the various puzzles you encounter, or defeat the legions of undead that stand in your way. Utilizing a handy physics system, your characters can jump, levitate, smash, throw, swing, or catapult their way across the level.
After first opening the game, the player is treated to a marvelous pallet of standard gaming quality basics. Music, art, story, combat, controls... it's all there, and it's all good. However as the game progresses you may get the feeling that you've seen all this before. The backgrounds change only slightly as the characters traverse the landscape, the puzzles begin to repeat themselves and the enemies only marginally vary. Instead of fighting a regular skeleton, you fight an armored skeleton...sometimes with a bow.
For instance, toward the beginning of the game you will have encountered a few bosses (since boss battles are usually left out of modern day video games, it was a welcome addition). However in the later levels you'll encounter the exact same bosses you've battled previously. Only now you've leveled quite a bit. Some will even fall in a single shot.
The novelty of switching between characters starts to lose its luster as well. The mage's unique ability is to conjure blocks and planks to help you traverse those extra long gaps. The problem is that it takes time to painstakingly position each block and each plank to perfection. The thief, on the other hand, can just hook-shot her way to freedom with the click of a button. The warrior can slice and dice his way through skeletons with ease, but the thieves flaming arrow attack not only does more damage, it's ranged, and prevents any damage to her in the process. The only reason you'd ever need to change to the wizard or knight at that point is when the thief died, and were then forced to switch. Having three characters to choose from is dandy, but when its easier to do it all with one, what's the point?
I love the fact that a 2D platformer has come to the PC and PSN. Love it. But given our resources today, let's kick it up a notch. We have the means for 2D perfection, but emphasis on graphics and physics engines seem to muck up the plan somehow. What we're seeing here is modern gaming elements clogging the quality of a simple project. It's a classic case of developers focusing more on looks than gameplay.
>So is it worth 30 bucks? Probably not. Despite this callous review, I did have fun playing it. My advice is to wait for a price drop. There's definitely a great game in here somewhere, it's just lost in a cloud of "superior" graphics.
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