Trine 3, as one would guess, is the third installment in the Trine series. A series, that prides itself on its visuals, physics based puzzles and the mechanic to switch between three characters with different skillsets with just a buttonpress.

While Trine 1 and 2 featured 2D gameplay, Trine 3 is the first title in the series to go for 3D explorable levels with fixed camera angles. And this jump into the third dimension is not without its flaws.

This game ends on a cliffhanger, because the developers were too ambitious this time around and just couldn't get all of the story finished without compromising their product, so they decided to focus on what they could afford to create with the budget at hand and keep up the quality of it. This is a problem that might happen, we have even seen big development studios that fell into that trap. And it's the right move to at least assure the quality of what's there instead of putting something together half-heartedly.

So the final product looks fantastic, the gameplay and story are true to the series. So what are the (other) problems? If you played Trine 1 or 2 you might remember you could gain new skills for all of the three characters. That's gone. Each one has about 3 skills, which is significantly less than in Trine 2. It's also not as difficult as the other ones and there are no difficulty settings to chose from, to begin with. The puzzles are alright. The enemy variety (compared to Trine 2) has lessened.

The areas in which the developers improved were the controls (e.g. just keeping the jump button down in order to glide is soooo much more intuitive) and differentiating the characters more (the thief won't be your combat character anymore, since the knight is now really useful and the wizard won't be as useless because he now conjures a standard size box and can smash it into enemies). Also the level design was improved - all collectibles are now clearly visible - you might need to find a certain area, but they aren't hidden in the lava anymore (Trine 1) or such. Also if you want to go look for missing collectibles you can now see at which part of the level you're missing them and can jump to that checkpoint instead of playing the level again up to that point.

Since there are no skilltrees and level ups, the collectibles are pretty useless this time around - they grant you access to bonus levels (which are nice to play), but nothing more than that. I always like if games unlock an art gallery or something with collectibles, so you're not forced to find them and there's a sense of worth in finding them - that's not the case here. As for bugs: I found that sometimes the thief and wizard don't exactly target the exact object you want them to interact with and the wizard sometimes has problems to interact with an object at all. Moving to another position solves this, usually.

Should you get this game then? Well, maybe. If you liked Trine 1 and 2, you might be a bit disappointed, but you also might not be. If you didn't play Trine 1 or 2 before, I recommend playing them - at the very least Trine 2. If you get this, get it on sale, favourably in the collection with Trine 1 and 2. It's alright, it was too ambitious, but it still is Trine.

Trine 3, as one would guess, is the third installment in the Trine series. A series, that prides itself on its visuals, physics based puzzles and the mechanic to switch between three characters with different skillsets with just a buttonpress. While Trine 1 and 2 featured 2D gameplay, Trine 3 is the first title in the series to go for 3D explorable levels with fixed camera angles. And this jump into the third dimension is not without its flaws. This game ends on a cliffhanger, because the developers were too ambitious this time around and just couldn't get all of the story finished without compromising their product, so they decided to focus on what they could afford to create with the budget at hand and keep up the quality of it. This is a problem that might happen, we have even seen big development studios that fell into that trap. And it's the right move to at least assure the quality of what's there instead of putting something together half-heartedly. So the final product looks fantastic, the gameplay and story are true to the series. So what are the (other) problems? If you played Trine 1 or 2 you might remember you could gain new skills for all of the three characters. That's gone. Each one has about 3 skills, which is significantly less than in Trine 2. It's also not as difficult as the other ones and there are no difficulty settings to chose from, to begin with. The puzzles are alright. The enemy variety (compared to Trine 2) has lessened. The areas in which the developers improved were the controls (e.g. just keeping the jump button down in order to glide is soooo much more intuitive) and differentiating the characters more (the thief won't be your combat character anymore, since the knight is now really useful and the wizard won't be as useless because he now conjures a standard size box and can smash it into enemies). Also the level design was improved - all collectibles are now clearly visible - you might need to find a certain area, but they aren't hidden in the lava anymore (Trine 1) or such. Also if you want to go look for missing collectibles you can now see at which part of the level you're missing them and can jump to that checkpoint instead of playing the level again up to that point. Since there are no skilltrees and level ups, the collectibles are pretty useless this time around - they grant you access to bonus levels (which are nice to play), but nothing more than that. I always like if games unlock an art gallery or something with collectibles, so you're not forced to find them and there's a sense of worth in finding them - that's not the case here. As for bugs: I found that sometimes the thief and wizard don't exactly target the exact object you want them to interact with and the wizard sometimes has problems to interact with an object at all. Moving to another position solves this, usually. Should you get this game then? Well, maybe. If you liked Trine 1 and 2, you might be a bit disappointed, but you also might not be. If you didn't play Trine 1 or 2 before, I recommend playing them - at the very least Trine 2. If you get this, get it on sale, favourably in the collection with Trine 1 and 2. It's alright, it was too ambitious, but it still is Trine.