Trine Review: Knights Can’t Swim

Alongside RPGs and fighting games, platformers are one of my favorite genres to play.  There’s just something about the genre that’s hard to hate, even as games get more complex and genres meld together, the simple charm of a platformer can’t be denied.  Trine is that kind of game.  Initially released for the PC earlier this summer, the European PlayStation Store a few short weeks ago and coming to the American PlayStation Store tomorrow, Trine is a 2.5D platformer that melds old school “run and jump” gameplay with physics-based puzzles and light RPG elements and storytelling.  It’s been one of the more publicized downloadable games to be released this year, due in part to its combination of old-school platforming mechanics and an excellent art style.  But graphics aren’t everything, as many modern games have learned the hard way.  Is Trine worth its weight in gold coins, or have the demons of high definition graphics claimed yet another victim?  Well, let’s see.

Taking place in an idealized fantasy world not too unlike that found in the Fable games, Trine is the story of three unlikely heroes who meet under the strangest and most coincidental of circumstances.  There’s a thief, invading an ancient vault in search of treasure, a knight, freshly having finished his training, and a lecherous old wizard who, despite his hard work, has never mastered the Fireball spell, the simplest spell in magic-kind.  The three heroes manage to coincidentally touch a magic artifact at the same time, binding their souls together into one and rendering it impossible for more than one of them to exist at the same time.  Faced with the possibility of sharing one existence for all eternity, they set out to find the rest of the magical artifact that cursed them, hoping to use it to release the curse on their souls.  That’s essentially it from there; while each chapter is opened with a slight bit of dialogue between the characters and each loading screen is covered up by a narrator explaining the heroes’ journey and where it’s taking them next, there isn’t much in the way of dedicated storytelling to be found in this one.  Much like the classic platformers of the SNES era, Trine relies not on hamfisted cutscenes to tell its story, instead placing the focus mainly on the gameplay.  Despite this, the three characters are decently well-portrayed, each possessing an unique personality, and there are a few chuckles to be had.  Just don’t go into the game expecting an epic story and you’ll be fine.

The main meat of Trine is, of course, the platforming gameplay.  The PC version of Trine supports both mouse/keyboard controls as well as gamepads, while the PS3 version of course focuses on the dual-analog controller setup.  While it may come as a stab in the back to my fellow PC gamers, I actually felt considerably more comfortable playing the game with a gamepad; depending on your preference, though, the mouse/keyboard style may be more ideal.  In Trine, you move around with the left analog stick, jump with the X button, and perform actions in the game via a mixture of the right analog stick and the face buttons.  The Thief’s arrows, the Knight’s shield, and the Wizard’s spellcasting are controlled via the right stick, while the Knight’s weapons and the Thief’s grappling hook are used via the Square button.  Switching between your available characters is as simple as a quick tap of the shoulder buttons.  Throughout Trine, you’ll be running, jumping, climbing and stabbing through a variety of fantasy-inspired levels including an elven forest, a swamp, a ruined village, an undead-infested castle, and a dank medieval sewer.

This is a perfect time to explain the differences between the characters; as is to be expected in a game like this, each character brings an unique set of abilities to the table.  When the game begins, the Knight has a sword, allowing him to perform combo attacks, as well as a shield that can be aimed with the right analog stick to block incoming attacks and projectiles.  Due to his heavy armor, he’s slightly slow and unwieldy (and sinks like a stone in water), and should generally not be your go-to guy for any actual platforming.  He’s a pure combat character.  The Thief, as can be expected, is quicker than the Knight, can jump higher, and carries a grappling hook that she can use to swing around from wooden objects and ceilings; those familiar with the Worms games will be pleased to know that their Ninja Rope skills will come in handy while using her.  She also carries a bow and arrow that allow her to damage distant enemies, as well as hit far-off switches and break boxes.  She has absolutely no close combat options, and her bow must be charged before it’s fired, so don’t bother to try and use her when enemies get close; she will take damage.  However, the most intriguing of the three is the Wizard.  As mentioned before, the Wizard cannot cast offensive magic…to a degree.  His only spell when the game begins is the ability to trace magical lines into the air that can produce clockwork crates, perfect for jumping on.  He will later gain the ability to conjure bridges with his magic, but the only way to kill an enemy with his spells is to conjure an item above an enemy and let it fall onto their head.  Each character has their own particular strengths and weaknesses, and it’s generally a good idea to try to keep all of your characters alive; you don’t “fail” a stage if you lose one or two, but if all three of your heroes are killed you will be kicked back to the most recent checkpoint (checkpoints will revive all of your fallen characters with a small portion of their max HP) you passed.  If you happen to lose both the Wizard and the Thief, it’s generally a good idea to just restart from the checkpoint via the pause menu; by and large, the Knight just isn’t good enough at platforming to survive any of the more devious puzzles.

As mentioned before, Trine is more or less a puzzle platformer; while it features the occasional switch or “push block” puzzle, most of the puzzling in Trine is related to its physics engine.  The question “how the hell do I get over there?” will run through your mind many times while playing the game, especially during the earlier stages.  You’ll be forced to use a combination of the Wizard’s ever-growing arsenal of summoned objects, the Thief’s grappling hook, and the Knight’s weapons to solve most puzzles, thanks to the game’s nasty habit of spawning a large amount of enemies while you’re trying to build a bridge across a bottomless pit.  The physics engine is largely solid, with your summoned objects reacting well to the movement of the world around them; the Thief’s grappling hook can feel a bit stiff at times, though, and the jumping feels surprisingly weighty.  The only real flaw is that the game’s two control schemes are better at different things; the gamepad scheme is better for basic movement, jumping, and combat, while an analog stick is far less responsive when it comes to drawing the Wizard’s summoning shapes.  On the other hand, a mouse is the perfect object for summoning the Wizard’s items, but controlling the general movement of the game with a keyboard feels somewhat foreign.

Trine isn’t the longest game in the world; featuring 15 stages of varying length and difficulty, it took me about eight hours to complete.  Despite the relatively short length, the game does feature a small amount of replay value; each stage contains two special treasures that can be equipped to your characters and grant them special effects.  These treasures are usually hidden, and in some cases are nearly impossible to reach without abilities that the player unlocks later on in the game; some can be reached with sheer tenacity or creativity though.  Each stage also has a set number of hidden Experience potions that help your characters level up; finding every Experience potion in a stage is worth a Steam Achievement or a Trophy.  Aside from this, the game also features a number of difficulty settings, allowing players to tailor the experience to their own personal liking.  With the  game running for $20, the game’s short length isn’t quite as much of an issue; while it’s not as difficult as, say, Bionic Commando: ReArmed, it’ll at least last you a solid afternoon or two of play, considerably more if you’re trying for all of the Trophies/Achievements or working through it on Very Hard mode.

All in all, Trine is an entertaining little platformer with an interesting concept; while it doesn’t try anything particularly new with the genre (to some degree, it could be thought of as a modern take on Blizzard’s The Lost Vikings franchise), it succeeds at what it’s trying to be – a puzzle platformer with an unique, beautiful art style and a number of physics-based puzzles to work through.  The art style is quite well-realized, to the point at which I once found myself considering it a hybrid between Fable and Donkey Kong Country.  The only flaws I can find are that the RPG elements, while a welcome addition that helps the game feel more full-featured, can have a bit of a negative effect on the game design; the first few stages of the game, when your abilities are truly limited, require more thought and planning, while as the game progresses and you grow more powerful, more and more puzzles can essentially be solved with a strategy of “have the Wizard summon a whole lot of boxes + Thief jumps on them = win”.  I would’ve liked to have seen a bit more complexity near the endgame, but some of the puzzles required to find the last few hidden treasures took me 20 minutes to half an hour on their own.  The game also features a co-op mode, but unfortunately this mode is only playable locally, and I was unable to test it in time; an online co-op mode would have been greatly appreciated, and it’s a shame it didn’t make it into the game.  However, as a solo experience, Trine is certainly worth your time and at least one playthrough, be it on the PSN or on Steam.

Pluses
+ Captivating visual design and excellent graphics bring the genre into a setting it hasn’t seen in years
+ Well-handled physics engine allows for clever puzzling with minimal glitches
+ Three unique characters each offer a distinct, varied style of play while promoting teamwork
+ Understated, yet extremely well-composed soundtrack offers a haunting, yet fitting presence to the levels

Minuses
- Both control options are proficient in certain areas, yet slightly frustrating in others; neither is perfect
- The presence of an offline-only co-op mode is a bit of a bummer
- RPG elements, while a welcome addition, can occasionally render the otherwise well-designed puzzles obsolete

Available now on Steam and the European PlayStation Store, coming to the US PlayStation Store on October 22nd, 2009.
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Completed all stages of the PC version on Normal difficulty; obtained all hidden treasures and several stage completion bonuses.  Experimented with both mouse/keyboard and gamepad control schemes.
A promotional copy of the PC version of the game was provided by Frozenbyte for review purposes.
Final Verdict: While Trine is a relatively short title, it fits its price tag well, delivering a downloadable title with both graphics and gameplay that rival the best currently available in its genre.  The lack of online co-op is slightly frustrating, but fans of the platformer genre and fantasy settings should try it as soon as possible.