Whips, swords, geometry and physics.

As part of my recent attempt to move away from shooter video games (at least until I can no longer resist Wolfenstein), I downloaded a few indie games, Trine, Braid and Ceville. First up, a little game called Trine. It's a side scrolling platformer, a genre that I normally stay away from. This time, however, I was pleasantly surprised.

In Trine, players control one of three characters; a Knight, a thief and a wizard. Each has their own abilities, the thief can swing from point to point a la Indiana Jones, the Wizard can create various geometric shapes, boxes, triangles that float and platforms and the Knight smashes. At any point players can switch between each character. Supposedly, each level can be passed solely be each character, though there are a few moments I seriously doubted that.

The game is absolutely gorgeous. The backgrounds are rendered in full detail, sometimes so much so that you want to jump to the bridge back there. It's part of a recent trend called "2.5D", an invented term to designate that the backgrounds are 3D. Really it's just to make you think you're not buying a side scrolling game.

The game play is very solid, each character does offer a unique way to solve the puzzles. The thief's swinging can get the player most places, but not everywhere. The wizard can geomancy his way around pretty effectively too, but can't fight. The knight is the strong arm, but also gives the player a shield to protect from various hazards. On their own, each can pass the levels. However, in order to find all the goodie filled chests and experience bottles, they must work together. The controls are basic, and using the "wasd" (or arrow) buttons in combination of the mouse took some getting used to, but works well.

As I said, each level should be passable by each character on their own. I'm definitely going to replay each character alone. In the end, this is worth taking a look at, especially for the $20 I paid for it. Plus it didn't make my brain hurt like Braid...