Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince Review

"All My Dreams"

Campaign

October 7, 2019 at 4:49am
By Jason Stettner

This is the latest entry in the now fairly long running series. This is “The Nightmare Prince” where three adventurers have come together in order to hunt down a young prince that has vanished. It sounds like a fairly straight forward objective, but looks are deceiving. Prince Selius suffers from dark dreams and due to his magical talents these things come to life and slip into regular reality.

It’s up to Amadeus the Wizard, Pontius the Knight, and Zoya the Thief to deal with this threat across a large selection of missions and a number of acts. Five acts in total, to be precise. There’s actually quite a lot of gameplay within the campaign and many hidden secrets to discover if that’s something you’re interested in replay wise.

The narrative was actually well done, with cinematic moments to showcase transitions and story oriented dialogue delivered during standard play. It’s a good way to provide extra context to what’s happening, and the group mingles in a humorous and enjoyable way. It really does seem to be a more light hearted tale and I appreciated that aspect of play.

Gameplay

This is a 2.5D platformer with a focus on puzzle based problems to deal with. You’ll be platforming along while also having to finish a series of fair in challenge puzzles. This is appropriate for any audience type, and very accessible as it shouldn’t be too difficult to engage with. I thought I’d note that with the puzzle aspect being mentioned. I was only confused a few times with the puzzles and then was able to eventually figure things out while playing.

I’m sure most won’t have an issue working through this which is great. There are a wide range of challenges in this regard, and it’s definitely varied. They’re always testing different character skills that continue to grow as you progress and it’s always a fresh way to make you think. They’re quite clever, and offer freedom as you gain more skills while playing.

Each of the characters from which you can switch between on the fly offer something distinct to the team. You will use them in various combinations to solve those puzzles that come your way and it works well. There are some combative elements of play, with a selection of enemies to tackle. I found these somewhat repetitive and it halted the pacing a bit, but they were generally fine and a nice mix-up for play.

Trine 4 truly embraces the fantasy setting with some gorgeous environments that you get to travel through. From the snowy peaks, to some dangerous swamps and caves between. The game has a little of everything and the quality of depth within these spaces is stunning to take in. While you can enjoy this experience by yourself, there’s also four player coop whether that’s local or online. A great addition, and definitely an appreciated feature for those that like to play with others.

The Conclusion

Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince is a lovely experience featuring charming visuals and a light hearted approach to puzzle based platforming. I had a lot of fun playing this game, and enjoyed the fair yet easy going enough puzzles that would be on the path ahead.

There’s a good selection of levels here, and the campaign provides a solid length to it. There are always new challenges to take on, whether that’s a new boss or some sort of different mechanic that’s been added. They’re constantly switching things up, and giving you new tools to play with which is fun. There’s a quality amount of content to this, and it’s backed by some gorgeous visuals.

I was very impressed with the fantasy setting and coming from Nine Parchments I’m not surprised. They really do deliver some grand worlds, filled with depth and charm as you could just get lost in these environments. It’s a fun game, the cooperative aspect is nice and it’s also just as enjoyable to play by yourself if you so choose to do so.

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Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince Review on Xbox One X
Review Code Provided by Tinsley PR

Rating Overall: 8.5