REVIEW

Trine 3: The Artifacts Of Power Review

by Sean Humphreys, August 30th, 2015

Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power is the most ambitious Trine game yet. Developer Frozenbyte has made the jump from 2D to 3D with Trine 3 and this both opens the game up in terms of design and increases the burden on the developers. Has this new ambition paid off? The answer is an unfortunate “yes and no”.

First of all however, we need to mention Trine 3’s graphics and art direction. Trine 3 is a beautiful game. The environments through which we guide Amadeus, Pontius and Zoya are colourful and varied, with excellent camera angles and composition. Each environment is filled with detail, like the enchanted brooms that sweep the floors in the Astral Academy, for example. This is without doubt a visual triumph. In one segment we find ourselves inside an enchanted book, where levels end with the turn of a page and we get a nice “toon” effect thanks to an edge detection shader. The visual variety in such a short game is worthy of praise too. You’ll be exploring ruined temples, tropical beaches, and snow-covered forests during your short time with Trine 3.

What a view indeed, Pontius.

Trine 3 opens with our heroes going about their business before once again being summoned by Trine, The Artifact of Soul, to prevent any evil-doing. Our three protagonists are fed up with being called away like this, so they try to give Trine its body-switching powers back. This backfires, unleashing Sarek, a powerful sorcerer. Having caused this mess Amadeus, Pontius and Zoya must now do whatever it takes to stop him.

The gameplay in Trine 3 continues the physics-based puzzle solving gameplay we saw in the previous games. The central hook is that, in single player mode, you switch between the three characters on the fly. The wizard Amadeus can conjure boxes out of thin air that you can manipulate; the knight Pontius brings the pain with his sword and is able to use his shield as a parachute; and thief Zoya can attack from range with arrows and makes use of a grappling hook.

With these three characters, you’ll be switching on the fly to solve puzzles, defeat enemies and traverse many physics-based obstacles. The puzzles in Trine 3 aren’t particularly hard, often involving some movable object that you can influence using either Zoya’s grappling hook or Amadeus’ magic. It’s not difficult by any means, so anyone looking for a puzzle-challenge might be a little disappointed.

Trine 3's visuals are easily its strongest point.

Trine 3’s much touted feature is its switch from the 2D perspective to a 3D one. However, Trine 3 does not feature a rotating camera like you might expect when told it’s a 3D platformer. The 3D is more akin to the God of War series – you don’t need to control the camera as it’s on rails. There are segments where you’ll be running forward into the screen, but these are few. So while yes, technically you are able to move in all directions at all times, Trine 3 still feels like a 2.5D sidescroller due to the way the camera is positioned.

However, the biggest issue with Trine 3 is its length. Trine 3 clocks in at around 4 hours and ends with the most abrupt cliffhanger to come along in a while. Such is the price to pay for an indie developer trying to move forward into (literally) a new dimension. It’s as if they had to stop it there because they ran out of money (which is exactly what happened, unfortunately). The price point of £15.99 may be a hard sell for something like this. You progress from chapter to chapter by picking up little trinkets called Trineangles. The game pulls a bit of an annoying move by gating later levels by increasingly large numbers of Trineangles, with the last chapter requiring 900 of them.

I had to go back and find missing Trineangles I hadn’t collected, which seemed to merely be an attempt to pad out the length of the game. There are levels which are designed to be Trineangle mines, in which you can only play as one of the three characters. These can sometimes be quite awkward as they have no checkpoints whatsoever, and it’s frustrating to start over and over again.

Trine 3 also features co-op play. Up to three players can join together in either classic mode, in which one player controls a character each, or unlimited mode, in which all three players can switch to whomever they like. During our online multiplayer playthrough, many of the physics-based contraptions fell foul of glitches and went haywire – at one point we launched a platform into the ceiling, preventing Amadeus from ever reaching it. In one of Pontius’s solo stages (in which we were three Pontiuses) a mine cart managed to get its wheels stuck together in one giant mess, preventing completion. It’s a shame because 3-player classic mode co-op is probably the best way to experience Trine 3 as everyone has to use their unique abilities to help each other out. Local co-op is probably the best option here, but that’s difficult to get going on PC.

Overall, Trine 3 is a beautiful game with not-too-difficult puzzles, a nice soundtrack and a great atmosphere. It’s over just as the story moves forward significantly, and may not be worth £15.99. At just 4 hours roughly, it’s the perfect game for a Steam sale. It’s a shame that Trine 3 ends the way it does, after the game’s only real boss and with an abrupt cliffhanger. Perhaps the developers aimed a little too high with this one.