While trying to get through my pile of unplayed or “unfinished” games, a pile that’s grown considerably over the past month, I just couldn’t resist picking up “Trine” via Steam shortly after its release. I’d had my eyes on the game since I stumbled upon a couple of screenshots and an in-game video some weeks ago.

Trine is a side-scrolling platformer with some simple combat and physics-based puzzles. It’s a downloadable indie title, developed and published by Frozenbyte, but by looking at Trine you would never think that it’s an indie title. Trine’s presentation is absolutely stunning; it’s one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever played. The game is not technically impressive and jaw-dropping, like Crysis for example, but its visual design and art is simply gorgeous with the music and narrated story setting the mood perfectly - essentially the game brings out the look and feel of a dreamy fairytale.

Along with its impressive presentation Trine offers a fun platforming adventure, sharp controls and local co-op. You control three very different characters in Trine, the thief, the knight and the wizard, and you need them all in order to progress through the game’s linear levels. Luckily the game lets you swap between them on-the-fly. The characters also earn experience that is used to develop their abilities throughout the game.

If there is one complaint to raise about Trine it’s that the PC version of the game currently is overpriced at $29.99 or €29.99 (yeah Europeans are screwed as usual) via Steam. Now this is not a problem if you’ve got a decent job and think quality over quantity, but it is steep when compared to what downloadable games cost in general. As weird as it may seem the PS3 version of the game is cheaper at $19.99 or €19.99 via PSN.

Overpriced or not Trine is a must play game, even if it means waiting on a price drop or sit and hope for a release on Xbox 360. Good games deserve to be bought!

-Daniel Lindberg

Tags: fairytale, Frozenbyte, PC, PSN, puzzle platformer, review, Steam, Trine

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