In this new episode, our three heroes, Pontius the Knight, Amadeus the Mage and Zoya the Thief, are once again brought together by the high authorities of the Astral Academy with a new objective. Our happy team must therefore go in search of Prince Selius (the famous Nightmare Prince of the title), who escaped from the castle of the Academy where the most brilliant mages were studying his problem. Regrettably enough, whenever the heir to the throne has dark thoughts, his nightmares materialize, and so horrible monsters are unleashed on the peaceful lands of the kingdom. Tired of his captivity, the young man freed himself from the amulet curbing his power, sowing desolation all his way. With this new scenario, and now that the Trine has been recomposed, the developers of Frozenbyte racked their brains, and found a new way to evolve our characters with new skills. The world is now filled with vials of XP that we will have to collect everywhere, and especially in the most difficult to access places, in order to expand the arsenal of abilities of our characters. For example, Pontius will be able to have an electric effect on his sword to increase his damage, or a shield allowing him to hover, while Amadeus summon new objects and even send them, thus gaining in offensive power. . Finally, Zoya the thief will benefit, for example, from several ropes to hang from, or from speed bonuses on her bow. As in previous opuses, Trine 4 will offer us several levels where it will be necessary to show sagacity in order to solve puzzles and riddles which allows progress, knowing that everything is punctuated by several combat scenes.
IT'S A KIND OF MAGIC
The strength of Trine 4 is that each puzzle offers several ways to be solved, by combining the elements of the decor, and the abilities of our three characters. The gameplay is still just as precise, and thanks to very good physics, the game manages to renew itself throughout the 15 hours of the adventure. Each chapter will implement new elements, such as water that must be used to water plants, or light to activate various switches. Moreover, if you opt for normal or medium difficulties, the title will display messages so that the player is not lost in the face of new mechanics. If you're more used to it, the game will leave you to your own devices, while increasing the challenge in various ways (less XP available, more complex tables, etc.). This freedom is also found during boss battles where there are often several ways to do it. If the first choice is generally to take the knight or the thief in order to inflict maximum damage, the observation of the arena often allows us to detect destructible or interactive elements, which prove to be much more deadly for the enemy than our weapons. If the gameplay is irreproachable, Trine 4 also delights our eyes with its high-level artistic direction, which immerses us in an enchanting universe that is still as pleasant as ever. With a technique that does not have to be ashamed of larger-scale productions, and in particular a rather mind-blowing lighting (especially when we observe the light effects on Pontius' armor), Trine undoubtedly remains among the most beautiful games puzzle/platformer on the market.
The developers have not spared their trouble, because almost all of the levels have a redesigned and more complex version reserved for cooperative play.
This visual quality is also largely supported by an excellent soundtrack, always signed by Ari Pulkkinen, the composer who has already worked on all the previous opuses. The strength of Trine 4 is also its cooperative multiplayer mode. As always, it will be possible to invite up to 2 friends in his game, each embodying one of the three heroes, which will multiply the possibilities. As 3 brains are better than one, one might fear that the difficulty of the title is no longer sufficient, but to our surprise, Frozenbyte has thought of everything. The developers have not spared their trouble, because almost all of the levels have a redesigned and more complex version reserved for cooperative play. During a first solo game, we only encounter one scenario out of the two possible ones, which multiplies the lifespan of the title that we can therefore rediscover in cooperation. Cooperation will also allow many more fantasies and possibilities by combining the abilities of our characters. For example, we can make Zoya's arrows ricochet off Pontius' shield in order to reach the most difficult targets to have. Don't worry though, whether you're solo or in coop, the difficulty is particularly well balanced, neither too hard nor too easy. We often find ourselves thinking before tackling the problem, and some puzzles are even rather tricky. The difficulties are also very variable depending on the players and their way of thinking. We thus spent more than 2 hours on a set of lights which seemed very hard to us, while a friend did not see where the problem was.
I HAVE TINE-HARD
If Trine 4 seduced us with its gameplay as well as its visual and audio beauty, the game also suffers from less brilliant sides. The fights are unfortunately not really very interesting, because they often happen like a hair in the soup. Indeed, in some places, without knowing why, the area closes in on us via purple clouds, and the famous nightmares of the prince jump on us. The arena is strictly identical during the 15 hours of the game (with three levels to jump), while the bestiary that we face is particularly poor. We quickly understand what the weaknesses and strengths of each creature are, and after a few times, a fairly boring routine is set up. Without flavor, we clearly have the impression that these fights were added to the game as an afterthought. Only the boss fights seem to have been really worked on, which creates an even bigger disconnect with the basic skirmishes, while making them even worse in comparison. Similarly, the story is not really the most powerful engine for progression, the latter also being quite unintriguing. We follow the narration slowly, and even by skipping the cutscenes we always understand what is happening, as the twists are non-existent. You will therefore have to be quite a fan of puzzle-games and platformers to throw yourself headlong into Trine 4, combat aficionados and great stories risking being bitterly disappointed.
