After a bit of a leak earlier this year, developer FrozenByte has made it official; acclaimed physics-based co-op platformer Trine is returning for a fifth instalment – subtitled A Clockwork Conspiracy – sometime this “summer” on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and PC.
First things first, Trine 5 once again adopts the series’ classic 2.5D side-scrolling perspective after Trine 3’s ambitious, but ultimately poorly received, foray into full 3D back in 2015. That’s likely a reassurance for series fans, but also makes for a new instalment that perhaps doesn’t particularly distinguish itself from its predecessors at first glance.
Not that more of the same is necessarily a bad thing; Trine has carved something of a niche for itself over the years, and its platform puzzling – built around using the unique abilities of the series’ wizard, knight, and thief protagonists, from heavy lifting to block conjuring and hook grappling – remains as enjoyable today as it did when the series debuted almost 15 years ago.
