Triogical

Name: Triogical
Author: Jérémy Routier and Alain Decayeux
License: Freeware (donations requested)
Website: http://www.triogical.com/

This is the second straight week with a game from France. This week's entry is on Triogical, a freeware game inspired by Tower of Babel. Their tagline is "Because your brain needs work" which it delivers on.

Triogical is played on a 20 by 15 grid. To complete a map, you have to capture all of the klondikes (green cone shaped things) and destroy all of the flags. At your beck and call are three types of robots: the green grabber robot, the red zapper robot, and the blue pusher robot. Each has different powers. The grabber robot can grab or capture a klondike if one is directly ahead without any other objects blocking its line of sight. The zapper robot can blast a flag. The pusher robot can push objects such as klondikes around.



The key to solving a map is figuring out how to get the robots to work together. You might have to use the pusher robot to move a klondike into a position so that the grabber robot can collect it. But you might need to first have the zapper zap a few blocks so that the pusher can get into position to push. The interplay of the three robot types results in some great puzzles.

There are a hand full of other objects in Triogical. These include blocks, mines, ice, time bombs, mirrors, rotating lasers, teleporters, and indestructible monsters. Each robot interacts differently with the objects. There are not too many items, but it takes a little while to learn all of the rules. There is a tutorial which carefully introduces the various objects.

Triogical comes with 99 maps divided into 11 groups of 9 each. You have to complete all of the maps in each group in order to progress to the next which is a bit annoying. The quality and pacing of the maps is very good. The authors have put a great deal of care in the maps. Some of the later maps are quite challenging. There is a forum for hints if you get really stuck.

The graphics and audio in Triogical are a bit weak, but who cares? The biggest flaw is that many of the levels require quick fingers and careful timing. This can get very frustrating. You do have the ability to save one partial solution while solving a map. Use it wisely. To be fair, there is often a way to approach these situations which minimizes the tricky timing. It often pays to look for an alternative approach.

All in all, Triogical is a very good game. It boasts an active community of map makers. Once you finish the initial mapset, there are plenty more for you to chew on.