Trine 5

Game Title: Trine 5
Released: August 31, 2023
Game Length: 25 Hours
Grade: A

Series

History: The Trine series is a long one that dates back to 2009. It was a simple single-player puzzle game that had you switching between three characters with their own set of abilities. With the popularity of the first game, the developers decided to introduce multiplayer with the release of Trine 2 in 2014 and backpedal those same features in a new Enchanted Edition for the first game. Trine 3 is the black sheep of the series that was left unfinished when all their budget went into establishing a weird 3-Dimensional space for characters to move around in. Trine 4 was a fun adventure that tried a few new tricks that I reviewed back in 2020.

Setting: While the Trine series has always established a fantasy setting, Trine 5 tried to implement a sort of industrial age to the land. Cities are more established. Robots roam the streets. There were less "Alice in Wonderland" environments to walk through. There seemed to be less magical elements as the advancement of science from our princess and engineer villains cut off the heroes at every turn. There are still skeletons, rats, and mystical creatures that Pontius can admire through your adventure. Locations like abandoned shrines, marshes, and forests are still areas you'll have to travel through. However, now you will be running through more civilized sections like the sewers, towers, and alleyways. There are subtle nods and references to previous characters but not enough that warrants any sort playthrough to know what is going on in the current one.

Gameplay 

Mechanics: If you ever played any of the original Trine games, not much has changed here. Gameplay feels smooth as you slice-and-dice, hook up your rope, and build a tower of boxes. But just in case, all of these elements are introduced through each of the individual character levels at the beginning of the game. Once all three characters meet up in the story, the opportunity to switch between them becomes available. Periodically, one of them will break off from the group to discover a new ability and perk that makes the puzzle-solving more complex. The knight will gain the ability to clone himself and shine some time-freezing light. The thief will be able to utilize elemental arrows and teleport immediately to the end of the rope. The wizard gets to hook his boxes together and reverse gravity. Much of the game can be modified within the options menu. There is a plethora of accessibility options including highlighting your character, drawing boxes old-school, aiming techniques, and subtitles.

Puzzles: There are areas of the game where each character will be required to advance. Sometimes you will need your knight to slam against the ground to pop open hidden passageways, your thief to freeze something in place with an ice arrow, or the wizard to put down a couple boxes on some platforms. While there will never come a time when you need a particular upgrade, there are many that will make things easier. Introduced from a previous version of the series, giving the knight the opportunity to float across the air can ease many platforming jumps. While the number of boxes the wizard can manifest at once slowly builds, one of the final fun upgrades is the chance to have six of them on the screen at once. Considering that you can accumulate up to a hundred different ways to interact with your environment, sometimes the hardest part of a puzzle is remembering that one ability you haven't used in awhile. Something simple like freezing an object with an ice arrow or throwing your knight's sword against a wall to create a spare hook can be the one thing that turns a complicated puzzle into a simple one. Just don't rely too much on the hint system. If you somehow stick around too long in one room, the game will generally inform you which characters are needed and not necessarily what needs to be done.

Collectibles: Each level has a set number of bottles hidden throughout the environment. After passing by a checkpoint, it will store all the ones you gathered and convert every 25 of them into one upgrade point. You can see the number of bottles listed of any level and revisit that particular section. You can choose which trait to unlock and switch between them at any time. There is more than enough to upgrade everything before the final level but some remain locked until you discover a new mechanic through the story. There are also a set of flavorful letters to read, backpacks and hats to wear, and tidbits that will unlock new sections of the main menu landscape. Unfortunately, unlocking the inn, attic, and cellar requires all subset items to be collected and offers you one additional room to explore. In addition to your fashion tastes, you can switch between four different outfits and change the color of your name plate to distinguish you when playing with others.

Fights

Combat: Each character has their own health pool and you have a limited number of respawns before being sent back to a save point (on Normal). There is a range of different enemy types that will try and defeat you. The robots are the most amusing since they literally announce their attacks in battle. A lot of things in the environment can be utilized to your benefit. Some enemies can be pushed over the edge, electrified, or burned by explosive barrels before they even see you. While the simplicity of your characters allows you to perform various actions, upgrading them can also open a world of potential. The knight has the ability to switch to a hammer. The thief can kick enemies while hanging on some rope, roll through foes, or even throw an explosive device. The wizard can make it rain ice or move enemies around in the air. These are only a few things that are made available to you.

Bosses: An interesting addition to the game is the range of mechanical bosses that stand in your way. Each one is relatively easy to figure out with clearly marked weak points but can be difficult to overcome when puzzle elements are introduced. One enemy might require you to load-up a cannon with whatever you can find that's hard enough while another might have some conveniently placed faulty equipment nearby. These certainly can add some spice to what might feel like mundane trips through the levels.

 Summary

Review: Trine 5 tries to mix-up the formula by introducing a new setting and plenty of new mechanics to mess around with. The developers built the environments so grand that sometimes even my old beast of a computer had trouble keeping up. The puzzles can be solved rather easily, but there will be the occasional well-hidden collectible like the one under a flower patch that might have you double-checking a walkthrough before you lose your sanity. The mechanical aspects of the game might overwhelm the mystery or fantasy parts of the world but there is enough substance and variety to keep you enthralled throughout your playthrough. If there is one caveat, the ending was not necessarily wrapped in a tight bow as I hoped. It is almost as if they had plans to leave it open-ended for some downloadable content later on. I half-way expected some sort of convenient reversion in the plot through the help of time travel magic or manipulation of an alternate dimension after seeing the devastating events of the game, but everything seems to "return to normal" once you defeat the antagonists in one final battle. In the end, I would still definitely recommend this game for newcomers and fans alike.