The first two games in Frozenbyte’s Trine series were whimsical 2D puzzle platformers. A third title, Artifacts of Power, switched to 3D and offered a shorter adventure that left some fans cold. Trine 4 throws away that extra dimension, and feels much more like the series at its best.
Returning players will know the drill by now, but no context is needed to jump right into this fourth tale. Pontius is a rotund knight with a melee attack and a shield, Amadeus is the cheerful mage that can conjure boxes, and Zoya is a sneaky thief with a bow. Journeying through visually captivating and disparate environments, you’ll have to combine the skills of all three characters by switching between them to solve puzzles blocking your path.
The skeletal story sees our trio of heroes set off to retrieve a runaway prince, whose nightmares are manifesting and terrorising the land. Instead of a rich narrative, we get the charming banter of the central trio and the gorgeous art design. In the kingdom of Trine, even dungeons and caves are full of vibrant fauna and minute detail. Landscapes feel epic despite the restrictive perspective, and beautiful fantasy creatures await in every area.
The central puzzle mechanics are still clever and there are many different ways to tackle them. Crossing a perilous chasm could be a job for Amadeus’ levitation, Zoya’s rope, or some combination of everyone’s abilities. Multiplayer is back, so you can group and navigate the Rube Goldberg environmental design as a team. Aside from some impressive boss fights, battling the prince’s shadow creatures is the games weakest aspect. Combat feels stiff and imprecise, but that feels like a mild quibble about such a consistently pleasing experience.
Comments 14
If I find the controls and the combat of the earlier Trines too floaty, will I still have this problem here?
i'll probably wait until this is in a sale, i kinda expected this to be in the £10-15 range (and the previous ones might not have been even that), not £25.
i loved trine 3 although it was short but it was an easy platinum and i think I got it for about a fiver in the sale. Too many smaller games i want to play but know the price will go down - waiting until Hat in Time, Dead Cells, Unruly Heroes are all under £8.
@Bartig
They are slightly different, and no so tricky to use.
I like the old style, but this will take you no time to get used to.
For the £25 price tag, it's very short. Lovely game though.
@GoodGame not really it’s like 12 hours
I'll never forget playing the first game in 3D on a giant projector screen with my mate. Fantastic game experience.
Can this be played completely solo?
@Bartig yes, floaty is a good word to describe it.
@Nightcrawler71 absolutely, Trine games work great solo. Co op is a happy bonus
@kendomustdie Cool, thanks 👍
Physical version only $25 day one and well worth the price to support the Dev's.
Is the game as short as this review?
Just poking fun, but I would like to know more about the rpg elements, and how they've returned. Trine 2 was the best, in my opinion, for how much more potential and variance there was to customise each character, and the wizard wasn't useless in combat, because you could grab enemies, or turn your boxes into explosives... Can you tell me a little about how this one compares? I understand combat isn't as big a part as puzzle solving and exploration, but I always thought it was a bit weak that, if you had wanted to play as only 1 character the whole way, you basically couldn't be the wizard, as in the most recent installment, he had no real way to defend himself!
For me, the highlight of the game was really just playing with 2 other friends, and trying to mess with each other and push one another into traps!
Will be keen to hit this up at some stage,but $48 Aussie banana republic dollars a bit beyond my price range atm. Hope it still does well for the devs. Looks pretty much what you'd want out of a Trine game if you're a fan.
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