Hace mucho tiempo que tengo ganas de hablar de Trine, el exitoso juego de FrozenByte que ya tiene un par de años a sus espaldas. Y quĂ© momento mejor que este, en el que Trine II se acerca a las estanterĂas y FrozenByte estĂĄ permitiendo comprar el juego por el precio que desees en su campaña Humble FrozeByte Bundle de la que ya hablamos hace unos dĂas.
The Game is available for Playstation Network, PC, Linux and Mac with prices varying between âŹ10 and âŹ20 depending on the platform (Available through Steam and App Store for example). And although it is a totally deserved price, remember that during the next 10 days, you can buy it here for the price you choose.
But what is so special about this 2D platformer?
Trine tells us the typical story of a cursed and abandoned kingdom, which ended like this after enjoying a long period of peace with the death of the king without an heir. This caused chaos among the citizens, a moment that the undead legions took advantage of to attack and conquer the kingdom. Years after this event, Zoya the thief, infiltrates the astral academy trying to find some treasure, in turn, Amadeus the magician, was studying the heavens and Pontius the knight, arrived to protect the academy. When the 3 touch the relic, the artifact (Trine) curses our 3 heroes uniting them, allowing them to coexist, one in physical form and two in non-corporeal form.
This is where we take control, allowing us to change characters instantly thanks to said curse, this brings a twist to the gameplay since we can face dangers in different ways: the thief will be able to attack enemies from a distance and hang from some surfaces thanks to her bow and hook. The magician can move objects with magic, and create boxes out of nothing. And the knight will allow us to fight enemies with ease. Throughout the story we can also improve our characters, going through an improvement tree as we wish that will allow us to specialize as we want.
The story will take us through many scenarios to help our heroes. The beauty of these is unmatched for a 2D platform game and we will see all kinds of details on the screen that will leave us stunned. The settings are rich, colorful, and seem alive, the models of our 3 heroes are incredible, having excellent details such as the movement of clothing, although perhaps, as a negative point, the enemies (almost all skeletons) are much poorer and in some locations the settings are somewhat similar and tend to repeat themselves.
A great point about Trine is that apart from being a platformer, it is a game based on a physics engine, Nvidiaâs PhysX, that is, everything that is presented to us on the stage moves with respect to the forces of gravity. This, apart from being a luxury as a concept, complicates some puzzles excessively, but it is the price that must be paid for complying with the laws of a physical engine. As an advantage, this will allow us, for example: to place a magicianâs box on a support and see how gravity exerts its power to collapse everything.
The music is very successful, placing us in a medieval location, and the dubbing is more than correct, fully involving the players in the story. The excellent work is that of the narrator** who tells us how the characters progress between levels, in a perfect way, thus allowing the player to enjoy the loading screens.
As negative points, I would have liked a little more variety in the enemies since 90% of the enemies are skeletons. Also, I didnât like the final boss and the entire last mission, not because of its difficulty, but because of its change of focus, turning the game into a time-trial platform that didnât win me over at all.
I didnât like the offline cooperative mode, since there are only three heroes, and being able to switch between them instantly, doesnât help the cooperative spirit in which one helps the other. Maybe it would have been better if they forced the use of a single character in cooperative.
Note
- Presentation: The story, although already very trite, is the typical one that places us perfectly in a medieval environment. The narrator on the loading screens is a great detail that makes us grow fonder of the three heroes.8
- Graphics: The graphics are very good, the 3D backgrounds have great detail, in addition to having very attractive colors, the drawing distance helps you feel the depth much more. 8.5
- Duration and Engagement: The game lasts about 5 hours, which will probably keep you sitting on the couch. It is not a long duration, although it can be extended somewhat by replaying it in a different way and discovering some secret chests. 7.5
- Final Note: Trine is one of those games that takes your eye as soon as you see it, and as you play it you like it more and more, although it is a shame that the ending breaks a great product for my taste. A must if you like the genre of puzzles and platforms. 8