Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy

Genre: Puzzle-Platformer

Players: 1-4 Co-Op (Local, Local Wireless, Online)

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Review:

Trine 5 is a physics-based Puzzle-Platformer released in 2023 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. Following the story of the first four Trine games, Trine 5 sees the series’ three central heroes facing a new enemy bent on manipulating prominent figures in the kingdom to seize power, with the heroes themselves coming into the villainess’s crosshairs.

Before moving on with this review, I need to talk about what I feel is the elephant in the room in this release – as of this writing, the Nintendo Switch version of the game is broken in multiple ways. It is not so broken as to make it unplayable, but it is nevertheless embarrassingly unpolished, especially considering how well this game’s predecessor performed on Nintendo Switch.

The first and most noticeable way this game is broken is in its visuals. Make no mistake, Trine 5 looks absolutely gorgeous, with imaginative, detailed 3D graphics that depict sprawling vistas stretching out behind the characters… but half of the time these visuals do not seem to display properly. You have nasty textures on occasion, as well as tons of pop-in of details like shadows In cutscenes, this pop-in can happen literally every time the camera cuts to a new angle. It’s distracting, and it had me shaking my head that something so amateurish and neglectful can destroy what is otherwise a visually-stunning game.

The other way this game seems broken is that probably its biggest new feature, an upgrade menu filled with ways to enhance your trio’s abilities, is non-functional by default, stuck in a tutorial mode that will not actually let you purchase these upgrades. To be fair, some players have found workarounds (apparently you can get around this bug by using a second controller, or by deleting and reinstalling the game). However, that a game would even need such a workaround to function normally is embarrassingly sloppy. This game should not have been released in this state.

Beyond these flaws, Trine 5 is still a top-notch game, but it is top-notch in all the same ways the prior Trine games were top-notch – this is an excellent physics-based Puzzle-Platformer with superb co-op play, but once again the combat is lacking. There’s not too much to say in this regard that I haven’t already said in my review of Trine 4.

I sincerely hope that this game gets a patch, and quickly. Please do not misunderstand me here, Trine 5 is, by all appearances, still an excellent game at its core. It has the potential to be an even better co-op Puzzle-Platformer than its predecessors. But it’s clear that this release of the game is not the game at its best. Expect me to re-review this game when it gets its problems patched. Until then, I recommend players either play a version of the game on a different platform, or stick with Trine 4.

tl;dr – Trine 5 is a physics-based Puzzle-Platformer that has a lot of great potential with good puzzles, great co-op, and beautiful (at times) graphics, but this potential is heavily marred by some severe bugs and graphical issues in the Nintendo Switch version. This game should not have been released in this state, and while what’s here is in many ways excellent, I highly recommend that you wait to get it until these problems are fixed with a patch.

Grade: B-

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2023 Game Awards:

Winner:

Worst Port/Remake – Given how absolutely gorgeous Trine 4 was on Nintendo Switch, my anticipation for its sequel was through the roof… only to be shattered when I saw how shoddy this port was. Every time the game cuts to a new camera view, you get an ugly version of what you’re looking at before it loads properly, and even worse, the game has a bug that makes important features completely inaccessible unless you jump through a bunch of hoops. This isn’t just a case of a bad port, this is a case of a game that should not have been released in this state.

Most Disappointing – I already talked a bit earlier about why I felt this game was so disappointing – it follows in the footsteps of the absolutely sublime Trine 4, but is a disastrously bad port. Not much more to add to that.

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