Trine Preview

Trine’s story unfolds almost like a fairy tale

Somewhere around the turn of the millennium, Platform games seemed to fall out of favour. Despite one or two nicely crafted titles appearing once in a blue moon since, it seems to have taken the release of MediaMolecule’s LittleBigPlanet to inject more life into this ailing genre.

What’s more, it’s nice to see that new platform games are learning that most valuable lesson in game design – 3D isn’t the be all and end all, and sometimes you’re far better off sticking to a side-on view and merely using 3D to enhance your game’s artistic style rather than bunging in a fully rotating camera system.

When I first heard about Trine, it piqued my interest because it seemed to hark back to those heady days when most home videogame systems had to rely on big bloated but beautifully designed sprites and colourful background graphics to draw the player in. Games like Kid Chameleon, James Pond: Robocod and Zool were utterly fantastic back in the 16-bit era.

Trine promised to deliver the sort of experience where control systems are easy to get to grips with, and the emphasis is on beautiful art direction and seriously challenging level design. Throw in a soupcon of physics and realtime combat and you’re onto something of a winner.

Trine’s story unfolds almost like a fairy tale. A gentle voiceover (which sounds eerily like Jim Dale’s narrator from the TV Series “Pushing Up Daisies”) introduces each of the game’s three main characters in turn, guiding you through their story to their first encounter with a mysterious and powerful magical artifact.

First you play the thief. She specialises in ranged combat (with the aid of a bow and arrow) and is adept at navigating tricky caverns and platforms with the aid of a climbing rope. Stealth and sneaking are also among her specialities and she is the first to find the mysterious gem. Alas, her avarice is her undoing and soon she falls under its spell, stuck to the gem until she can be rescued.

Next a wry wizard is introduced. Naturally the wizard can use magic spells for both offensive and defensive measures with the ability to levitate heavy objects for short periods of time. Despite his slightly wizened appearance, fancies himself as a bit of a ladies man. When he sees the thief struggling to escape the magical force’s iron grip, he naturally comes to the aid of the damsel in distress, causing him to become stuck too.

Finally the last character introduced is the knight. He comes to investigate a possible break in at the royal treasure chamber, and using powerful melee attacks and strong armour, the knight is definitely a case of brawn over brains. Before long he finds the two other characters trapped by the magical crystal, and in laying hands on it triggers off events that draw all three characters into the mysterious and dangerous world within.

With some of the most sumptuous presentation you’ll see in a game this year, Trine’s introductory levels work as both a tutorial and a narrative – and once you’re thrown into the magical puzzle levels, it’s up to you to work out which one of the characters is best suited for the challenge ahead. Developers Frozenbyte have constructed devious networks of platforms, ramps, spikes and various other hazards to navigate. The mysterious world within the crystal isn’t uninhabited either – and you’ll need your wits about you to combat the various denizens you’ll encounter, like the skeleton warriors (which are beautifully animated but as tough as nails) and winged demons.

Trine may feel like it rolls out every sword and sorcery cliché in the book, but because of the obvious love that has been poured into the game, everything fits together beautifully. Though the game can be completed in single-player mode, the three-player co-op mode is superbly constructed, with each player taking on one of the roles and complimenting the other player’s abilities to overcome obstacles and puzzles.

Despite the mainly 2D / left to right approach of the game, 3D is used to good effect to flesh out each level and provide some of the game’s more spectacular moments of graphical wizardry (if you’ll pardon the pun).

Though Frozenbyte may be a small time development studio, Trine has obviously impressed enough bigwigs to warrant both a PSN and an Xbox Live Arcade release as well as the currently available PC / Steam version.

Whichever you choose, you’re in for a classic slice of platform gaming that may go some way to aiding the current revival of interest in the entire platforming genre for a new generation of hungry gamers slowly getting tired and bored of lacklustre and soulless open-world titles.