Check Out The Trine 3 Announcement Trailer

Frozenbyte Games let loose a new trailer for Trine 3: Artifacts of Power, the third game in the highly lauded franchise that has also turned out to be a major critical sales success. The trailer gives gamers a small taste of what's to come in the multiplayer platforming title.

Gamespot goes through the proverbial details on the game's physics-based platforming that relies on players utilizing their wits, reflexes and skills to get through the game's challenging levels.

Most interesting about the trailer, however, is that it starts off playing up the property's massive 7 million sales figure. Yes, Trine and Trine 2 have collectively sold more than 7 million copies since the original release back in 2009.

The game really is a standout title given that it blends the unique platforming mechanics we're used to from side-scrolling 2D games, but it leverages the capabilities of the Unreal Engine to advance the game mechanics forward by allowing players to solve puzzles using physics-based properties. When playing three-player, players will have to each utilize the characters' skills to overcome some of the obstacles and obstructions.

The game's combat system also requires a lot of teamwork to get through since the mage and archer can't defend against incoming attacks but the knight can. The knight, however, is kind of limited in his mobility, so having someone like the archer take out enemies from a distance works well enough. It's also kind of cool because a character like the mage can be utilized to throw boxes, cages or other small objects at enemies to incapacitate them.

The third game takes a lot of the basic elements already introduced in the first two games and advances them to the nth degree. For instance, we see that the archer's grapple-hook appears to play a slightly bigger role in the platforming, allowing for players to move around in the environments freely and quickly. It also seems as if the mage's magic physics has also slightly improved, enabling players to move around objects a bit more quickly than in the previous outing.

The three-player gameplay is still intact, allowing players to take control of each of the characters and play them to the best of their abilities. It's weird but there aren't many other games out there that take on a similar gameplay setup as Trine. The closest games I can think of is Dungeon Defenders, Rayman Legends and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons.

Anyway, Frozenbyte has done a magnificent job with Trine 3's visual design. The graphics look amazing and the aesthetic captures a sort of fairy tale appeal for the 3D platformer. It also looks like they added more diverse ways to engage in boss battles and a few 3D runner-segments where players have to dodge obstacles and avoid being killed while racing to a destination.

Platforms haven't been revealed just yet but it's probably safe to say that if the game was available on PlayStation and Xbox consoles in the past, it wouldn't be surprising to see the title appear on Microsoft and Sony's systems once more, along with a standard release on PC.