In the ever-growing world of indie gaming, the action-packed roguelike genre has seen an increase in new titles over the last few years but each one needs something to separate them from the rest. Newly released to early access,Trinity Fusionhopes to accomplish this witha system that fuses characters togetherto unlock secondary abilities, and with gorgeous visuals created by developer Angry Mob Games. Both aspects hope to attract fans of the genre, and even in early access, it looks like Angry Mob has a good chance of succeeding on both fronts.
Players are dropped intoTrinity Fusion’s story after everything has fallen apart, inserted into a war-torn world filled with hostile creatures. But it isn’t just this reality that is struggling, indeed there are at least two other realities (with more to be added in the future) that are fighting for survival. A troubled multiverse isn’t new to storytelling, butTrinity Fusionthrows a twist into the standard version of the story pretty early on. Users start the game as Altara, a sword and magic-wielding protagonist tasked with saving the three realities. She won’t be alone in this adventure as players later unlock two alternative reality versions of herself, Kera and Naira.It is a multiverse adventurein the truest sense, as players bounce back and forth between them collecting money, materials, and weapons while trying to save everything.
In addition to different visual looks, the three characters also have different movement abilities, with some sporting double jumps while others have a higher regular jump. These choices having a great effect on gameplay and the game’s replayability this early in the game’s lifespan is usually a good sign that developers have a solid base to build off or add onto.The addition of character fusion, where two characters are fused together to add a third usable skill and increased movement options, adds to the complexity (which does sometimes feel lackluster) when playing. Adding a third ability to the game’s already diverse set of options was definitely a step in the right direction in bringing players back for multiple runs through the game, as it continues to strive for that elusive balance between difficulty and fun.
Each of the three playable characters is capable of carrying the same types of primary weapons consisting of swords, dual axes, scythes, and more, but combat options begin to diversify with their secondary choices. A healthy variety of guns, various two-handed weapons, and spells give each character their own combat methods a little bit of personality.Like most weapon-heavy games, some will feel more valuable than others, but Angry Mob Games has so far done a decent job of giving each form of combat the opportunity to succeed. Guns have limited ammo but let you attack from distance, the two-handed weapons are slow to swing but do huge damage, and spells have versatility with the ability to freeze enemies in place, set them on fire, or attack the full width of the screen with a laser. So far, there are a lot of mix-and-matching options that should get most combat-focused players excited about the future ofTrinity Fusion.
There is a bit of an adjustment some will have to go through with the combat speed, as most attacks feel just a little slower than themajority of side-scrollers out in the marketright now. Though after spending time with the game, it shifts to feeling like more of an intended design than a mistake. The hyper-speed combat that some games employ is replaced with a more deliberate pace that feels right at home after only a few hours. Not everything will go down so easily though, as the game tends to throw two or more enemies at players in most fights, greatly increasing the difficulty. The inability to destroy enemy projectiles is a little bit off-putting at first too, as it can greatly increase the difficulty of fights if the player isn’t paying attention.
These engagements are brief at the beginning, thoughTrinity Fusiondoes get into situations where, after beginning a new area, weapons feel a bit like they’re hitting enemies with a cardboard tube.Enemy health scaling can feel a bit offin those moments, and unless a new weapon with better stats drops near the beginning of a new area, it can be a stretch of frustration slowly whittling down their health. The auto-generation placement for where enemies are inserted can sometimes feel utterly unfair with the number of enemies that can be set in one area, or even multiples of the same enemy, as players traverse the game’s large maps. Of course, these aspects will continue to be adjusted and improved, especially as news areas are added to the game.
Despite the annoyance of them occasionally being over-saturated in certain areas, the enemy designs and their animations are a highlight of the game, as Angry Mob Games has undoubtedly spent a good chunk of time on each one. From the lowly little ball of angry animals to the taller-than-human machines designed to slay, each feels completely in place in their realities. Combat animations for both playable characters and enemies are fluid and seem designed with a lot of care in mind. The mixture of primitive and futuristic areas, creatures, and robotics mesh really well overall, and already feels like they’re completed. More will undoubtedly be made for future updates, butTrinity Fusionalready sports some of the better-looking models and animations within the genre. This care also extendsto the various level backgrounds, giving users a good sense of depth whether running around rocky mountains or robotic skyscrapers.
Further development will also benefit the game’s auto-generation of levels, though there isn’t anything outright broken about them. Instead, there are situations such as warp gates spawning almost within sight of each other, or repetition of world-building assets that take some of the fun out of exploring. This only becomes a demerit because the generated levels are so large, so users can easily spend 10+ minutes exploring the map and uncovering every inch of the procedurally generated areas while encountering the same set of world-building blocks back-to-back-to-back.The repetition is a minor gripe, though, and hopefully, there will be further tweaks to the already solid, world-building engine. There are a few continuity errors in the game’s story as well, though these are very minor and won’t be noticed except by those really looking for them. Characters are introduced and named before the character that knows them is unlocked, though this merely gives away NPC names early and doesn’t affect the gameplay at all.
A large aspect of the game that will hopefully be addressed going forward is the lackluster and sometimes seemingly insignificant boosts sprinkled throughout the game. These come in common, rare, and epic levels of strength, but some of the common boosts feel drastically underpowered to the point they don’t make a difference, or are so situation-specific that they don’t feel worthwhile to take. This might be due to some of them not seeming to scale as enemies get harder, such as a bomb that does 20 damage when successfully dodging an attack doesn’t feel like it has a ton of benefit as enemy health bars grow.There isn’t a huge variety between what’s offered every time, so users may find themselves only quickly checking upgrade stations before moving on without upgrading anything, as only five boosts may be held at a time.
The lack of variety also seems to extend to stations that have a chance to drop an epic weapon or skill boost at the cost of carrying a negative boost until certain conditions are met or changing levels. These can include things like lowered damage when airborne until 10 enemies are killed, loss of the map, constant energy drain, etc., but are always random. As such, some players won’t find the cost/benefit ratio to ever be in their favor and will more than likely skip them. Other than allowing the player to choose between a few negative options or know exactly what the benefit will be for rolling the dice, this may be a part of the game that players hesitate to engage with. Still, Angry Mob Games knows that if left untouched, there will always besome users that enjoy taking that risk, so they may decide to leave it as-is.
So far,Trinity Fusionis a mostly well-made, gorgeous action-roguelike that feels as if it has a solid footing on what it wants to be despite just beginning its early access life. It carries some of the most well-crafted enemy looks, backgrounds, and animations currently available in the genre and while the story isn’t anything ground-breaking, character fusions andthe more deliberate combat pacehave the potential to keep players coming back. The addition of new, planned areas and levels will only increase the size of the game, and some further tweaking in map generation will help create an enjoyable game a large variety of players find incredibly fun.
Trinity Fusionis currently available on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. Game Rant was provided a PC code for this preview.
