![]() When playing by yourself you switch between the three heroes at will. That's really cool, but it would have been nice to get a heads-up before I found myself stuck at the bottom of an ice slope for a little too long. The wizard's platforms, for instance, can be stuck to swinging spiked maces, resulting in a pendulum conveyance. ![]() It does fail to teach the player some important mechanics, though, resulting in slight exasperation when you don't realize a solution is even possible. I love it when a game lets me off my leash and tells me "have fun," – and that's the kind of game Trine 2 is. The brilliance of Trine 2 is that it mostly leaves the choice of which hero to use up to you. You have three heroes at your disposal: a wizard that can conjure blocks and platforms, a thief with a bow and grappling hook, and a knight with sword, hammer, and shield. Players run from left to right through fantasy spectacles, surmounting obstacles and slaying a few goblins along the way. If you played the first Trine, you'll find a very familiar game here. Trine 2 easily makes for one of the prettiest games of the year. There is always something amazing to distract you. Each scene, from forests to caves to lazy beaches, shines with rich detail and startling lighting effects. The lively flute 'n lute music and a kindly British narrator put a finishing touch on this expertly crafted fantasy atmosphere.The first thing I noticed about Trine 2 is its stunning visuals. From castles to forests, swamps to caves, tropical islands to fiery and icy wastes, each is distinct and terrifically detailed with artistic flair, and populated by amazing creatures like a giant frog, carnivorous plants, and even a dragon. The Thief, at least, is more useful than a simple means of breaking things, and the grapple line is fun to swing on, though a strange stinginess with grapple-able wooden platforms makes her much less capable of getting from place to place than the Wizard.īack to how great it looks! Each new area you pass through along the journey is eye-catching enough to make you pause to take it all in for a moment - and there are a lot of them over the roughly eight hours of play time. I'd hate to be the guy stuck playing as him in a three-player co-op game. Meanwhile, the Knight is fairly useless about 75 percent of the time, except for brief combat areas against attacking goblins, spiders, and other crawly things, smashing down an occasional wall with a hammer, or deflecting flames and projectiles with his shield. The same loophole exists in the first Trine, and I have to wonder if it's there as a deliberate "cheat" to keep you from getting stuck. Presto, you can fly over any obstacle and reach anything. Presto, you can fly over any obstacle." There's a token effort made to curb his godlike powers by preventing him from levitating items he's standing on, but you can get around it by simply stacking two boxes, standing on the top one, and levitating the bottom one. "Simply stack two boxes, stand on the top one, and levitate the bottom one. Outside of a fight, he's by far the most useful character - and when upgraded, he can even lift single enemies and toss them into nearby environmental hazards. It's a little disappointing, though, how heavily the solutions seem weighted toward the Wizard's telekinesis and ability to conjure boxes and platforms at will. Puzzles are usually clever, and built from a dozen or so interesting mechanics, from moving platforms and spikes to rerouting steam pipes and flowing water, sometimes through portals. The only thing that repeatedly bothered me about online multiplayer was that it would've been a great help if I could zoom or scroll the camera a little bit to see what lies a little further ahead, above, or below, especially when trying to coordinate with someone just out of sight. Like with Portal 2, you'll definitely want to make use of Steam's voice chat on if you're playing remotely, since working together requires a lot of "No, jump here, levitate that!" coordination. I saw a couple of minor lag hitches when playing online, but nothing major, and having a friend to cooperate with opened up countless new puzzle-solving possibilities for combining characters abilities for puzzle solutions you can't do on your own. Both methods are super easy to set up, and though you can't instantly have a friend drop into your game, it's easy enough to save, jump out to the main menu, and resume where you left off as a multiplayer game. If you do share it with a friend, you can do so either locally on the same screen by plugging in a gamepad or two, or online via Steamworks. In this area, the Knight refers to coconuts as "big hairy balls." True story.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |