I’ll begin by recounting how exactly I discovered Trine. Browsing the net, a little bird informed me some thing known as Humble Frozenbyte Bundle. Frozenbyte, an indie video game firm hailing from Finland, partnered with The Humble Bundle. How the Humble Bundle operates is simple and saintly: you pay whatever you fancy, you will get various video games, and it all goes toward nonprofit charities. You could virtually pay one penny, and you'll get hold of all of these games (but come on, 1 cent?). I thought what the hell, donated some money, and downloaded Trine.

I honestly didn’t assume a lot when starting up Trine for the 1st time. That’s the positive aspect of indie game titles in my opinion, that my mind is a clear slate entering them. There’s hardly any hype or sensationalism swaying my opinion over a game before I even put my very own fingers on it. A strong judgment is made precisely on the gameplay alone, and not really based on whether it surpassed my own expectations or dissatisfied. In all honesty, I really didn't know exactly what I was getting into. Hell I didn’t actually know what genre Trine fell within.

Starting off the sport up and going into the 1st level, I was amazed with what I observed. Firstly, the action turned out to be a side-scrolling platformer (a lot to our delight). The background almost immediately caught my attention, and I also suspected that this platformer would definitely have a good deal to consider. The surroundings are really rather easy on the eyes, and they also give off a very whimsical, fabled atmosphere. All these, bundled along with the narration, genuinely make it look like you’re playing through the fairy tale.

Ruining as very little as I am able to, the tale goes a little like the following. First beginning the game, you take control of a thief as she slips within a sanctuary, wanting to get her fingers on some treasure. She finds an appealing object, the Trine. You then take control of a sorcerer, and also establish your way to the Trine. Thirdly, you take charge of a knight whom (you guessed it) gets to the Trine and touches it. The spirits of the three are merged with one another, and so they in essence turn into one. From then on, you look for a approach to turn back combination and the three heroes get thrown into something very much larger than themselves.

These commencing events from the video game, though serving as a tutorial for the three characters, creates the core mechanic of the game. That is, at just about any moment you can easily switch among one of the three heroes. This opens up various approaches that you can resolve the numerous obstacles Trine tosses your way. The wizard, my personal favorite of the three, can easily generate boards, containers, and platforms, and can furthermore relocate materials with magic. He genuinely doesn’t possess a lot of fighting abilities, other than dropping boxes on top of unsuspecting opponents scalps. The knight, on the other hand, is very excellent at eradicating things and staying in existence. Bearing a good shield, he could certainly protect from arrows or falling debris nicely. My issue with the knight is actually that even though he truly does have his uses, his abilities simply aren’t as awesome as the other two different heroes. He came off as your basic hero, with out much pizzazz. You will end up employing the knight quite a good deal at the start of the game, since his shield comes in handy frequently as well as he’s great at destroying skeletons. A problem came about when I got closer to to the ending, on the other hand. I personally recognized that it had gotten to the point where the thief could very well get rid of things much easier when compared with the knight. You could just volley arrows at the opponents from very far without having to worry about getting hurt. Because of this, the knight’s purpose is lessened and I didn’t apply him as much as I used to. It wasn’t that making use of him was in fact any less entertaining, simply that he had developed to be much less helpful as the video game developed. The thief was a goliath, equipped to snipe opponents by using the bow, and in a position to navigate the particular stages with simplicity many thanks to her grappling hook. I can’t count the number of situations in which grappling hook ended up saving my life, or how many treasures it let me attain. Every hero has his or her goal, and you really can’t stay to one just because you prefer them more. The thing is, every hero is actually genuinely enjoyable to utilize. Various situations called for various heroes, and it was in fact a delightful element.

Very likely my favourite feature of this video game is that there tend to be numerous techniques you are able to go about solving the complications Trine has to offer. It definitely forces you to get resourceful at moments. The wizard excels in a lot of these circumstances, as you can generate boxes and platforms and manipulate all of them right into whichever positions you need. What tends to make each circumstance in Trine more fascinating is actually the use of physics. Shifting things and swinging about by using the thief gives off an important sense of weight, and objects respond fairly realistically according to the forces applied on them. All these properties really make it enjoyable to simply play about using the setting.

Every unique character possesses diverse capabilities, and the thief along with knight each acquire different weapons to work with. While you acquire experience, in the form of green bottles spread all around the stages, ones heroes level up and also acquire proficiency points. All of these ability points are used to help upgrade the expertise of your own heroes. For instance, 1 of the actual wizard’s expertise (as I described before) was the ability to produce a box out of thin air. This is carried out by keeping down the mouse button, and painting a container where ever you prefer it produced. At the beginning, the sorcerer could basically create one box at a instance. If you level up this specific ability, he can possess additional boxes in presence at 1 period. The idea is actually a nice touch to the game, and provides an Rpg sense to Trine. Furthermore, you may possibly locate treasure chests throughout every level that will store magical items. You can certainly equip the heroes with these items, which could do everything from assisting them breath under the sea to supplying them more health. I made it a point when playing to find each and every treasure chest area in the game, plus several are usually fairly tough to detect.

The cons intended for Trine tend to be few and far between. The knight hero lost some efficiency as you get closer to the end of the video game, as the thief results in being basically as superior if perhaps not much better at destroying enemies. His abilities ended up also lacking in the awesome element. The storyline alone wasn’t extremely exceptional, and the final point (although I wasn’t ready for much out of it) was rather anticlimactic. Around the finish of the video game, the thief gets to be practically overpowered, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you could beat an full stage utilizing her alone. Frankly at this point I’m trying hard to discover issues wrong with this unique video game.

On the flipside, I couldn’t quit playing the game. I probably beat it in two or three sittings, and that was simply because responsibilities kept me personally from sitting down and conquering it in a day. The physics and tools you have at hand to cross road blocks is exciting as hell (here’s lookin’ at you wizard). The addition of items and leveling supplies this platformer a nice touch of Rpg, with out affecting the genuine platformer experience. In fact, it makes you desire to search every nook and cranny hunting for the chests and experience. And that’s not a bad thing. I was going to sit here and tell you that there was little replayability for Trine, but here I am starting it up again to beat it for the second time.

Bottom line, if you want to waste a whole day on an indie game and have fun doing it pick up Trine. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by what it brings to the table.

GamerAdvice's rating: 8/10

- Be sure to keep an eye out at the humblebundle for the next Humble Bundle project.

Oh, and look for the upcoming Trine 2 set for a late 2011 release.

Author's Bio: 

Jason Nyle is a lifelong video gamer who knows more about video games than he can recount. Find more of his writing at this video game blog