If you missed Trine the first time around, it’s a shame … but understandable. Trine was a wonderful puzzle game that, unfortunately, slipped under most people’s radar. Luckily for gamers, Trine managed to make enough of a blip in the market for the right people to take notice and greenlight a sequel. Enter Trine 2, available now on Xbox LIVE Arcade, PlayStation Network, and as a PC download.
If you’re already familiar with the first Trine, then you’re already set for the sequel. For those of you that missed out, though, here’s a quick rundown: A wizard, a thief, and a knight walk into a room … okay, I know this sounds like a bad D&D joke just waiting to happen, but bear with me. These adventurers are all brought together by an artifact called the Trine. The trio are bound together by the Trine and forced to make their way through a side scrolling world, each using his or her unique abilities to progress. The wizard can conjure up boxes out of thin air, the thief is armed with a trust hook and line to swing around, and the knight … well, the knight just likes to bash things with his sword and shield.
Trine 2 follows the same formula as the original. Players must use each of the three adventurers’ special abilities, switching between them on the fly, to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles to ultimately free the kingdom from the forces of darkness … again. What makes Trine 2 such a fun game is that you’re given a bag of tools and pretty much left to your own devices to figure it out. For example, say you’ve got to get up to a high platform. You might use the thief to fire a rope and swing up to higher ground. Or you can use the wizard to conjure up a staircase of boxes to climb. Or you can use the knight to … okay, so the knight wouldn’t be much help here, but you get the idea.
If any of you old school gamers out there remember the Blizzard classic The Lost Vikings, that’s what Trine and Trine 2 reminds me off. Of course, technology has come a long way since those 16-bit days, especially in the graphics department. Simply put, Trine 2 looks amazing. I honestly can’t think of an XBLA or PSN game that looks half as gorgeous at Trine 2 does. I spent at least as much time staring at the screen in awe as I did actually trying to come up with creative solutions for the game’s puzzles. Every screen in Trine 2 looks like a watercolor painting in motion.
As much as I could go on and on gushing about how Trine 2 looks and how much it exercises your brain, it still falls a little short of perfection. For starters, as much thinking as you have to do to progress in the game, whenever it actually tosses any sort of enemies at you, there’s never any challenge. A few well placed button taps in the right spot and even the largest bosses fall apart like used tissue paper. It feels almost like the developers got together and said, “Oh, I guess we should throw in some combat. That’s what all the cool games have these days, right?” Still, it’s a minor gripe on an otherwise phenomenal experience.
Following in the footsteps of the original game, Trine 2 is a marvel to behold and well worth its budget download price. It’s got an engaging story, fun characters, a beautiful backdrop, and more than enough mental challenges to keep you (and a few friends, thanks to local and online co-op play) busy for days. And even after you manage to beat the game, there’s so much more to find and so many different ways to solve the puzzles, you’ll find yourself craving just one more go at it. And at the end of the day, any adventure that leaves you itching for more is an adventure well worth taking.
