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I Get By with a Little Help from my Friends
Product: Trine
Company: Atlus
Date: 06/10/2009
Avaliable On:

Every E3 is full of buzzwords, and this year’s event was no exception. Every presentation I saw and developer I talked to had a stock set of words they used to describe their game. The two words that stuck out the most this year were “verticality” (as in, “this level has a lot of verticality to it) and co-op gameplay. While buzzwords are usually just that, there are games that live up to their moniker. Case in point - Trine, a physics-based action/ puzzle game from Frozenbyte and Atlus.

At the most basic level, Trine is an action-oriented version of The Lost Vikings. There are three characters -- knight, thief, and wizard-- who need to combine their unique talents to traverse more than a dozen levels. The knight is the group’s power character; he can turn aside attacks with his shield and crush foes with his sword. The thief, on the other hand, uses her bow to attack enemies. She’s also a master athlete who can jump higher than the other two characters and swing between ledges using her grappling hook. The most interesting of the three is the wizard. Although he possesses powerful magic, he has no direct attack. Instead, he can use his magic to push or pull certain objects or create platforms out of thin air.

Trine is meant primarily as a co-op game, but is playable with one person. I was able to try the game both with a partner and by myself. Both times, I came away impressed and already can’t wait for the final release. When playing with a friend, each player controls one of the three characters and only one instance of each can be in the level at one time. If a player is controlling the knight, for example, the other player can only play as the wizard or thief. When playing alone, you can transform into any of the three on the fly.

Levels feature a static layout, but there are multiple solutions to the puzzles you’ll encounter in each. To give you an idea about how flexible the solutions are, the Altus rep (who had been showing the game all day) was impressed when Psibabe and I came up with a solution he hadn’t seen yet. The number of possible solutions is a real testament to the game’s design. I’m really looking forward to seeing how Frozenbyte is able to keep the challenges coming in later levels.

While I’m not sure if Trine’s levels feature any verticality, it was easily one of the better examples of co-op gameplay on the show floor. Look for Trine on PSN and XBLA soon.

Starscream aka Ricky Tucker

GameVortex PSIllustrated