Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy is a classic trio. review

Played on PC

The end of summer proved hot for releases. And if the developer isn’t FromSoftware, then releasing your idea between Baldur’s Gate 3 and Starfield is suicide. So Trine 5 seemed to pass almost unnoticed against the background of the mastodons. But Frozenbyte once again surprised us with its imagination in terms of puzzles and offered us to plunge into the warm atmosphere of a fantasy adventure.

Let’s have another adventure

Irony of meanings

The Trine series is surprisingly stable. Apart from the threequel’s experiments in translating the gameplay into honest three dimensions, we can expect almost the same game every time. And I don’t want to be offended by that at all. The eternal trinity of heroes — The thief Zoya, the knight Pontius and the magician Amadeus are once again caught in a whirlwind of adventure when an invitation to a dinner party turns into a trap. Lady Sunny (no joke) decides to take power in the kingdom with the help of an army of animated automatons.

And although the evil villain doesn’t invest any personal convictions in his dastardly plans, it’s still fun to watch old heroes fight with the creatures of progress – either a coincidence or a meta-irony from the developers in relation to the unsuccessful Trine 3: Die Artifacts of Power. Modern cars are soulless tin cans without sense and honor, or is it just the good old knights and magic! If you’re good at making beautiful 2D platformers, why bother trying new ideas? Overall risks.

As a continuation of traditions, Trine 5 is certainly a success. The series has always been characterized by its wonderful graphics and A Clockwork Conspiracy can easily secure the title of one of the most beautiful games of the year. The landscapes are lush and bright, full of small details and surprisingly three-dimensional despite the two-dimensional game mechanics. Every now and then, the virtual operator raises and tilts the camera slightly to show another breathtaking view – a forest at the foot of a hill, a port city from the height of a tower, mines penetrating the bottomless darkness.

Amadeus is again the most impressive character

Over the course of two dozen levels, divided into five chapters, the trio will visit many scenic locations. But it is worth noting that we have already seen all this in the series: fairy-tale forests, gloomy caves and luxurious castles. The well-known style only gets freshness with a portion of steampunk. Trine 5 is a compilation of everything players loved about previous releases. The same applies to the gameplay.

As before, the player takes control of a trio of heroes. In single player mode you switch between characters and only one of them is on the screen at a time, but in a network game the group acts as a team. Both the classic mode, in which each trio is available in a single copy, and the co-op mode for four people with any combination of heroes, which appeared in the fourth part, are available. And the puzzles are designed so that you can find the key to them in any mode.

It seems to me that a single run only benefited from this approach. After all, a puzzle can have many solutions with different abilities. The protagonists’ specialization is still the same: Zoe swings a bow, clings to steel rings and connects various objects together; Pontius clears the way for the team with his sword and shield; Amadeus can still conjure a platform or cube out of thin air and can also move things with the power of his thoughts.

Heroes go through some stages alone – at the end of these stages there is always a new ability waiting for you

The complexity of the puzzles gradually increases. The first few levels fly by, especially if you’re already familiar with previous Trine releases. Anyone can master using a magic crossbar to cross an abyss, build a suspension bridge, or overcome an obstacle. But as you progress, the puzzles become more complicated and the sequence of actions that allow you to progress becomes longer and longer.

Heroes unlock new abilities that instantly add another layer to the puzzles. And now you need to calculate the solution in three steps: create a cube and change the direction of gravity for it, tie an object to it with a rope and create a Pontius clone that “freezes” the intake at a certain height “. Off structure with a beam from the shield and so on and so forth. At some point you don’t even understand whether you put the puzzle together the way the developers intended, or whether the mechanics found a new way with the help of non-obvious interaction.

Why fight when you can simply throw your enemy into the abyss?

Thanks to the variety of skills available, tasks replace each other for a dozen and a half hours without repeating ideas. They manage to thoroughly test your imagination and ingenuity, but don’t become routine – just when you think you’ve found some kind of universal key, A Clockwork Conspiracy adds another variable to the rules. The game combines almost all the ideas that were previously encountered in the series.

Sometimes puzzle solving is interrupted by combat. They still do not differ in depth and play the role of a secondary distraction – a break to unload the head, shoot at dummies and throw heavy boxes on their heads. Ordinary opponents can only be overwhelmed by superior numbers if you are suddenly trapped in a narrow arena. But the bosses proved entertaining – they, too, are likely to be tasks of ingenuity rather than reaction.

Of course, the variety of options is respectful. Despite its considerable length, “Trine 5” is surprisingly not boring. But I can’t shake the feeling that the series format is on the verge of reaching its ceiling. Most of what the fifth part offers we have seen in previous editions. Yes, it can be scary to open new horizons; there is always the risk of stepping on an unknown rake. But sooner or later you have to move on so as not to fall into stagnation.

Posing for the cover of a music album

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However, pay no attention to my grumbling. Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy is definitely a good game. With an extremely unfortunate release date. Maybe it should have been released sometime in the winter, after the blockbuster storm. And its cozy, sunny atmosphere would be particularly effective against the background of the winter landscapes outside the window. Now if you missed it, mark Trine 5 on your calendar when you’ve played enough of the big hits. She deserves it.

Advantages:

• cozy fairytale atmosphere and enchantingly beautiful landscapes;
• many interesting puzzles;
• Constant rotation of game mechanics – a dozen and a half hours of Trine 5 always produce something new.

Defects:

• Within the series, it becomes increasingly difficult for writers to come up with new rules and they have to come up with combinations of familiar ideas.
• The combat system is still disappointing.

Degree: 8.0/10

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