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  1. After a brief and frankly ill-fated foray into the world of 3D platforming in Trine 3, the franchise is back to its 2.5D roots with Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince. The game once again reunites our three heroes for a beautifully designed and cleverly crafted bit of puzzle-platforming, alongside a few welcome minor improvements to the formula, resulting in yet another must-play side-scrolling adventure on the Switch. The game begins with a brief introduction to each character and their unique abilities as they've been summoned by the Astral Academy for help. Prince Selius has wreaked havoc at the academy thanks to his unchecked magical ability to bring nightmares to life, so now Amadeus the Wizard, Pontius the Knight, and Zoya the Thief are tasked with working together to find the prince before his shadow creations destroy the world. The story itself is rather simple, though not without its charms. The best part of the writing though is in the little moments of banter among the three heroes. It's nothing too elaborate but it's just fun to see these characters interact, especially given their wildly different personalities. Like the first two Trine games, Trine 4 is a 2.5D puzzle-platformer: your journey to the end of each stage is impeded by all manner of puzzles that require one or more of our heroes' abilities to progress. Each character has unique attributes that can be used to solve puzzles, hit switches, or cross gaps. Amadeus is able to conjure boxes to stand on or weigh down switches, Zoya has a bow and arrow as well as a grappling hook, and Pontius's sword and shield are ideal for breaking things or blocking hazards. The core interaction and combination of these three characters is largely unchanged from the original game, and with good reason: combining these three characters/playstyles provides for a seemingly endless offering of clever, engaging puzzles. The variety of approaches is really what gives the Trine series its addictive depth. To cross a gap you might just swing across with Zoya's grappling hook, or you might need to carefully place a box to give yourself just the right leg up to reach the ledge (Pontius is by far the least mobile character but he still has his moments to shine as well). It really is a blast to be able to put each character's abilities to use in unique and novel ways, and to discover those methods on your own. And Trine 4 continues to come up with clever puzzles and obstacles to challenge your puzzle-solving skills, because the solution to crossing a gap is rarely as simple as "swing over it on a grappling hook." The developers have done a fantastic job of coming up with new and exciting challenges for this game, largely drawn from the variety of additional skills each hero gradually unlocks over the course of the game. Zoya, for example, can imbue her arrows with fire or ice to trigger a heat-activated switch or freeze a moving platform in place, while Pontius gains the ability to gently glide down with his shield (I told you he gets his moments). Trine 4 never lets you rest on your successes because there'll always be a new, unique puzzle just up ahead that challenges you to think outside of the box and put each of the three characters' abilities to their full use, oftentimes in unexpected physics-based solutions. It's incredibly satisfying to cross one hurdle after another and ensures you're never bored or complacent while playing. Additionally, multiplayer has always been a key part of the Trine series, and Trine 4 introduces some welcome changes in that regard. For one thing, you can play in either classic mode or unlimited mode. In classic, three players take control of one character each, bu in unlimited, each player is able to freely swap among the three heroes (though technically there is still only one Amadeus, one Zoya, and one Pontius—the others are generic, nameless characters with the same abilities). It's a really nice quality of life change to allow all players to experience everything each character has to offer, plus it allows for even crazier puzzle-solving scenarios when you have three wizards all conjuring boxes. You might think that this would trivialize the difficulty, but the developers are one step ahead of you: the puzzles actually change whether you're playing solo or in multiplayer. Puzzles become more complicated and require teamwork when there are more players, which is a great way of ensuring all players have to work together (not to mention adding some nice replay value). Trine 4 also features both local and online co-op, though the best experience is arguably local co-op—it just feels more natural to work through puzzles with a friend sitting beside you rather than online. Either way though, the dynamic puzzle design makes replaying the game with others worthwhile. The one area where Trine 4 doesn't quite shine is in combat. Occasionally you'll need to fend off the nightmare beasts running loose in the world and these battle screens can get pretty repetitive pretty quickly. It certainly doesn't help that combat feels almost exclusively like a Pontius job. It's satisfying to shoot arrows as Zoya but the slow draw speed means its a bit impractical during hectic fights, and although Amadeus can technically drop boxes on monsters' heads it's an even slower and less practical combat solution. So oftentimes you'll just use Pontius, which makes combat a bit dull. It would have been great to see the same creativity that went into the puzzle design put toward combat as well. Trine's visual aesthetic hasn't changed much over the years, and it remains absolutely gorgeous. The ten years of difference between the first and fourth games means there's far more detail and technical polish in Trine 4, but the style is just as captivating with a beautiful use of color to make every map feel magical and ethereal. There's so much detail in the scenery that you won't even mind getting stumped by a puzzle when you get to have a moment to just drink in the graphics. The music also does a great job of giving the game a magical adventure vibe, though it's frankly a bit overshadowed by the visual design. The game is a good 10–12 hours long depending on your puzzle-solving skills as well as your interest in collectibles. Each stage is packed with pink gems that can be used to upgrade each characters' abilities, plus there are three collectibles in every stage as well. Collecting everything is no simple task since you'll have to carefully scour the scenery to find hidden nooks and crannies, but putting that extra effort in is a fun way of extending your time with Trine 4. Fans of the first two Trine games should be delighted to find that developer Frozenbyte hasn't lost a step when it comes to gorgeous and clever 2.5D puzzle-platforming. Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince is a delightful return to form, one that carries on the spirit of the franchise while making some small but valuable adjustments to the multiplayer experience. Even if you're new to the series, Trine 4 promises top-notch side-scrolling gameplay from start to finish. Rating: 8 out of 10 Puzzles
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