Trine Enchanted Edition Reviews

Worth

o/

Get me off this trine

Great game.

Complete masterpiece 👌

[h2]Old and slightly janky but VERY fun puzzle platformer[/h2] [b]Trine[/b] as a series is in a weird spot because it's like... kind of indie but not really? Like it's not the kind of thing that you'd look at and go [i]"oh yeah that's an indie game"[/i] because these games make a point of always trying to look as cutting-edge as possible for their time. 2009 in this case. They put their all into making sure the graphics leave an impression on you. Having read up on the history of it, Frozenbyte seemingly was on a pretty rough spot at the time, having tried pitching AAA projects to big-name publishers and kind of... suffering heavily in development and leaving the studio in shambles. Trine being a sort of last ditch, smaller-scope passion project to hopefully save them. [i]And save them it did, considering how well it reviewed and apparently sold, and considering they still seem to be making these to this day.[/i] Anyway to get to the game itself, you probably saw the trailer above on this same store page, but it's a 2.5D puzzle platformer. And a RIDICULOUSLY pretty-looking one at that too, for a 2009 game. Granted, the "enchanted edition" comes with a few after-the-fact graphical touchups but it's still impressive for what it is all things considered. Didn't have an exactly massive budget going for it, either. The [b]gameplay[/b] mainly revolves around puzzle-solving with the game's physics engine, using the three main characters' abilities. The [i]wizard[/i] can summon and move physics objects of different shapes and sizes by drawing out the shapes (which can get a bit old after a while but it IS very neat, drawing out the things you wanna create yourself). The [i]thief[/i] has a bow and arrow for combat, and a grappling hook to climb up (and swing from) wooden objects (and the wizard's own platforms later on) The [i]knight[/i] has a sword and shield and is mostly designed for combat, since he's the only one with an actual normal melee attack and a shield to block projectiles. But he IS useful for puzzles too, since he can serve as a shield to get through dangerous hazards or as a platform for the other players. On that note, yes, [i]other players[/i]. The game's designed with co-op in mind, be it local or online. There's three protagonists after all, so it makes perfect sense to let multiple people control the party and make use of their unique character abilities to work through stages together. [i]And it's SUPER fun![/i] Really the game as a whole is super fun, long as you have the small amount of patience required for any kind of puzzle-solving. Especially considering a lot of puzzles here have multiple solutions or ways of going about them, with the different characters as their abilities. Hell, once you've obtained some upgrades (forgot to mention there's a levelling system that encourages exploring to find XP pickups) you can cheese a lot of the game with the wizard's boxes, with enough creativity and abuse of the physics engine. They really let you go wild with that stuff. But yeah, on that note. Exploration is heavily encouraged, for XP collectibles and for equippable items you can find in hidden chests. So there's at least a bit of replayability in going back to find the stuff you missed so you can obtain all the upgrades, though they're gonna be a bit useless once you've 100%ed the game and have nothing else to do with those upgrades. There's also a couple extra side achievements for doing very specific mini-challenges, if you care about those. I 100%ed the game and they were fine, though it didn't feel like they added much beyond a couple hours of extra playtime. Honestly? [b]My main and only real gripe with this game is the execution, design and polish of some aspects of it.[/b] It's a very fun game, again, but a lot of things feel half-designed or like they weren't thought through very well. Like, the physics engine is used not only for puzzles but also for handling movement of players and enemy entities, so sometimes the jank can get in the way of the gameplay a little bit. Ledge grabbing can occasionally crap out, enemies can occasionally get stuck trying to climb up and chase after you (their AI is [i]very good[/i], it's just that it has to rely on the physics engine to actually get to you). Every character has a [b]magic meter[/b] next to their health meter which limits your use of things as basic as the wizard's box summoning, and it feels needlessly limiting when many of these moves are necessary (or at least very useful) for puzzle solving. Enemies and such can drop magic potions (and health), but it recovers SO LITTLE that it feels pointless. You kinda have to either mind your usage of abilities or keep touching the same checkpoint over and over to recharge. There's also the equipment system, which again! It's very neat that they encourage exploration by letting you find useful trinkets to equip on the party! But most of those have such minor and insignificant effects that it brings to question why they're even there to begin with, other than as filler! There's useful items like the one that revives a character on death once per stage, but then there's stuff like "10% more health", or "slightly reduced damage to the character's arms". Like... [i]why bother with those, beyond padding out collectible hunting by adding extra chests to put them in?[/i] [h3]Anyway don't let that take away from the game, I do still think it's a very fun time, even moreso if you have one or two friends to play it with, the teamwork really adds to the fun factor. Very recommended.[/h3] Hell, it gets even better from the second game and beyond, I've been playing through the series with a friend. But this first game is still a very good starting point in itself to see the series grow from.

The game boasts an exceptionally high-quality production, making it a model for two to three-player games. However, the flaws in the mechanics of the first instalment are evident, with significant differences in the efficiency of different characters when progressing through levels. This disparity is especially pronounced in multiplayer mode, where some characters can feel quite underwhelming.

---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☑ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☐ Kids ☑ Teens ☑ Adults ☐ Grandma ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☑ Potato ☐ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{ Difficulty }--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☐ Easy ☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Significant brain usage ☐ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---{ Story }--- ☐ No Story ☐ Some lore ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Lovely ☐ It'll replace your life ---{ Game Time }--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☑ Short ☐ Average ☐ Long ☐ To infinity and beyond ---{ Price }--- ☐ It's free! ☐ Worth the price ☑ If it's on sale ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just burn your money ---{ Bugs }--- ☑ Never heard of ☐ Minor bugs ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs ---{ 7 / 10 }---

Good game with nice grapics for its time and interesting mechanics. I especially enjoyed the coop-mode with two friends.