![]() It’s the subtle touches of humour that the game employs that really help bring Trine 2 to life, from Amadeus and his wife (Margaret) to Pontius and his love of food. ![]() Pontius is your stereotypical knight, a great commander for justice and the common man, but like all good knights he clearly enjoys feasting in his glory if his waistline is any indication. Zoya, armed with her grappling hook can get places the other heroes cannot, and there is of course her bow which strikes with deadly accuracy. Amadeus for example is particularly apt at conjuring boxes and making inanimate objects levitate which, in the puzzle-rich environment, is more than useful. In typical fashion (and as you’d expect) each character has their own set of abilities that will need to be called upon as you progress through the game, something made rather easy thanks to the simple one-button-press to switch between them as and when you desire. From there, adventure awaits and together you set out to discover what exactly is up with the Trine (a glowing crystal device) and, more importantly, why it keeps appearing. From here on out a series of events occurs and, before long, you soon find yourself reacquainted with the rest of your team: Pontius the Knight and Zoya the Thief. It’s fun coordinating puzzle solutions with friends, with dialogue emerging as “Okay, I’ll go over here and you go over there – no wait, what if you just do… this? Whoa, that worked, cool.Your journey begins in the home of Amadeus the Wizard who, while partaking in the ancient Wizard ritual of sleeping, is disturbed by a blinding light. The co-op works beautifully – if you play local, one person handles the keyboard while two friends can plug in game pads, and the game controls well in either approach, with both control types having unique advantages. We can’t say one is better than the other: we recommend playing through once in each form, because puzzles can be solved in totally different ways if you have friends along, but it’s most challenging in single-player. It also now includes both local and online co-op, and we must say that while the game is fantastic in single-player, it transforms into a whole other experience in co-op. Trine 2 has also expanded its inclusiveness: while the original released only on PC and then later on Mac and PS3, the sequel is available now on PC and Mac, and will soon release on PS3 (12/20) and 360 (12/21). We wonder, though, if the devs took the easy way out: instead of removing a player tool, could they have wracked their own brains to come up with puzzles devilish enough to challenge players despite such powerful options? Either way we’re not complaining too much, because Trine 2’s puzzles reach sublime levels of balanced challenge and open-ended solutions. Without that skeleton key, Trine 2 comes up with some devious situations that will probably make you say “What the? That’s impossible to overcome!” Of course, overcoming these hurdles becomes extremely satisfying. We realized, though, that such a combination made some of Trine 1’s puzzles irrelevant and made the game a bit too easy. It’s this freeform problem solving that makes Trine 2 such an empowering experience.Īt first we were confused by the developer’s decision to remove character abilities that were a big part of the first game – the wizard used to be able to conjure floating platforms and allow the thief to grapple onto them. Occasionally we’d create a pile of objects on a steep slope and simply jump across it before the whole teetering mess collapsed and tumbled down into a pit – a seriously sloppy solution, but no less a valid one. We used the cube stack as both a foundation for the plank, and as a launch point for our jump that got us to the next ledge. ![]() At one point we managed to stack two cubes on top of each other and then create a plank that we then leaned against a button that needed to be held down (and which was high up on a wall). Since the wizard can conjure cubes and planks that have physical weight in the world, all kinds of weird setups can circumvent problems. We know this because there were puzzles where objects, levers, or portals were present and we didn’t even use them. We’re quite sure that half the solutions we devised weren’t the “right” answer to an obstacle. One of the wonderful things about the Trine philosophy is that the game encourages you to make up your own solutions to puzzles.
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