Secondary characters will be relegated to using Wii-motes and Nunchuks, which have their own minor control issues to overcome. But when you play the game with one or two others all new possibilities present themselves because now you can have two or three active characters working in concert to solve these puzzles. This presents some creative opportunities for solving a great many of the game’s puzzles. If you are playing Trine 2 solo then you can only have one character active at any time, but you are free to switch them out on the fly, even in mid-jump. Speaking of which, Trine 2: Director’s Cut can also be played entirely on the smaller portable screen. Thankfully, many of these action controls can also be triggered using the touchscreen. Things can get slightly confusing since the character switch controls are assigned to triggers that are adjacent to the primary action controls for each character leading to some undesired character cycling. The tablet-like control is a bit awkward and not nearly as intuitive as waving a Wii-mote around like Amadeus would a wand. I came away from 90% of the puzzles in this game thinking I had “tricked the designers” and had done something “nobody else would ever think of”.Ĭontrols are a bit hit and miss on the Wii U. And thanks to a wonderful physics system, there is an unparalleled ability to experiment and solve these navigation, combat, and item collection puzzles in a multitude of ways. Gameplay, or at least the concept, is eloquently simple by design but the actual game provides some of the most fiendish puzzles of any game to date. The various upgrades get progressively more expensive, so you often have to bank your skill points and save up for the more powerful enhancements. Zoya can upgrade to fire and ice arrows or even unlock a stealth ability while Pontius can upgrade his shield so it freezes his enemies or give his hammer a Thor-like throwing ability. For every 50 you collect you will obtain one skill point that can be spent to upgrade any of the three characters in various ways.Īmadeus skill tree allows him to levitate a monster or increase his initial conjuring ability to include multiple objects or even a plank a nice alternative to the normal boxes he can summon. Some are quite obvious while others require special feats of navigation and acrobatics, or perhaps magical intervention or even the forceful smash of Pontius’ blade or hammer. There is also a nice leveling-up process that requires you to collect these glass jars scattered about the levels. Together, these three are an unstoppable force once you learn to master their unique talents. Pontius is your fighter armed with sword, shield and hammer while Zoya uses her bow and grapple for ranged combat and platform navigation. Once Amadeus meets up with the Trine (a magical beacon of light), you will link up with the other two members of your team, Pontius the Knight, and Zoya the Thief, who each have their own introductory tutorial levels that showcase their unique skills and abilities. Amadeus staggers outside into a lush storybook wonderland that serves as your first of three tutorials. A rush of wind forces the door of his cottage open extinguishing the lights, then a bright light shines through the window waking him up. Obviously, Trine 2 is a sequel, although, it doesn’t require any knowledge of the first as we meet up with Amadeus the Wizard, comfortably napping after long hours researching the elusive Fireball spell. And it probably didn’t hurt that Trine 2 also offers some of the most satisfying platform-puzzle gameplay that mixes the best parts of Lost Vikings (look it up) and Portal 2.Īll hyperbole aside (if that is even possible), Trine 2: Director’s Cut is quite simply the must-own game for the Wii U and at only $20 there is no reason for you not to be playing, especially since this version packs in all the bonus adventures of the Goblin Menace along with a few other exclusive features. Trine 2 has already dazzled me twice on the two aforementioned systems and again on the PC with the Goblin Menace DLC last September, so I was eager to once again dive into this charming storybook world with soothing narration, stunning, rich, vibrant, gorgeous, amazing, (excuse me while I consult my thesaurus…), dazzling, astounding, elegant graphics. It’s a bit ironic that one of the best games to arrive on the Wii U since its launch is a port of a PC/360/PS3 game that is only available in the eShop.
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