Trinity Fusion Review: Multiverse Mayhem Shakes Up Roguelikes

Pull up a seat, gaming friend, because I’ve got the inside scoop on Trinity Fusion – the fresh new romp from the clever cats at Angry Mob Games. Now, you may have noticed how every studio and their grandma seems bent on tackling the whole “multiple realities” thing lately. And I feel you…dimensional shenanigans are played out, right? Well, buckle up, because this indie studio looked that tired trope square in the eyes and said “Challenge accepted!”

At its core, Trinity Fusion is a zippy action-platformer with roguelite trappings. That means procedurally-generated levels, randomized power-ups, and a “try, try again” gameplay loop that kicks you back to square one when you snuff it. Pretty familiar territory if you’ve sampled gobble-up-your-social-life greats like Dead Cells and Hades. But Angry Mob’s creation definitely has its own offbeat flavor.

See, the heady premise here is that future humanity gets a little too big for its britches and starts custom-crafting its own multiverse – farming out different realities for specific purposes. You’ve got a factory world, an artsy-fartsy world, and so on. But this brave new multiverse soon starts of course falling apart at the seams. Where do you come in? Well you play as one of three “variants” of a young woman named Maya. Their mission? Romp across various crumbling realities and try to fuse everything back together before the whole shebang winks out of existence.

Hopping Between Dimensions

Now, I’ll be straight with you – Trinity Fusion’s lore can get a bit convoluted. But the nutshell version is that future humanity gets drunk on its own scientific brilliance and decides to fragment reality into specialized realms. Each parallel world focuses on a single purpose, providing resources back to the “Prime” timeline. For example, there’s a factory cosmos that mass produces goods, while a quaint “Underworld” dimension allows nature to thrive.

Of course, this all goes pear-shaped when the alternate realities start breaking bad and rebelling against the Prime timeline. Where do you come in? Well, you play as one of three different versions of the same person – Maya. There’s tough-as-nails security officer Altara, stealthy scavenger Naira, and mysterious hi-tech guru Kera. Each calls a different collapsing cosmos their home.

During your dimension-hopping adventures, you’ll periodically uncover snippets of lore and backstory through documents, audio logs, and chatty NPCs. It all connects together in the end…but following the ever-unraveling plot isn’t quite the prime motivation here. Trinity Fusion’s moment-to-moment run-and-gun action takes center stage.

That said, the three “variants” of Maya do have subtly different personalities. And developer Angry Mob Games cleverly plays into the dimension-fusing conceit. During a run, you can merge two of the playable characters together at special stations. This combines their weapons, abilities, and even fuses their physical appearance. It’s a rad twist that leans into that multiverse madness and adds replay value.

So while I can’t say Trinity Fusion’s lore and narrative will blow your socks off, it manages enough self-aware silliness to carry the action. And the dimensional themes open up some satisfying gameplay opportunities with the ability to warp between worlds and fuse personae.

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Dimension-Hopping Action and Progression

When it comes to moment-to-moment play, Trinity Fusion delivers satisfying 2D action-platforming with a hearty side of weapon variety and ability combinations. Each procedural run sees you side-scrolling through self-contained levels while fending off bizarre alien creatures, platforming over hazards, or taking on screen-filling bosses.

Now, at the start of every run, you pick one of the three Marias to control – security badass Altara, stealthy scavenger Naira, or techno-sorceress Kera. And each variant feels solidly distinct in playstyle. For example, Naira balances melee and guns along with a handy grappling hook for mobility. Meanwhile Kera goes all-in on close-quarters bone-crunching with a powerful spirit blade. Altara instead wields elemental magic from afar. As you progress, you’ll also unlock additional traversal tools like a teleport drone. This keeps expanding your tactical options while granting access to new areas.

Regardless of your choice though, Trinity Fusion’s combat proves supremely responsive with ample dodging and each player having varied combos.  You’ll also build a unique weapon loadout during every run since guns, swords, scythes and more are procedurally generated. It keeps things spicy. Some personal faves included a plasma cannon that painted damage zones and a scythe with health-leeching strikes. They all have distinct attack patterns to master too.

And about a third of the way into any run, you can opt to fuse two of the Marias together at designated stations. This smartly combines their weapons and open up wacky ability combinations. In one powered-up run, I merged Altara’s elemental magic with Naira’s mobility. The result? An untouchable death-from-above machine raining missiles and fireballs.

Of course, with Trinity Fusion rocking roguelite genes, death returns you to the central hub with most progression reset. But you can spend meta-currencies on permanent upgrades for your variants between runs. We’re talking improved stats, new traversal tools, or handy abilities like revive once per run. This gives a sense of long-term advancement alongside the randomized challenge. Just know that one of the upgrade currencies is painfully slow to accumulate at first, so budget wisely.

Now, Trinity Fusion’s individual runs only last around 20-30 minutes up to the final dimension-stabilizing bosses. Repetition can sneak in as the procedural level layouts start blurring together – there’s only so many mechanical factory or vine-strewn underworld tiles. Plus the random ability boosts don’t quite rejuvenate things as intended. I found the most success “min-maxing” ability combos rather than experimenting widely. But some might dig the focused “build crafting” approach.

For those seeking a smoother challenge curve though, there *is* a lower difficulty mode that lets anyone grind out upgrades and reach the dimension-mending ending given enough runs. So Trinity Fusion ultimately passes the accessibility test with alternate modes for both hardened roguelite fanatics and genre newcomers alike.

A Visual and Auditory Dimension Hop

Now, I’ll level with you here – Trinity Fusion’s worlds won’t immediately wow your eyeballs. The aesthetic leans towards a more generic sci-fi vibe rather than pushing a distinct artistic identity. Environments like the mechanized factory realm and vine-entangled underworld are serviceable backdrops but fail to pop with splashes of color or ambient details.

The character models also veer towards the simple side – you’ve got fairly basic designs for the three Marias and enemies that are more functional than flashy. Some extra visual pizazz could have better complimented the kinetic combat.

But where Trinity Fusion’s visual presentation *does* overdeliver is with the liquid-smooth animations. Effort was clearly poured into making movement and attacks feel vivacious. Whether you’re chain-wall jumping between platforms or unleashing a blistering combo, the Marias dazzle with their frame-perfect reactions. Same goes for enemies – it’s easy to read their attack tells since they’ve all got unique movement patterns.

On the audio front, Trinity Fusion avoids repetition by having a broad soundscape of combat clangs, crunches and elemental explosions to liven up your dimensional escapades. The voice acting proves serviceable too if a little stiff in places. And while I can’t say the soundtrack will live rent-free in your brain, it pulses along agreeably with synth melodies to match the vibe of each world.

So while Trinity Fusion falls a smidge short of establishing a stand-out artistic identity, moments of visual and auditory polish shine through from the liquid combat animations to the diverse sound effects. The presentation might feel more functional than artsy, but it gets the job done to support the equally important dimension-shredding gameplay.

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Dimension-Hopping for Extra Opportunity

While whirlwind runs through various apocalyptic dimensions already serves up plenty of action, Trinity Fusion integrates some bonus modes and mechanics to add extra flavor. For starters, there’s the mysterious In-Between pocket realm accessible from certain rooms. It resembles a glitchy cyberspace zone and offers randomized combat challenges that you can tackle before continuing your run.

Trinity Fusion Review

Completing these In-Between trials earns you useful goodies like rare weapons, ability boosts or health refills. But simply entering also allows seamlessly jumping to and exploring different dimensions mid-run. So if you’re banging your head against say, the Underworld’s rock-hurling gorilla of a final boss, you can shift gears and use the In-Between to start ransacking the Factory realm for better gear with Naira or Kera.

This freedom to dimension hop really helps provide breathing room. Each character also has alternate universe starting points that unlock. So beyond refreshing the gear and layout, restarting runs from different realities helps ease repetition.

That said, mastering Trinity Fusion still requires some grinding. See, while one meta currency for upgrading your Marias flows pretty freely, the rarer one used to purchase the really good permanents can be painfully slow to accrue over multiple failed runs. We’re talking dozens of victories potentially before you can afford to unlock, say, a once-per-run self revive.

Balancing progression speed aside though, Trinity Fusion definitely brings infectious ideas to the roguelite format. While some derivative bones show through the dimensional flesh, innovations like fusing your characters, challenge pocket realms, and mid-run universe jumps provide welcome gameplay shakeups. In the end, I’d say the fresh ideas outpace the familiar ones. Trinity Fusion has its own off-kilter identity among its peers thanks to some multiverse madness.

Dimension Diving to New Roguelite Heights

After some 20 hours of reality shredding, universe fusing, and multiverse saving, I’ve gotta hand it to Angry Mob Games – Trinity Fusion pulled me in with its strategic combat, diverse character builds, and some welcome genre shakeups.

Now, it doesn’t fully escape its roguelite roots. The procedural level generation still trades hand-crafted intricacy for replayability, and whipping up devastating builds from randomized gear draws clear inspiration from the likes of Dead Cells and Hades.

But Trinity Fusion ultimately forges its own offbeat identity in the genre thanks to some clever dimensional twists. Whether you’re adjusting tactics on the fly after merging Altara and Naira’s powers or sequence breaking to snag upgrades by warping between apocalyptic dimensions, this is a romp where no two runs feel quite the same.

The three Marias also prove more than just skin-deep clones. Their upgrade trees, weapon preferences, and ability combinations let you tailor things to your playstyle. Do you go all-in on Kera’s brutal blade skills or add spice with Altara’s explosive magic? And Trinity’s Fusion fluid combat ensures you’ll look badass executing otherworldly combos regardless.

If I had to nitpick, the visual presentation lacks its own flair, often fading into familiar mechanical and bio-mechanical backdrops. And the melodic synth soundtrack, while inoffensive, won’t beat out Mick Gordon’s guitars for audio adrenaline.

Yet on the whole, Trinity Fusion still comes together into an irresistibly replayable package. With accessible gameplay modes for both roguelite newcomers and veterans, I’d recommend giving Trinity’s dimensional madness a shot if you dig frenzied action platformers with their own offbeat flavor. It might just consume your social life with its moreish “one more run” appeal. But those hours zipping between apocalyptic realities will prove time delightfully lost.

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