Submitted by sha-near

Physics play a big roll in the game. This makes a lot of the sections a puzzle. They were not too complex in the demo, it was mainly just figuring out the right character to use in a given situation. I’m sure they will get trickier as you progress. A common sight was a hanging plank (and crates, lots of crates) that’d rotate if you push it. The reason you’re moving it is because you need to get on it to reach higher ground, this can be tricky because the physics cause them to keep rotating more then you’d like. Once I figured out the wizard could ‘grab’ hold of them with his power though, it was a cake walk.

Most areas have a clear way to get through. Be it swinging through with the archers grapple, stacking crates with the wizards telekinesis, or busting through stuff with the knights sword. Aside from the obvious strategy, you can solve the puzzles multiple ways and with different characters. For example, instead of using the wizards telekinesis to swing a plank into place, I was able to use the archers arrows to hit it and get it swinging a little. I kept hitting it at the right time to build enough momentum until it eventually swung all the way around and into place.
 

Finding different ways to progress was half the fun. I can’t wait to see how this works with multiplayer, having all the skills available at once. There are a lot of out of reach ‘potions’ and health refills that take a bit more thinking to get, it adds an extra layer of challenge. It’s comparable to getting the prize bubbles in Little Big Planet.

The control feels good. It is more precise then LBP (I can’t keep from comparing it to that game) but keeps a little of that floaty feeling. The challenging platforming will give you more of a problem then the actual controls. I will be getting this on the PS3 though, because I’ll be a lot smoother with a controller then WASD.

 
The story telling is great. This was something that really surprised me due to how good it was and the fact that the videos I’ve seen have shown no hints that there even is a story. The narrator is just amazing with a great story tellers voice. He is a breath of fresh air compared to the blocks of text you’d typically see in this sort of game or the phoned in jobs you’d hear in a lot of other games. After load screens were done, I would just sit there and listen to him tell the story instead of playing the game, something I almost never do.

While you’re jumping around, the narrator will sporadically chime in to drive the plot forward. Other times you’ll hear banter between the characters. I found this enjoyable and immersive as you didn’t have to just sit there and listen. It also does a great job of fleshing out the quirky characters personalities. They are all interesting and very entertaining. The fat knight is my favorite, he’s just a big dumb meat head who’s happiest destroying stuff. They are all great characters that should be a joy to watch throughout this story.

If you’ve seen videos, you have an idea of how it looks: amazing. The environments are colorful and very detailed. It’s a beautiful game to look at. The water looks great…

If you can, I’d recommend that you try the demo.

Processor: 2.0 GHz CPU (Dual-core recommended)
Memory: 512 MB (XP), 1 GB (Vista)
Graphics: Radeon X800 or GeForce 6800 or better

Not too demanding, hopefully we will get a demo on the console soon.

For more info: http://trine-thegame.com/site/

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Tags: Trine