Trine
Sometimes a game will sit in my library for a long time before I get around to playing it. Even after hearing about how good it is from every review source, podcast and even friends who played it. I just go "yup sounds great, gonna get to playing that soon" - and then soon is six years later...
Trine is a very pretty side scrolling action puzzle game. You play through the game by controlling 3 different characters, a wizard, a warrior and a thief, swapping between them to resolve fights with various skeletal enemies and most of all solve the many puzzles presented.
Each of the 3 heroes has specific abilities, strength and weaknesses that can be used to work your way through the game. The warrior is your close combat guy and damage blocker, using his shield to stop a lot of the bad stuff that is thrown/rolls/dropped your way. The thief is your ranged combat (the game has good arrow physics feel) and equipped with a grapple hook is your strong traversing character. The wizard can summon various physical objects such as blocks and ramps and more or less doesn't need the other two characters because he is a big cheaty cheater (more on that later).
The game does a good job of introducing the various puzzle concepts slowly before combining them in devious ways, though Trine never gets crazy difficult. Once and a while there will be a tricky jump or a certain sequence that must be figured out but on the whole the challenge felt satisfying rather than frustrating. Being able to save anywhere while playing allows for quick bite sized sessions if that is all you have time for. The game also has full co-op as well (local or online), but I didn't find that out till I was almost done with my play through (oops).
There is a story to Trine, but it really is neither here or there and only serves to propel the characters through the dozen or so different environments. Each locale looks great and often the style of puzzles fits the theme. There is not a ton of variety in the monster department but they far more often serve as an additional element to a puzzle than full on combat encounters.
Now getting on to what I mentioned before about the wizard. He can summon large boxes that you can use to climb up or fill gaps. Later on you can summon platforms to use as ramps and for crossing gaps. Then you can summon floating triangles that can be used as suspended platforms. Add to this the wizard can move any of these (and any other physics objects) in the world with his levitation ability (including dropping them on enemies to defeat them)...jeez. I probably played 75% of the game as the wizard, and could have played more. Just too often the quickest solution to a puzzle was to use the wizard. There was definitely a balance issue between what the wizard could accomplish and what you needed the other two heroes to do. Buuuuut in the end I don't think it made the game less enjoyable - the wizard is great fun to use that's all that really matters.
I had the fortune that by waiting to play it till now that the Enchanted Edition was released (free update to previous owners) and lots of game play tweaks, graphic updates and such meant I got to play the best version of Trine. And as of this writing (May 2017) you can grab Trine for like $2.50 till the end of the month.
It's not a long game, it's not a hard game - but Trine is a really fun game. I am looking forwards to playing Trine 2 (which has only been in my Library for like 3 or 4 years LOL). I would recommend a controller to play the game too.
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