Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power - 2/20 hours

Trine 3 is, on balance, a delightful little game. It's easily as gorgeous as either of its predecessors, and the characterization of the three heroes is stronger than it's ever been. The voice acting is top notch and the cast has an easy chemistry that makes it believable that they've been on multiple adventures together (I don't know if they recorded their lines together, but if not, then it's impressive how natural their conversations sound).

The game's main flaw is small, but hard to ignore - going to 3D adds nothing to the series' gameplay, and in fact harms Trine 3 much more than it helps.  The addition of a third dimension allows for some new puzzle mechanics - so far; rotating things horizontally (instead of just vertically) and tying Zoya's ropes around poles - but the price for this is that the 3D controls make everything you do just a bit sloppier. This is especially true for maneuvering the wizard's boxes and swinging on the thief's grappling hook. Having to deal with a third axis of movement makes those powers significantly harder to use.

Nonetheless, imprecise controls would not, in themselves, be sufficient to condemn the move to 3D, were it not for the fact that Trine 3's 3D is poorly implemented. Done well, 3D can give you a real sense of immersion and scale. The Trine series has always had beautifully crafted levels, and a 3D Trine that gave you the experience of being surrounded by that beauty, of existing within it, would be worth a certain degree of awkwardness in the controls. Unfortunately, Trine 3 presents its 3D from a fixed and distant camera angle, and thus it strongly resembles its side-scrolling predecessors, only with more difficult jumps and the embarrassing possibility of falling off the front and back of the screen.

Don't get me wrong, Trine 3 is still the loveliest entry of a characteristically lovely series, and the 3D contributes to that, but it's probably not worth it.

This is just griping, though. The core Trine gameplay remains solid, and it's still a charming fairy tale with a pinch of modern sensibilities (plus, we learn that Pontius is a proto-marxist), so I expect my first runthrough will be relatively painless. I just hate to see a good game waste effort on a self-destructive gimmick.