Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power Review

The original ‘Trine’ was one of the first big hits from the ‘Frozenbyte‘ studio. It was commended for its graphical looks while also have plenty of creative puzzles for the player to enjoy. Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power however was a little more ambitious for the studio as they looked to delve away from previous games and make their first ever 3D game. While Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power its self isn’t even fully 3D they have added a background and foreground to most scenes which enables a whole other dimension for the puzzle makers and players to enjoy. Overall it was really a game that the fans of Frozenbytes previous titles (BADLAND: Game of the Year Edition, Trine Enchanted Edition, Trine 2: Director’s Cut) were looking forward to with plenty of anticipation.

The result however, was slightly underwhelming in my opinion with the new 3D feel to the game becoming a little clumsy as their wasn’t much change in the camera angles or the scenes when switching between the different parts of a level often causing me to lose track of certain characters against the different background. With that being said this game is absolutely graphically sound with great details and an exciting array  of environments for the characters to explore and solve puzzles on. Each character is clearly defined and this game is thoroughly good to look at. something which , with a bit of research, I found is a them throughout the majority of Frozenbytes games. this along with the clever puzzle design really overshadows any shortcoming from the new 3D features. Something which , despite my issues with it in this game, I believe could be a revolutionary tool for Frozenbyte in the Trine series.

Game play is fantastic and thoroughly keeps the user entertained. specifically the multiplayer options which allow the main player and two friends to take control of a character each and solve puzzles as a team. This is something that really added value for me and I took full advantage of as my friends joined me for some missions. This was both fun but changed the game really as despite solving some of the problems before, I found the interactions with new players both entertaining and a more relaxed approach to the puzzle solving. Putting that aside however when playing on my own there wasn’t any issues whatsoever with the game play.

Despite my earlier comments about my difficulties with the 3D scenes, I felt the game overall was smooth both in the movement, switching between the characters and even performing their own unique abilities. The button layout was relatively simple and just added to the game overall while still keeping the puzzles and game play hard enough to hold my attention and keep me satisfied with the difficulty of the game and how I was progressing.

The music in the game I also felt just added to the whole experience and was something I felt Frozenbyte got just right as well as any additional noises. This facet of the game was actually something I was greatly impressed with and didn’t really have many issues with. With this type of game and the music that usually accompanies this genre I tend to just mute my television and listen to other music but with Trine I didn’t feel the need to do that. It may well have just been the puzzles that held my attention meaning I didn’t notice the music but really overall this was something I enjoyed.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power and would happily play it again. It had the perfect blend of puzzles with the other game play and they were just the perfect difficulty. Overall this was a game I am really happy with and with some tweaks to how their 3D system works this really would be one of those perfect games for me. Unfortunately I just wasn’t satisfied with how it worked. Nonetheless, Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power is a fantastic game and a must buy for any fan of the genre.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Sony Playstation 4 code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.