Triogical (4Mb)
Triogical is a very most excellent logic puzzle game from France that is similar to the game Laser Tank (I'll have to post this shortly!), and also has Sokoban-like elements. If you’ve played and enjoyed Laser Tank, you’ll definitely enjoy playing Triogical. It is in fact a 2D remake of the classic Tower of Babel game (which had 4 robot types and 3D vector graphics).
Today’s post here is somewhat different from the genteel logic/strategy game I posted a review for yesterday. Triogical at times needs fast reactions and nimble fingers to complete some levels. You still very much need to plan your line of approach, but you will find you also need very careful timing on occasion, and sometimes very quick responses.
The game has 99 maps, in 9 groups of 11 maps, through from easy to painfully difficult. Your goal on the 20x15 grids is to collect all of the green conical ‘Klondikes’ and destroy all of the flags in each level. To accomplish this, the trio in the game’s title refers to the three different robots available to you, which you will at times need to work together as a team, and co-ordinate between their individual movements and operation/actions. The (green) grabber robot can capture Klondikes and set certain actions, the (blue) pusher robot can push blocks, Klondikes and some other objects, and the (red) zapper robot can zap certain blocks and flags. All in glorious (well, muted) RGB techni-color! The robots actions can also take place over any distance or gap provided there are no obstacles in the way. You can only move one robot at a time and only one robot at a time can be used to perform actions. The number of moves taken per level is recorded, giving replay value to try to better your score for a level!
To complicate matters, there are many kinds of obstacles, some of which can be dealt with fairly easily, but some will require more than a bit of deliberation and careful attention to get by. These include blocks, cannons, rotating cannons, time bombs, mines, rotating lasers, ice, mirrors, teleporters and indestructible monsters. To add to the fun, each kind of robot reacts differently to these objects, obstacles and ‘enemies’, so it may take a while to learn all of the different interactions.
The game has a good tutorial to get you started, and it has similarities (if you’ve played it) to the older game ‘Tower of Babel’, which had four kinds of robots, and of which I have serious fond memories! If you can’t solve a level, you’ve missed something, perhaps even as simple as pushing a block out of the way, perhaps to be able to zap something else! The puzzles and level difficulties are very well thought out, though you need to complete a group of levels before the next group is unlocked. Be prepared to spend some good while completing harder levels! Sorry, no walkthroughs though. But it will have you whiling away the hours!
Best of all, there’s a map editor included so you can create maps to your own designs, and then try to solve them. There’s also the facility to submit high scores to an online table, and a forum (albeit French) on the game’s own site. You can also download new custom map sets there via the game’s forum pages.
You use the ’Arrow’ keys to move your robots, the ‘Spacebar’ to get your robots to perform actions, where these are permitted, and either the ‘1’, ‘2’ or ‘3’ keys to select the robot to move or act, or the ‘Enter’ key to cycle between robots.
The game plays windowed in XP, Vista and Win 7. It doesn’t have sound or music and the graphics aren’t exceptional, but gameplay is!
It’s a terrific and very addictive game; and almost needless to say, a very fine addition for your games collection! As in a must-have!
Download HERE
Instructions HERE
