Information

Platform
Coop Players	3
Developer	Frozenbyte
Publisher	Atlus
Release	Dec 7, 2011
Genres	Action, Platformer, Role-Playing, Puzzle

Ratings

Features

	Cooperative Campaign
	Drop-In/Drop-Out Multiplayer
	Online Multiplayer

On Steam

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Trine 2

Below are some explanations for our ratings.

Grit: This grit rating is based on the medium difficulty setting with hardcore mode off. We did have the setting which allowed us to change characters, but we tried not to actually use it. If you turn it up to hard&hardcore, I'm sure the grit will skyrocket, but we try to only take into account the default difficulty when we play games. That said, we spent most of the game messing around and screwing with each other, and it didn't prevent us from still beating every level relatively easily. That is pretty negligible grit.

Synergy: Synergy is this game's biggest strength. It's a puzzle game where all three players work together to solve the puzzles, but unlike Portal 2, the synergy is not forced. There are multiple ways to solve every puzzle, and they don't necessary require all three of you to do specific things. However, some puzzles get exponentially easier if you find a creative way to combine your abilities.

Implementation: The game is decently implemented, but there are a few massive failures:

• Cut-scenes. As usual, cut-scenes ruin multiplayer. When the hell will developers learn this? In Trine 2, the cut-scenes involve moving your screen so that you can't even see your characters. In single-player, it's fine, because you will be in a safe spot. However, in multiplayer, one person will trigger the cut-scene, and the others might still be trying to get through the last jumping puzzle, and the cut-scene will screw them over. The game tries to implement a fix for players getting left behind, but that fix in itself is a terrible feature. And that is...
• Players getting transported forward at certain checkpoints. So often, we would have one player hang back to collect experience pickups, while another would slowly move forward to see what is ahead. But no, you can't do that. Very often, the player moving forward will trigger a checkpoint, and everyone else will get zapped away from what they were doing.
• This was a specific occurrence on a single level, but it bears mentioning. It's an extreme example of both of the above. In Mudwater Dale, two of the players jumped onto a ledge while the third was about to get there. The two players moved forward, which caused a door behind them to slam shut. Then, those two players died. The third went to resurrect them and... we were all permanently trapped behind that door. Even reloading from the last checkpoint did not fix the problem. We had to just restart the level from scratch. Very horrible design flaw right there.

The game's idiotic control of your screen was definitely the main complaint. We also had a lot of trouble getting the hosting to work at times. Only DS could host the game and still have the others connect. We also experienced a lot of crashes when we first started playing, but we kinda forgot, since it didn't happen much after that.

Longevity: The game didn't take too much time to beat. It took us a while simply because we barely played it. The original campaign wasn't that fun for various reasons (not all the game's fault), so there's not much chance we'll play it again. I personally wouldn't mind going for the all hard&hardcore achievement, but it sounds like no one else thinks it will be worth it. The Goblin Menace DLC was great, though. Even so, because it's a puzzle-based game, subsequent playthroughs will be much, much shorter, and only worthwhile if you enjoy running around with your characters. The fact that I did enjoy running around with my character is probably due to the fact that my character was Zoya. So, it's not entirely justified to give it a higher longevity just because I am happy to play it again.

Depth: The depth score is mostly attributed to the various creative ways you can work together. The skill trees only add a small amount of depth, because you will eventually unlock all skills for your character. However, there are still a lot of things in the game that we didn't try. I only played as Zoya, and not once did I ever use the stealth mechanic. Perhaps it would have made things easier. I also didn't learn that you could freeze water with arrows until Goblin Menace, and I never knew how to do the swinging kick. Anyway, like I said, most of the depth comes from the many ways you can work together.

Fun: Without Goblin Menace, this game would have received a much lower score. We didn't enjoy the original campaign that much overall, and as a result, it took us forever to finally play the DLC. However, once we did, we were glad. The fact that you have all of your abilities at that point made the game much more fun. Each of us only played one character, and we all managed to enjoy ourselves.