Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power Review (PC)

The Trine series has delighted millions of fans from all over the world across a multitude of platforms. The imaginative puzzle platformers made by Finnish developer Frozenbyte have captured the hearts and minds of fans not only through their gameplay but also thanks to their spectacular visuals.

Now, after impressing with Trine 1 and 2, the studio is getting ready to debut the final version of Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power, after releasing it as an Early Access experience on the Steam service for PC, Mac, and Linux.

The game started out with just a few levels, but slowly yet surely, the studio released new content updates to enrich its portfolio, as well as plenty of patches to fix gameplay mechanics depending on player feedback.

The final game debuts later today on Steam. Does Trine 3 actually deliver a great sequel experience or should Zoya, Amadeus, and Pontius retire from their adventures? Let's find out.

Story

While the plots of past games haven't touched all that much on the three main protagonists, instead putting them in different adventures thanks to the magical entity known only as the Trine, this third installment tries to go a bit in-depth with Pontius, Zoya, and Amadeus.

After the events of the first two games, Trine 3 kicks off with brief glimpses at their everyday lives, with Pontius the Knight trying to help peasants in the countryside. While his wits may pale in comparison to his brawn, his intentions are noble and shortly after the Trine comes to pick him up on a new adventure.

Zoya the Thief lives up to her name and is introduced in a pretty thrilling tomb raiding adventure, while Amadeus the Wizard is just trying to relax with his family at the beach. Unfortunately for them and fortunately for players, the Trine has other plans and they must once again team up to go on a new adventure.

However, rather surprisingly, the heroes aren't all that willing to once again abandon their lives and go on a sprawling adventure just because the Trine beckons them. After fighting a big boss, the protagonists decide to relinquish their powers. The whole process, as you can imagine, doesn't go as planned, and they end up freeing a mysterious villain.

The story is pretty interesting and focuses a bit more on the actual heroes, rightly so, as their characters grow during the journey. While it may not impress all players, the plot does a good job of backing up the gameplay.

Careful platforming in Trine 3

Gameplay and Multiplayer

The biggest innovation brought forth by Trine 3 is related to the environments. This time around, players are no longer stuck in 2.5D side-scrolling levels. Instead, they're allowed by Frozenbyte to explore 3D areas and solve puzzles from new perspectives.

While it certainly takes a bit of time to get used to this new-found freedom, things quickly fall into place and you start to enjoy the different open areas. Rest assured, there's still a big focus on puzzle solving and using platforms to reach new areas.

The core mechanics are still present, with each protagonist bringing his or her own unique power. Amadeus can conjure up new boxes that come in handy and levitate them while trying to reach new places. Zoya can use her whip to grasp onto rings and other objects while shooting her bow at foes. Pontius can use his shield to deflect projectiles and attacks, not to mention his sword to dispatch of aggressive foes.

The new 3D environments do pose a few challenges in some situations, especially due to the camera angles that aren't always in the best of positions, as well as in many areas in which lining up jumps or platforms can go awry.

Enemies are pretty varied in terms of physical appearances, ranging from trolls, tree roots, books, and so on, to big, lumbering bosses. While you can dispatch of the usual foes easily using attacks from Pontius or Zoya, things get a bit tricky when it comes to bosses, as they have various patterns or weaknesses that need to be figured out and then exploited. In some situations you might end up dying, but fortunately, checkpoints are pretty frequent.

Dying with one character still allows you to continue with the remaining ones, and a ghost appears on the nearest platform. If you sit near it for a few seconds, the hero returns into the fold.

While in the regular single-player mode you control a single character and can freely transform into the other two, you can also engage in the cooperative mode which lets up to three players control each of the characters. Things get even more fun as you can play locally or online and enjoy the puzzles in fresh ways.

Hectic boss fights in Trine 3

Visuals and Sound

As always, the visuals in Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power are absolutely stunning. The vibrant colors, the stylized visuals, as well as the fluid animations make playing the game a treat for the eyes. The effects are also quite impressive, with great particles and plenty of atmospheric lighting.

The soundtrack is also quite good, managing to emphasize the medieval fantasy experience, while the voice acting is also pretty good, especially when it comes to the three main protagonists.

Play Video

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion