I’ve been pimping Trine since it came out, as probably my favorite platformer ever. Beautiful art, interesting puzzles that are usually pretty easy to figure out but still engage you, just a relaxing casual game. The main thing it lacked was online coop since it would so obviously be so good.
For those who don’t have it, it’s a sidescroller where you can instantly change between three characters, all having different abilities, to get through the various puzzles and simple combat of the world. It’s a light hearted fairy tale type environment. Lots of physics based puzzles, secret areas, etc.
Anyway, they corrected the lack of online co-op for Trine 2. Trailer. Looks like a lot of fun - the co-op actually presents more challenges than the single player because you don’t just have to pass an area with the most appropriate character, but all of them. Swinging from the roof in a particular area as the archer might work alone, but you’re gonna have to figure out a way to get the knight and wizard across too.
So anyway, I’m looking for co-op partners if anyone is interested. Must have a mic - the whole point of doing this is to be social and think through problems together.
Also, if you haven’t, pick up Trine during the Christmas sale, I bet you can grab it for $2.50.
It comes out tomorrow night in about 12 hours, costs $15, and you get some tf2 hats for preordering (which with the steam trading system you might be able to trade to someone in exchange for games).
Played a few minutes of the beta (don’t want to spoil myself on it since the real thing isn’t far off) and it’s actually more beautiful than the first one so far, which is impressive since I think it’s one of the most beautiful games ever made. The co-op, in very limited play time, looked like a lot of fun - having to help each other to get past certain parts using your various skills.
I describe it as pretty much a new Lost Vikings. Those games were great in the day and Trine is a fun game in the same vein. I’ll probably pick up the sequel some day, when it gets cheaper but especially when my backlog of games clears up (if the sale doesn’t ruin that).
The game is really good so far. If you liked Trine, you’ll definitely like Trine 2.
It’s even more pretty - both technically and in terms of varied artwork. It’s really amazing to look at - one of the best looking games of all time. Every scene is like an interactive painting.
The online co-op seems smooth and fun. It’s not too challenging yet - but we only played a couple of levels. There isn’t any seperate campaign for co-op, so a lot of traps that are difficult for one person become easy for two. On the other hand, there are some spots where it’d be easy if you were alone to just rope across with the thief, but you have to pause and figure out how to get the knight across.
The puzzles have a few new mechanisms to work with.
The difficulty level is really casual - probably too much so - but I guess it fits, since you’re really just able to relax and take all the beautiful artwork in, like an interactive picture book of a fairy tale.
I made a video of my first playthrough of the third stage. I made it the absolute best quality you can get on youtube, taking a lot of care in the recording and encoding - but keep in mind that youtube compresses the hell out of videos no matter how good your source material is, so it never looks nearly as good as actually playing it on a good pc.
Still, watch it in 1080p since that’s the best you can get out of youtube. And excuse my spazzy jumping around like an idiot for the first 90 seconds or so - I was a bit distracted by talking and gaming at first but settled in after that. I also probably didn’t pick the best map to display the artwork - this level is still very nice, but others have a better aesthetic.
I didn’t watch the whole video, but I’m sold. I’m a big fan of Trine 1, so I was pretty much sold already. And I can’t believe they sell it for $15 new…
I’m currently reading a thread in the steam forums in which the developers say they have no plans to discount it for the Christmas sale (duh) but this one guy is RAAAAAAAAAAGING about how greedy they are that their great $15 game won’t be 75% off within 2 weeks. Good stuff.
The funny thing is that if it was $25 to start with, and they lowered it to $15 as part of a sale, he’d be happy.
But yeah, it sells for even less than Trine 1 new and has more content. Good stuff.
Dammit Beef. Stop recommending games. My entertainment budget was shot after the Black Friday sale. And I already have more games than time to play them…
Took me about 3 minutes of watching that to think, “Who am I kidding? Of course I’m buying this for $15.”
The game really is very pretty. I’ve found that I get a strange sense of satisfaction from reaching XP bottles in ways that the designers probably didn’t intend. I’ve been spending all my talent points on being able to conjure more objects. The devs fixed that exploit from the first Trine where you could place a conjured plank on a platform that normally gives way, and then stand on the plank without it falling. I’ve found a new trick, though: When you’re riding on a big bubble, you can conjure a box and levitate it to nudge the bubble along.
In one of the early levels, when I ran into that talking flower, they called it a “lady-flower”. I couldn’t help thinking, “That’s not a lady-flower! I only see anthers!”