Gamer Haven

The above video was created by IGNentertainment.

Prepare yourself for an adventure unlike any other!  Trine and Trine 2 are side-scrolling action and puzzle platform games, developed by Finnish company Frozenbyte, that has been well received among many gamers.

Let’s start with the original.  In Trine, Zoya the theif comes across a legendary treasure in the Astral Academy.  Amadeus the wizard is already at the academy trying to perfect a spell when he finds Zoya with the treasure.  Enter Pontius the knight who believes it’s his duty to protect the academy.  As the three meet, they each grab onto the mystical artifact, known as the Trine.  The Trine’s power is binds souls together, resulting in only one of them being able to physically exist, with the other two being forced to remain inside the Trine. Before they are able to reverse the effect, the Trine disappears, and they are sent on a journey to get back to normal.  The heroes learn that there were actually once three artifacts, one for the mind, one for the body, and one for the soul (the Trine), each protected by a guardian.  While searching for the artifacts of the mind and body, the heroes learn that the two artifacts were tainted and combined themselves to give birth to an evil tower and undead creatures.  Not to give away the ending, but the player must get through each stage, find and climb the tower and defeat the evil in order to beat the game.

This game is visually great.  It has amazing backgrounds and environments that I never expected out of a side-scroller, and it actually does have a good storyline.  There are also a great amount of acheivements to get while also having enough gameplay for those that just want to play.  Each character has their own ability, and the good thing is, if one dies, the other two are still there with their individual health bars.  Whomever dies will be revived at a checkpoint.  There are also some unlockable abilities such as Zoya’s fire arrows and Amadeus’s ability to create 4 boxes at a time.  Personally, I like playing as Zoya the most.  She has the most range and can get out of a tight spot with a grappling hook.

Trine 2 is just as good, if not better than the original.  This game throws the heroes into action immediately after being attacked by goblins.  They find a talking flower (yes literally), which tasks them with finding her sister at the other side of the forest. The three heroes discover the path out, while a mysterious figure  is overlooking their progress.  As the player keeps going, they discover diaries and poems that tell the story of two sisters that were meant to be princesses.  Not to give too much away, but that’s were the villain comes in, and the results are somewhat…surprising.

This game is just as visually amazing as the first.  There are new environments, new villains and of course, new weapons.  The storyline is more immersive in this one than in the original, and it has a lot of good twists.  There are a lot of acheivements that you can get, and another cool added feature is that you can now play co-op with up to three players, each playing as an individual character.  You work together in the various maps to acheive objectives and work your way through the story.

These games by themselves are great, but as a series, they’re amazing.  They have interesting plotlines and there’s enough action going on for players to remain interested in acheiving the goals.  On Steam, Trine is available for $9.99, while Trine 2 is $14.99.  Steam often has sales, so it may be cheaper to buy these two together in the $34.99 package when Steam has a sale, normally cutting the price in half to $17.49.  This series is an amazing adventure, and it’s rumored there will be more to come.