Trine (PC) review "It's a good thing that trine is only a handful of hours in length because while it definitely is a clever take on the puzzle platform genre, there just isn't enough to really justify a full length game. The combat is frequently tedious, and the backgrounds often feel unpleasant to look at, being overly dark though quite lush. Get in, try out the clever ideas, and get out before you tire. And you will tire."

Trine is a game that doesn't try too hard. And for this, it is especially delightful. Its gameplay consists of varying parts of puzzling, platforming, and combat, and it supplies the user with three characters who can be switched between at will, somewhat like Lost Vikings. Woven together by a story clearly secondary to the game, trine is just the kind of casual distraction we need from all the over-complicated games we mostly get.

The first character is the thief, who is nimble, can grapple around, and fire arrows. As a platformer, she's obviously the best and will be your go-to character in traversing most such segments, particularly because her grapple can save you from many a slip and fall. She's also the most fun in combat, getting a delightful bow and arrow.

The second character is the wizard, who can make and move objects. He has almost no combat usefulness, and exists entirely for his clever ability to add platforms and grapple points to the map. Where the thief is adventurous and fun, using the wizard is always an anxious moment because of his inability to defend himself. Fortunately, most of the best puzzles involve clever uses of his platforms.

If the game were just the thief and the wizard, you probably wouldn't complain because the third character, the warrior, exists seemingly only because the game's creators wanted to complicate your platforming by sending waves and waves of skeleton warriors after you, and the warrior is quite effective in this role. Unfortunately, combat with the warrior is also fairly boring, and he has next to no use in the puzzling aspects.

It's a good thing that trine is only a handful of hours in length because while it definitely is a clever take on the puzzle platform genre, there just isn't enough to really justify a full length game. The combat is frequently tedious, and the backgrounds often feel unpleasant to look at, being overly dark though quite lush. Get in, try out the clever ideas, and get out before you tire. And you will tire.

Community review by Typodragon (March 12, 2011) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.