Trine 2 rating7/5/2023 ![]() ![]() Perhaps the biggest complement we can hoist on Trine 2 is that it is to Trine what Portal II was to Portal: a game that builds on the strengths of a fairly small-scale but innovative project and transforms it into a bona-fide blockbuster. Without any hype and with very little fanfare, the team at Frozenbyte created one of the must-have PC games of 2011 – and a series of excellent console ports. What’s more, it’s delivered a Wii U version that is the best third-party port we’ve seen so far. If you didn’t play the original, it was a fantasy-themed 2D platformer with a difference, featuring three heroes – a wizard, a knight and a thief – who you could switch between at will. Each character had distinct capabilities. ![]() The wizard could create boxes and levitate objects. Trine 2, then, is a perfect example of what so. The knight had a shield that could repel attacks and was good in melee combat. The sequel has fixed those problems and provided even more ways to get the most out of the experience as a whole. Trine 2 takes places some years after the restoration of the kingdom of the previous game and opens with Amadeus (voiced by Kevin Howarth) sleeping after a long night trying to once again learn the elusive fireball spell.A strange light shines upon him, and beckons him to follow. Switching characters and combining skills was the only means of traversing each level and making it through to the next objective Finally, the thief could fire arrows, perform a kind of double-jump and use a grappling hook to swing between gaps or climb to otherwise unreachable areas. So far, so undistinguished, but we did say “with a difference”. For one thing, Trine made extensive use of simulated physics, with some very clever puzzles that had as much to do with weight and balance as with the usual block-shifting, switch-pulling nonsense that’s the norm for this kind of game. For another, it was extremely pretty, with beautifully rendered 3D graphics and a thick slathering of effects that made it one of the most attractive 2D platformers ever made. What’s more, you could play through the game with two players on a single PC, which turned the levels into more of a sandbox where players were free to improvise new solutions to the various puzzles. Trine 2 is basically a bigger, better and more beautiful version of the same. Lucky us, now we have a sequel, Trine 2, that offers more fun physics-based challenges, more beautiful vistas, and adds online multiplayer to the mix. The three heroes return on a brand new quest, with all new levels and all new puzzles. The puzzles are back, but there’s a new confidence and flair at work, with some devilishly complex conundrums featuring blocks, levers, gusts of air, jets of fire and rushing water that will have you tearing your hair out at times. Trine 2 takes full advantage of the possibilities that having three playable characters can offer, with one being able to switch between all three in single-player mode or have each player cycle between the bunch of them while playing cooperatively. Like Rayman Origins, Trine 2 sometimes makes you think that this is what you once expected games to look like in 2011 in the days when 2D platformers ruled the roost. Each level is beautifully designed and animated, with such sumptuous levels of background detail that you almost wish you had more time to admire the scenery. It's like Frozenbyte are saying “Oh, did we make Trine? We meant this.” The same moderate puzzling challenge, the same characters, the same charm and some problems fixed.The Wii U version is particularly impressive. Trine 2 may retread a lot of old ground, but it's beautiful. And that moment where the Wizard decides to avoid a boss fight, hanging out by the partner-regenerating checkpoints while an endless stream of Thieves and Knights do the work. It solves some huffier moments, like when the Thief realises she's a complete spare wheel. ![]() It's more chaotic, more flexible, and more fun. Tucked away in the 'host a game' options, this allows multiples of each class on screen. But life's too easy with a magic carpet.Ī more elegant solution is Unlimited mode. Firstly, the Wizard can levitate items that he's standing on in multiplayer. ![]() Frozenbyte have addressed this in two ways. More fundamentally, dividing the powers between three players, instead of one player swapping between the powers as he sees fit, means that progress that could only previously be made by one character now has to be achievable by all three. ![]()
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