$14.99Is Trine Enchanted Edition worth it?
Trine Enchanted Edition is worth it if…
- you want a puzzle platformer you can finish in a handful of relaxed evenings
- you like games where the same puzzle can be solved three different ways
- you have a friend or two and a couch, or an internet connection
- you want a fairytale world that looks like a storybook and sounds like one too
- you prefer gentle puzzles and light combat over a stiff challenge
Screenshots
Three heroes, one very clingy artifact
The setup is pure storybook: a kingdom gone to ruin, an army of undead, and three very different people stuck sharing one magical device called the Trine. Amadeus the Wizard conjures objects and levitates them. Zoya the Thief swings on her grappling hook and shoots straight. Pontius the Knight solves problems with a sword, a shield and the mighty Storm Hammer.
The fun is in the swapping. You can change hero at any moment, so a gap becomes a wizard problem, a swarm of skeletons becomes a knight problem, and a ledge far above becomes a thief problem. One concrete moment: you summon a plank, levitate it over a spike pit, hop across, then hand over to the knight when something needs breaking.
Puzzles with more than one answer
Every hazard is built on fully interactive physics, and most puzzles can be solved in several ways. Stack boxes into a staircase. Float a crate across a gap. Swing past the whole thing on a rope and let the wizard wonder why he bothered. The game rewards creative solutions, and the ones nobody planned tend to be the funniest.
The puzzles themselves stay friendly rather than punishing, which makes the game a good pick when you want to unwind. There are three difficulty levels if you want more bite, and experience points let you upgrade each hero's abilities as you go. Items scattered through the levels change what your characters can do, so your toolkit keeps growing.
A world worth stopping to look at
This is the Enchanted Edition, a remake of the 2009 original rebuilt on the Trine 2 engine, and the visuals are the headline. It is a bright, painterly fairytale: saturated colors, soft lighting, backgrounds that look hand-painted. The 15 levels each have their own look and atmosphere, from the Astral Academy and Crystal Caverns to the Dragon Graveyard and Fangle Forest.
Ari Pulkkinen's 19-track soundtrack carries the whole thing along, and the storytelling voice is that of a narrator reading a tale aloud. Secret chests are hidden in every level, so it pays to poke around behind waterfalls and up unlikely walls. The original version of Trine is included too, selectable from the launcher.
Better with a friend, or two
Up to three players can play together, online or on the same screen, each taking one hero. The puzzles are built so the abilities genuinely complement each other: the wizard makes the path, the thief reaches it, the knight holds off whatever is chasing you.
It is also where the chaos lives. Physics plus three people equals plans falling apart in the best way: boxes dropped on heads, platforms conjured in the wrong place, someone swinging into someone else. Solving a puzzle together can take three times as long as alone and be three times as entertaining. If you want a co-op session with a clear beginning and end rather than endless rounds, this is that kind of game.
