Trine 2 is the sequel to Trine and developed by Finnish developer Frozenbyte who also publish the game on PC; while Atlus publish the console versions. It offers 1-3 player co-op both online and offline for this puzzle platform game.
The story begins a while after the events of the original as the three heroes (The Thief Zoya, The Knight Pontius and The Wizard Amadeus) are once again brought together by the Trine. The heroes are brought to an unknown land and thrust straight into their adventure. Your characters will talk to each other throughout the story offering clues to overcoming challenges sometimes but mostly pointing out things in the environment or just some general banter about what’s going on.
The gameplay involves using the different skills of each character to get past obstacles and solve puzzles that appear throughout the game. Each character is unique and most levels will need all of their skills in order to complete them. Zoya the Thief uses a bow to attack enemies and her rappel ability lets her swing on certain surfaces that she attaches her rappel to. Rappelling tends to be mainly on wooden objects like tree branches and wooden platforms. She can have her skills upgraded to let her become invisible for short periods of time as well as firing frost arrows that freeze enemies and fire arrows which can be upgraded to explosive arrows for dispatching enemies or destroying objects. Amadeus the Wizard is able to conjure boxes which can be used as platforms or weights or even traps to drop on weaker enemies and he can manipulate objects by levitating them. He is unable to take part properly n combat and can’t damage the biggest of foes making him the most useful character out of combat but quite weak in most battles. He can be upgrade to conjure more objects at once as well as being able to conjure platforms and he can also be allowed to levitate enemies which he can then drop to damage or drop them into traps etc. Finally Pontius the Knight is your main combatant, he has access to a sword and shield combination that will protect him from various attacks and environmental hazards and he also carries a large hammer which can be used to destroy objects and inflict large amounts of damage to foes. He can be upgraded to throw his hammer then later he can give it an explosive attack when it’s fully charged. He can gain a charge where he sprints a short distance which allows him to jump larger gaps or knock enemies down. He can upgrade his shield to freeze enemies that attack it and then upgrade his sword with a flaming attack.
The puzzles vary in difficulty but the hardest ones tend to be those that involve getting water from one point to another. Most of the puzzles can be solved solely with Amadeus but occasionally Zoya or Pontius are needed. Having the ability to make lots of crates unfortunately solves most puzzles and that coupled with Zoya’s rappel tend to get you through 80% of the game. Combat on the other hand is most easily solved with Pontius unsurprisingly. Zoya is reasonable depending on how good you are at dodging the foes attacks and Amadeus is mostly helpless in combat especially against multiple opponents. Luckily almost all the puzzles and combats can be taken from all sorts of perspectives and can be solved in many ways though the easiest options tend to be the same most times. Upgrades are earned via collecting enough potion vials to earn another upgrade point. Upgrades can be accessed at any point and can be spent or saved for higher cost upgrades.
The co-op is both offline and online and is the way the game was meant to be played. You have two types of co-op one where each player is one of the characters and the other is unlimited and allows any combination of the characters including doubles and triples of each character. As with the single player you respawn at checkpoints and take no hindrance other than being moved back to the checkpoint though hitting a checkpoint will also warp players forwards to the checkpoint if they are behind which can lead being a little annoyed if you in the midst of doing something.
The presentation isn’t realistic but keeps a sort of high fantasy feel which ends up making the game look gorgeous. Sometime it can be a little bright but some of the highlights are the forests and the storm sea level which at points is absolutely breath-taking. The design is truly amazing and some of the scenes are just wonderful to look at and take in.
The audio is full of some beautiful tunes and some solid voice acting which really brings the characters to life. The narrator can be a little emotionless which makes the unlockable poems less impactful. Sound effects are nice and the ambient nice in some levels is exceptional for setting the tone.
Story
The story is actually pretty interesting if not a little obvious at times but mainly serves to unravel the events for your characters which is very entertaining as they are all interesting to listen to. The collectable poems actually bring a fair bit of backstory and are quite an enjoyable read.
Presentation and Audio
The game looks stunning; some of the elements are just incredibly impressive to look at like the giant snail or the growing plants. Even the weather effects look brilliant such as the rain in the ocean level. The narrator can be a little bland at times but the talk between the protagonists is interesting and normally a little funny to listen to.
Gameplay
Gameplay is solid and has a huge amount of variation. The game offers a lot of leniency with how to approach a puzzle or combat and the upgrade approach lets you further your characters in the direction you please. Co-op is how the game is meant to be played but it does give much easier solutions to the puzzles than single player does.
Overall
The game is best played in co-op but is still and enjoyable as a single player experience, it has some genuinely fun gameplay and the “you chose how” approach to puzzle solving is always good. The new graphics engine is incredible and really serves to engross you into the games world and the voices are nice and give some fun dialogue.
Comments
Play with other people is recommended and playing with people you know is always better as you may get left behind on more than one occasion. I thoroughly enjoyed the story even though some of it was obvious. The puzzles themselves were fun but I found myself doing the same solutions to most of the puzzles, which was using Amadeus’ crates to build something for me to jump from/to. The most interesting puzzles tended to be the ones to get to the unlockable chests. Finding all the experience vials was one of the more rewarding challenges and I still have some to find in a few of the levels which I will find eventually. Completing the game is a reward experience despite being a little anticlimactic and hopefully more levels will come to Trine 2 as its very deserving of more content.
Disclaimerr:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
