Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince is a fantastic mind-boggling 2.5D puzzle game that has kept me busy for 2 days consecutively. Big shout-out to Frozenbyte on the development of this game. The game starts off with you playing as Amadeus, a Magician, on his way to retrieve a letter from the mailbox. As the game develops you get to see the story behind the other two characters, Pontius, the Knight and Zoya, the Thief Assassin, as they weave themselves into the main quests. Together in this marvelous 2.5D world, you can switch between these three characters (in single player mode) to use the necessary abilities allocated to each one specifically to get through specific scenarios.

Return of the Trio

Getting deeper into the game, we come across Prince Selius, who is taken over by a dark magic and is left with horrid nightmares and decides to run off. The three town heroes, Amadeus, Pontius & Zoya are requested to team up once again and go on a “hunting spree” for the lack of better expression to retrieve the runaway Prince.

Upon first encounter with Prince Selius, he turns into an immensely big nightmarish wolf that needs to be defeated by the “Big Guy”, Pontius. There are various encounters with the prince but not every encounter ends with him turning into a nightmarish monster. Other encounters are casual conversations and one even having to be drawn into his subconscious and needing to escape his mindset and thoughts.

Crazy Controls

As the game progresses, your characters pick up on and develop more helpful skills which aids in each level. This gets quite exciting as the longer I play merely because I generally get a tad forgetful and upon pressing some random buttons whilst in battle I come across a former new skill and get surprised with random “I can do that?! YAASSSS!” or a random Chris Pratt surprised facial expression meme once I try out my new skill set.

When getting to the controls, I have been playing Trine 4 on PS4 which wasn’t the easiest for me personally as I am a PC Gamer and not a Console Gamer I must say, trying to learn all the buttons was tricky but fun. I had a few good laughs at some of my errors but in general I think I did well. I have slipped up quite often when wanting to use specific allocated abilities, my brain did derp out and I would switch characters or vise versa. But this was a good experience for me and hopefully would get me accustomed to more future PS4 reviews.

Peripheral Pleasures. Captivating Comebacks

As an artist and designer, my favorite part has to be the absolute breathtaking background landscapes in this 2.5D Puzzle Game. The colours, depending on the level or in this case (Act I / II/ II / IV / V) you have reached can either be Soft and Pastel, Exciting and Vibrant or even Predominantly Contrasting, in a really good way.

I had to take a moment or two to catch my breath at how beautifully it all has been designed and I want to say “Good Job!” to all the time spent on the visuals.

Getting to the game play and puzzles themselves, I must say, once you get the hang of it, they’re not really all that hard although there were like 3 stages I have come across that took some real thought and having to think outside the box and keep into note the abilities of each character that could benefit in each specific scenario.

I do however believe that this would suffice when it comes to the younger generation and keep their brain activity active. I do think that if there is a possibility of one getting either bored or frustrated after a while and walk away, the game for sure has you coming back to try surpass your level. I have found myself in this “Just one more level.” predicament more often than I could count as I couldn’t just stop without wanting to see what the next challenge has in store for myself.

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Conclusion

Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince releases 8 October 2019 and was developed by Frozenbyte. It is available at launch for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC (Microsoft Windows) and Nintendo Switch. It is at it’s core, a seriously well put together Adventure / Platform Game. Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince can be purchased from Modus Games on PS4 for R455.00 (at the time of this review). Lastly I would like to say that this game is perfect for people of all ages and I know for a fact it would keep the young ones busy and glued to their seats. With levels ranging from mostly easy to seldomly quite tricky one cannot get too frustrated or bored at this game without wanting to keep pushing until it is completed.