When the king dies, there is no one to take the throne and the unspecified kingdom is left without a ruler. Soon, chaos ensues as the dead rise from their grave and take over the nation, driving everyone away. In this abandoned country, the lives of three characters become entwined. The thief Zoya make use of the situation to infiltrate the Astral Academy to steal riches. She discovers an artifact that glues her to the object, unable to move. Her fate is shared by Amadeus the wizard. Through an unfortunate experiment he was in a deep sleep and when he awakes he finds out everyone has left. As a light comes from a shrine in the academy, he discovers the thief and makes the same mistake. Finally there is Pontius the noble knight. More muscle than brains, he has bravely stayed behind to defend the academy, but he too, when discovering the duo, touches the object. The wizard recalls that the artifact is called The Trine, with the magical power to connect souls. Against their will, the three characters are now bound in their fate, their lives connected, and need to find a way to undo the powers. They explore the kingdom, looking for traces of the Guardian who is said to control the powers of The Trine.
Trine is a physics-based action game where the strengths of each of the three characters need to be used cooperatively to complete puzzles and advance. When playing alone, the player can switch between any of the three characters at any time, but the game can also be played offline with three players simultaneously, each controlling one of the characters on the same screen, similar to the Lost Viking series. The game uses 2D-sidescrolling gameplay, but with many different layers in the front and the back that provide depth, and a camera that zooms dynamically. Each of the three characters has specific abilities. The thief is able to grapple wooden surfaces and uses bow and arrow to attack enemies, or fire arrows to light torches. The wizard uses his magic to move objects, and he is also able to create planks and crates. The knight is the blunt force, relying on his sword and shield to take care of enemy threats, and he is also able to lift and move heavy objects. The three characters constantly need to work together to get past obstacles and often there are multiple solutions. The environment is physics-based, with objects that can be stacked and swung, and breakable surfaces.
There are also minor RPG elements to the game, as green potions provide experience. The characters can be leveled up for each of their three possible skills. Levels are also filled with hidden locations that often contain chests with items that enhance the characters’ abilities. That way, they can resurrect, breathe underwater or get better resistance against damage. Levels contain multiple checkpoints. When one of the characters dies, it is possible to continue as the perished ones are revived at the next checkpoint. The characters can also collect health and blue potions that refill magic (drained by shooting fire arrows or using magic for instance). The focus is on puzzle solving and platform jumping, but there are many instances with different types of enemies such as skeletons, bats and boss characters, next to more general traps.
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