A few months ago, I reviewed the demo for Trine 2, a side-scrolling puzzle-platformer where you play as three unique characters, Amadeus the wizard, Pontius the knight, and Zoya the thief.  Recently, I had the pleasure of playing the demo for the much more recent Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince.

Just like last time, the game opens with Amadeus, whose magic revolves around levitating objects and creating boxes out of thin air.  I feel like his level focused more on puzzle-solving than it did in Trine 2, as I was frequently tasked with arranging various objects to form a path and proceed.  And then you have Pontius the knight, who is more focused on combat.  Unlike the second game, Pontius’ level ended with a short boss fight against an undead knight.  Last, but not least, we have the stealthy thief Zoya, who is fast and nimble with her bow and grappling hook.  Her level didn’t seem to vary all that much from the one featured in the second game. 

While I enjoyed the Trine 2 demo, I had even more fun with this one, even though it would have been nice to play through a stage featuring all three characters at once.  As before, the graphics are gorgeous, the soundtrack is pleasant, and I liked the narration quite a bit, as well.  The story also looked intriguing, which involved a missing prince and a spell gone wrong.

The game is $30 and can take 12-13 hours to complete.  Having now played through the demos for two of the games, I must say I’m rather tempted to give the Trine series a try.  Seeing as the games appear to be generally well-received (with the exception of Trine 3), perhaps the $50 Trine: Ultimate Collection might be a good idea.  (Then again…the games seem to go on sale for pretty cheap, so buying them separately might be the better deal, after all.)  Either way, there’s a good chance at least one or two Trine games will make their way into my gaming library in the near future….