Amadeus the Wizard, Zoya the Thief, and Pontius the Knight must again taskle over a dozen 2.5D platforming and puzzle-heavy levels using their unique skills - either played solo or, once again, preferentially in coop. It’s a sequel that looks even more like a CG movie than the first, gave each hero a name and backstory, reintroduced the Trine, and then flung them into battle against an evil sorcerous and her goblin lackeys. With Trine 2, Frozenbyte decided to refine, rather than reinvent the wheel. You can pick up Trine Enchanted Edition on PC, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch (and it’ll come to Xbox One before the launch of the fourth game). In addition, coop requires you get all your characters past an obsticle, making for a hilarious couch-coop experience. In coop, the ability to combine two or more skills simultaneously opens the way for some creative solutions, in which you can be certain your box, plank, and Knight stack was never the optimal way forward. Played solo, you can swap between characters on the fly, picking the best fit for any situation, and cruise past many obstacles. Instead, Trine actively encourages creativity, especially when played in coop. However, these upgrades will never halt your your progress. There’s a basic skill tree to upgrade and an equipment system – with XP pickups and gear often secreted away – expanding the versatility of your core skills and providing your selected character with health or mana buffs respectively. Picking up and flinging rocks, or simply summoning a box high above a clueless goblin, becomes your primary and amusing means of attack. The wizard can jump about like the rest of the crew but has no direct combat abilities, relying instead on his ability to manipulate distant objects and summon boxes, planks, or floating platforms. The Thief is the best pick for speed and ranged combat. She’s also armed with a bow that can shoot several arrow types, triggering distant traps and picking off distant enemies if you get the angle right. The Thief is by far the nimblest of the three, with a grappling hook that allows her to swing from most surfaces, cross huge gaps, and clamber up and down pits. The Knight is the best pick for close combat but has limited platforming skill. The Knight is the most straight forward of the three, able to block attacks and fireballs with his shield, swipe with his sword, and throw a massive hammer at distant targets. Aside from the narration during the loading screens, there's only infrequent character quips in-game, so don’t approach these games looking for a narrative-heavy adventure. The three (at the time unnamed) protagonists - each of which have their own appraoch to platforming and combat - are bound to the Trine artefact and sent on a quest to recover three fragments, then defeat an undead king and his army, and finally restore peace to the land. Presentation aside (something that is much improved in the Enchanted Edition), the real draw is the simple yet engaging puzzling and platforming mechanics, which rely on an entertaining blend of physics, speed, creativity, and coordination. Retro-style games were making a comeback but this 2.5D indie puzzle-platformer sported 3-player local-coop, gorgeous visuals that could compete with contemporary “AAA” titles, and it had an enchanting soundtrack from Ari Pulkkinen to boot. 2009, was developed and released by Frozenbyte with little fanfare, yet quickly picked up a sizeable audience. This weekly post aims to highlight some of those games we’ve got around to playing but never got around to reviewing. Unfortunately, that often means far too many good indie titles fly under the radar without the recognition they deserve. Simply keeping on top of the steady release of “AAA” game is challenging enough these days, with a larger market than ever before, and a massive number of devs and publishers trying to sate that demand.
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