These are the years of PC gaming that will be known as the Underdog Era: full of indie masterpieces and megapublishers flops. World Of Goo, iFluid,Crayon Physics, Defense Grid: The Awakening, all released by small independent companies, were rewarded by much better financial returns than overhyped behemoths of the likes of Red Alert 3, Anno 1404 and Spore. It was not unexpected; after all, just like Limited Installations, greed only pays for a limited number of turns.
Trine is an excellent physics action/arcade game. You control three interchangeable characters (a thief, a wizard and a warrior). Each has his/hers special abilities, from shooting griping hooks to levitating objects and smashing things up. At any point, you can select which one suits you best. Obstacles have to be turned, balanced, jumped over or simply smashed. Enemies have to be wiped out. And vials have to be discovered and collected before reaching the goal.
Between levels there are checkpoints but, annoyingly, no regular saving is possible (hence the star withheld). If a character dies you are only left with the other(s) to finish off the level. If it is impossible without the missing character(s)' abilities you can always revert to the last checkpoint.
The graphics are just beautiful! PhysX is required however, so nVIDIA gamers rejoice. The sounds and voices are nicely done and clearly add to the enjoyment of the game. Overall, I have been playing this gem for almost a week now and apart for the checkpoint saves I can only say good things about it.
Trine comes with STEAM (in fact it was released first on that platform) and you will need to be online to post accomplishments - but there are neither limits on the number of installations nor any RootKits of the likes of SecuROM.
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