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Unfortunately, one area that Trine 4 does not improve over its predecessors is in its puzzle design. This split of automatic unlocks and purchasable skills that reward you for collecting items is a huge improvement over Trine 2’s simplistic skill tree. In addition, there’s a skill tree that features optional but useful upgrades like Amadeus’ power to slam levitated objects down, Pontius’s ability to freeze enemies when he stomps them, and Zoya’s skill to fire a fully charged bow shot after a roll. Whether it be Pontius’s Charge attack that can launch boulders to break certain walls, Amadeus’s ability to create planks and steel balls, or Zoya’s newfound technique of attaching a fairy rope to an object to make it float into the air like a balloon, they all open up some interesting new options. You start with a meager but effective set of abilities for each character, and at just about every other level a new ability is granted that changes up the way you approach puzzle solving. One thing that Trine 4 does better than any of its predecessors is its sense of progression. This mode also allows for up to four players to play at once, whereas other Trine games were limited to three.įor the more serious crowd, there is also Classic mode, which is the more traditional style that is meant for three players, with each person assuming the role of one of the heroes. In Unlimited, everybody can swap to any character they want at any time, which means you can have wild situations like having all Amadeus’s on screen, each creating boxes and causing utter mayhem. In solo mode, you can switch between each of these characters on the fly, as you’d expect, but when it comes to multiplayer Trine 4 also includes Trine 3’s goofy Unlimited Mode. The basic synergy between him and the others remains almost entirely unchanged: Zoya’s like a Swiss army knife of utility with her grappling hook, bow, and elemental arrows and Pontius just plays like a wrecking ball of destruction, capable of decimating enemies and obstacles in ways that the other characters simply can’t. Each character is fun to play on their own, though Amadeus is arguably the most important when it comes to the more complex puzzles thanks to his ability to conjure boxes and other shapes to help get the team over obstacles, and he offers the most flexibility in coming up with solutions. Gameplay is the star of the show here and it’s classic Trine, through and through. The serviceable but altogether unremarkable fairytale story this time around has the team searching for a missing prince named Celius, who has exposed himself to dark magic that causes the nightmares of those around him to come to life, hence the subtitle. Trine 4, like all Trine games before it, puts you in control of the aforementioned wizard, thief, and knight.
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