Trine 5 | Review – The best of the saga

Today, of course, we are here to talk to you about it Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracyavailable on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch And PC. This is, as you can imagine, the fifth chapter of the saga of Frozenbytewhich is published this time by THQ Nordic.

For long-time fans, this was the fourth chapter a dazzling return to the series’ 2D rootsafter the third had tried a decidedly too complicated approach to the 3D world.

This new episode seems to follow what its predecessor did, without wanting to revolutionize the formula, perhaps also for fear of repeating the mistakes made with it Trine 3.

We’ll find out how it went in our test report.

Save your reputation…and the world once again

The history of Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy (only Trine 5 from now on) sees that Return of the three historical heroes of the series: Amadeus the Sorcerer, Zoya the Thief and Pontius the Knight.

Having saved their world several times in the past, the three heroes are busy living their lives separately. Amadeus is enjoying a well-deserved vacation, Zoya is looking for new artifacts to steal, and Pontius is always ready to fight evil wherever it appears.

Apparently fate has other plans for the three heroes, who will soon have to team up again to face a new threat. In fact, someone is trying to destroy his reputation in the eyes of the kingdom with the aim of seizing power. The three heroes must find out who is behind this conspiracy and stop it before it is too late.

As per the tradition of the series The plot is little more than a pretext to give the protagonists meaning, but still pleasant to follow in its simplicity. However, at this point we have to admit that there are a few little things that make people turn up their noses.

One of the most obvious, especially in the early stages: it is really needed a great effort to suspend disbelief convincing yourself that it’s so easy for citizens to turn their backs on heroes after they’ve saved the world four times.

In any case, the story is certainly not the central element Trine 5so that these small defects hardly affect the enjoyment of the experience.

Trine 5 The series’ return to the two-dimensional world continues after the small interlude of Trine 3; In particular, the game addresses this 2.5D style seen in Trine 4 (which you can find on Amazon).

Even if it doesn’t take full advantage of the new hardware (though remember that the game was developed for virtually all platforms currently on the market), the game is capable of doing so offer wonderful viewsthanks to an inspired artistic direction that draws heavily on medieval fantasy images.

We’ve included some screenshots as examples, but believe us when we tell you that all the levels are really worth seeing: from this perspective, we may face the challenge one of the best titles the series has to offer so far.

Our test took place on the PlayStation 5 and we had no problems any kind of technical problem; We don’t know how the game will behave on the less powerful consoles (of course we are referring primarily to the Nintendo Switch), but barring any unexpected problems with the conversion, we do not expect a completely different result than what we saw on Sony’s flagship have seen.

The soundtrack is also excellent, which does not disappoint expectations and offers superbly crafted songs in a medieval style. The same goes for the dubbing, truly one of the flagships of the production.

Although the story is really simple, the interpretations of the characters, especially the protagonists, still manage to bring it to life and give each one a unique personality. We wouldn’t have expected anything less given the work we’ve done on the past episodes, but it’s still a hugely welcome confirmation.

Another return to great form

We’ve already said that Trine 5 continues the 2D tradition in the series and particularly follows the 2.5D setup of its immediate predecessor. It’s a bit like Frozenbyte remained burned by the experience of Trine 3a gamble too big for the studio alone, which risked destroying the series and its reputation forever.

Maybe for this reason too, Trine 5 (already available on Amazon) It is a chapter that remains very true to tradition: We find the three historical characters of the saga, each characterized by their specific abilities. And we also find the classic gameplay that we are used to, mixing platforming, puzzle and combat phases.

You can face the adventure lonely (with one of the three heroes of your choice) or in multiplayerboth online and local, in two modes: classic (up to three players, each commanding a single hero) or unlimited (up to four players, everyone freely chooses the hero and it is possible to have multiple versions of the same character).

You can also Select the difficulty level of puzzles, combat and rebirth options separatelyto tailor the experience to your taste.

From here they await you 20 levels in classic style Trine. As always, the focus of the experience is above all else Platform and puzzle components, where physics-based puzzles reign supreme. At all times, you must rely on your characters’ abilities and know how to use and combine them to overcome each obstacle.

In addition, you will find bottles with experience points in each level. 25 experience points can be converted into 1 skill point, allowing you to unlock new moves for a character of your choice.

Among the news from Trine 5 There are also new abilities for our heroes, like the throwing swords for Pontius; these new skills They affect both combat and puzzleswhere they will play a very important role in solving some puzzles.

From this point of view, Trine 5 It probably represents the pinnacle of the series in terms of variety and complexity of puzzles, one of the funniest suggested so far. Fun is guaranteed, especially when playing with friends.

Combat has also been slightly reworked, but is mostly similar to the past. The biggest news is probably the disputes with the boss, which in some situations turn out to be disputes divided into several phases. Despite this unexpected deepening of the battle dynamics, this is where the series continues to show its best side.

The fightAs a matter of fact, it is still too simple and unsatisfying, and still seems like a minor aspect due to the protagonists themselves. In fact, Pontius is the only character truly suited to combat; Zoya may have its utility, but it is far from the effectiveness of Pontius, while Amadeus is almost useless in these situations.

In a game whose core is the collaboration and synergy between the three heroes, this lack of calibration (which has persisted since the beginning of the series) serves to create the impression that combat is a secondary consideration to the developers.

To be honest, this flaw is particularly noticeable when playing alone, as in multiplayer it is offset by the presence of other players and characters, but it is still something that needs to be taken into account.

In the future, we would like to pay more attention to this topic, especially with regard to the effectiveness of Zoya and Amadeus in combat: in order to make the fight more interesting, it is imperative that all three heroes are suitable for these situations.

Nonetheless, we appreciate the progress compared to the past, especially in terms of the boss fights, which are much more fun and exciting.

In summary, Trine 5 It certainly doesn’t represent a revolution for the series, nor does it attempt to shake up the cards on the table in any way.

The developers’ goal seems to have been to provide the best experience trine that they were able to give, and thus the goal is achieved: Trine 5 It can definitely compete for the title of best episode in the series, both from an artistic point of view and from a gaming point of view, because it represents the most sophisticated version of this formula that we know today. And that is by no means a small thing given the high quality standards achieved so far.

The lack of real competition does not make you feel tired towards this game structure, but precisely in order not to reach this point, we hope that the next chapter can introduce more substantial innovations.