Trine 4 is a game I didn’t know I wanted until it was on the screen before me. Three Trine games was more Trine than I ever thought I’d need, and given the title it seemed fitting to end the series as a trilogy, even if the last one was a bit duff. Trine 4 sounds like a Douglas Adams joke, only humour has never been Frozenbyte’s strong point.
Trine 4 reviewDeveloper:FrozenbytePublisher:ModusPlatform: Reviewed on PS4Availability: Available October 8th on PS4, Xbox One, Switch and PC
As it turns out, Trine 4 is more like Trine 3: Trine Harder. It dispenses with the erroneous experiment in 3D platforming of its predecessor, offering a more traditional sequel that doubles down on the stuff that made Trines 1 and 2 such absorbing platformers. It presents a fairytale world so rich and indulgent it’s likely to give you gout, and offers physics-based puzzle platforming that’s edges ever closer to being a Rube Goldberg simulator.
Trine 4 sees the heroic trio of Amadeus the Wizard, Zora the Thief, and Ser Pontius the Knight reunite to track down a missing prince suffering from night terrors so vivid that they come to life. Having escaped from the wizard’s academy where he is equal parts student and lab rat, the Prince vanishes into a giant magical forest, forcing our heroes to track him down in what essentially amounts to a 12-hour long chase sequence.
Frankly, the story could be better, by which I mean it could be a story, rather than an excuse to string together the game’s wide variety of levels. This isn’t to say it’s not enjoyable. It’s genially written and the characters are as likeable as ever, bad jokes and all. But it’s not what you’ll be playing for. It also has zero relevance to the previous game’s plot which ended on a cliff-hanger. Apparently Frozenbyte want to pretend Trine 3 never happened, which seems a little harsh, but functionally it doesn’t make a huge amount of difference.