Trine Reviewed

Trine was released in July of 2009 for the PC and on the Playstation Network later that year. Trine is a side-scrolling action platform and puzzle video game developed by the Finnish company, Frozenbyte. Currently, an Xbox Live Arcade version is being developed by third-party company Atlus.

In Trine, you play three different characters at the same time but not simultaneously. I know that sounds odd but imagine three characters forced to share the same space. Only one can be present in the material realm at once so you have the ability to hot-swap between them as you come across obstacles that may be easily solved by different characters. You play a thief, a wizard and a knight. There is, however, a cooperative feature that allows your friend to play one of the three characters with you simultaneously.

The wizard has the ability to create steam-punk shapes and devices that allow you to solve the puzzles with ease. The thief can shoot a bow and arrow and use a grappling hook to swing from one platform to another. The knight has a sword for melee and a shield to defend against obstacles and enemies. The wizard can move objects telepathically as well as create objects out of thin air.

Game play is smooth and the music is absolutely perfect for the environment. This is a very artistic game and one that uses the Nvidia Phys-x engine quite well. Even almost a year out of development, this title still has the look and feel of a game rumored years down the road.

Metacritic gave Trine a score in the low 80s while Gamespot gave it an Editor’s Choice award at E3. This is a game worth purchasing especially at its current price of $5.00 USD.