The week before last finally saw the release of Trine on the PSN, after a much-anticipated window between the PSN and PC launch of the game. Chances are you've already heard the game praised in a few circles by now, and I can definitely back that up by saying that the game is absolutely fantastic. It makes the transition from mouse and keyboard quite well, and I'd actually say I prefer playing the game with a standard controller set-up in comparison to the time I spent playing the PC version of the game. Besides that, the experience remains pretty much intact. Chances are you can push for some slightly better visuals from the PC version of the game, which is to be expected, but it looks really, really nice on the PS3, and absolutely worth checking out as either a first purchase or a second play through. Also worth noting, it's one of the few $20 PSN titles that comes packed with a platinum trophy for all of you trophy hunters out there, and you'll have a pretty fun time (and sometimes frustrating) time trying to get that one.
As the game begins we're introduced to the three main characters of the tale, these are the guys (and gal) that you'll be controlling throughout the adventure. The set-up is pretty basic, the world was full of magic, life was good, and then an evil crept in and distorted things. With the world now in chaos, these three characters, a Wizard, Thief, and Knight, end up stumbling upon an ancient artifact called The Trine. All three of the characters become bonded to the artifact, which causes them to fuse together into one entity. This is where the gameplay comes into effect; you'll swap between the three characters on the fly using the top buttons on the Dualshock controller, using all three characters to overcome puzzles and other obstacles that relate to their special abilities.
The Thief, the most nimble of the three, comes with a grappling hook that can attach to wooden surfaces, and her weapon of choice is a bow and arrow, the only real ranged attack you get in the game. The Wizard can use his magic to create objects and levitate items, necessary for traversing large gaps or scaling larger walls by placing objects as footstools. The Knight is your primary melee guy, you'll use him a lot against the basic undead enemies you encounter, but he's also useful for getting through falling objects by using his shield, of for quickly weighing down platforms and pushing heavier objects out of the way.
The game incorporates a pretty nifty physics system, so objects tend to react in a realistic way to the actions your group of heroes perform. The Knight will sink like a rock in water, due to his heavy armor, while the other two can at least swim about. If you jump on a platform that's suspended in mid-air by a rope or chain, it'll sway about why you move instead of remaining static, which is something that you'll end up making use of quite often. Even when the Thief attaches her grappling hook to objects you'll see them pull a bit and move around, so nothing in the game really feels like it's nailed into place, giving the environment around you a sense of realism you don't see very often in a 2D platform/puzzler set-up.
Granted, the game isn't in true 2D, but your playing field never deviates from that perspective. All the platforming and puzzles work well in the game, and while there are a few difficult instances, I never felt like I couldn't get out of a situation or figure something out. There are some tough enemy fights too, and while the basic skeleton foes get a little repetitive, occasionally they'll toss a new enemy at you that causes you to rethink your basic fight encounter. It doesn't happen nearly enough, and it's one of my minor complaints with the game, but I'm willing to give some of the tedious combat situations a pass since the platforming and puzzle elements are so well done.
Trine also makes use of an experience and item system, and most levels are littered with the little green vials that make up your experience potions. These are pretty much the carrots that are dangled in front of the player's face as you play. Most of the puzzles are generally easy to figure out, as far as getting from point A to point B, but when it comes to collecting all the experience in a given level, it often takes a little more ingenuity. A lot of the replay value for Trine comes from these little items, and most of the trophies in the PS3 version are tied into collecting all of them for each level. The experience, as you might suspect, levels up your group after collecting a set amount. Once you level up, you're granted a skill point to devote to whatever particular abilities you have opened up at the time. Overtime you'll unlock new abilities, like the fire arrow for the Thief, but the skill upgrades become more and more expensive as well, requiring multiple level ups before you can even use the skill points gathered.
Equipment in the game is typically tucked away in chests, and while the game does tend to auto-equip, you might want to go in and tinker around with whom it equips things to. I came across a couple instances where it would drop magic specific items onto my Knight instead of the Wizard, which was a little odd. Not a big deal though, as you'll typically want to see what your new drops do anyways. Equipment does alter some abilities a bit, and it plays a pretty important role at making your characters more powerful and better suited to handling certain encounters. That said, the equipment drops seem to be pretty far and few between, so it's not something you'll see falling all over the place like in an action/RPG title or anything like that.
All together, Trine is absolutely worth picking up. There are very few titles on the PSN currently that play anything like it, and the mix of puzzle solving and platforming is extremely well done. Combat is a little boring from time to time, but you'll be caught up in the game's extremely well polished mechanics in no time, and like me, you'll probably ignore the few minor issues the game has with fighting. I was really happy to see the port handled as well as it was, especially given the somewhat lengthy delay, but everything seems to be pretty intact here. The small changes to the controls, like the Thief's grappling hook auto locking onto surfaces (instead of mouse control) works surprisingly well, so I don't think Trine fans will have any issues playing the title on another platform. It's a really well done title, and totally worth your time.
