Trinity Fusion Review

Is Trinity Fusion A Multiverse Smash?

Those who have paid attention to Three Dads and a Console for any length of time know that I go gaga for rogue-lite games, so when Angry Mob Games started showing us Trinity Fusion, it immediately went on my Steam Wishlist. Another rogue-lite that also has metroidvania elements to it? Sign me ALL THE WAY up! Before you continue, if you’d like to check out another rogue-lite inventory management game, check out my review of Backpack Hero. 

All three of Maya's multiverse personalities have a different playstayle

You have the ability to control three different characters. All of them are a multiverse version of you, a woman named Maya, and they’re all trying to do the same thing: stop the robots from taking over. Each character has a different archetype and plays differently, which feels nice, and allows you to vary your playstyles so runs don’t feel stale. I’m not sure if you’ll end up liking one over the other like I have. I’ve chosen to go with a pure melee build because that is just my style. 

Speaking of style, Trinity Fusion has a wonderful look to it. Given that these characters are multiverse versions of you, they all have distinct environments in their universe. In Kera’s universe, you’re hacking and slashing your way through robots in a futuristic world where these bots have taken control of everything while in Naira’s universe, you’re cutting down organic enemies in a wasteland. 

Explore a robotic hell as Kera

And the great thing is it all looks wonderful. This is a game that was made by four people and I could have sworn that it was a much larger team than that. The graphics are clean and crisp, the lighting is stellar and the colors accurately reflect the universe that you’re living in. While the game looks great, if it runs terribly then what’s the point? 

Here’s the good news: it runs beautifully. My PC is pretty beefy (I think) with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X CPU and an RTX 3070 GPU so I had no worries that this game would run well. Trinity Fusion ran on high which was the highest graphical setting in the game and constantly ran at 144 frames per second, my monitor’s highest FPS total. During my 2 hour stream of the game, it did not hitch once. There was no screen tearing, no lag, nothing. It ran beautifully and looking at the minimum specs, I believe it will run well on a vast majority of PCs out there. 

I also was able to get my hands on a copy of the PS5 version and it runs just as great on console as it does on PC. It is limited to 60 FPS, but that is more indicative of what the Playstation can produce more than Trinity Fusion. I can assure you that throughout my PS5 playthrough, I came across no hitching, lagging or screen tearing. 

Finally, I tested this game on the Steam Deck. I want to give Trinity Fusion their flowers here because they have a dedicated Steam Deck graphical option. I’ve played so many games on my Deck and Trinity Fusion is the first game I’ve come across that has done this. It is such a smart 

Okay, it looks good and runs well, but what the heck do you do in this game? You hit things! 

Combat is made up of two attacks, a primary weapon and an energy weapon. Based on your character, these energy weapons will vary from melee attacks (like swinging a big ole hammer) to ranged attacks (guns, bow and arrow, etc.). Primary weapons deal low to medium damage while your energy weapon will deal mega damage - but the kicker is that you need to build up energy to use it. The way you build up energy is by making sequential hits with your primary weapon. The more damage you do with your primary weapon, the more energy you’ll build up allowing you to use your energy weapon more. 

Energy weapons deal massive damage

Defeating enemies will also give you XP which will increase your power level. Your power level applies to both your primary and energy weapon as well as abilities and amplifiers. When you find weapons from enemy drops or chests, they will scale to your current power level. This means you shouldn’t fall in love with one weapon because after a few levels, you won’t be doing as much damage to enemies. 

A very cool and unique mechanic in this game is called fusing. In every level, you’ll find one Fusion Station. Paying to use this station will allow you to fuse your character to either one of Maya’s other multiverse selves and will grant you use of their weapons and abilities. For example, if you’re playing as Kera, you can fuse with Altara and immediately get her double jump ability. It is such a unique mechanic that makes you pay attention to loadouts of characters you may not have used for a bit because you’ll have access to their arsenal. 

Along the way, you’ll find amplifiers which will give you certain abilities. There are multiple categories for these amplifiers, including things like damage output and health upgrades. Fully upgrading a certain category will give you a massive upgrade called a synergy. Synergies are important because you’ve essentially maxed out a certain ability path. If you find a glowing amplifier, it is a mix of two categories and count toward both synergy paths. 

Amplifiers enhance abilities for your current run only

The rogue-lite aspect of this game comes upon death, where you will lose all of your amplified abilities. You will find yourself back at the Citadel and able to select a new version of Maya, talk to characters and buy permanent upgrades. Once you’re ready, you start a new run…

You can talk with NPCs and purchase permanent upgrades at the Citadel upon death

Trinity Fusion went from a game that was on my radar to a game that I am absolutely head over heels for. It does a great job with its rogue-lite mechanics, the action is fun and fast paced and the mechanics are clever and well thought out. Again, this game was developed by four people and it is a true labor of love on behalf of Angry Mob Games. 

I highly recommend you check out Trinity Fusion, especially if you enjoy games like Hades or Rogue Legacy. 

*This code for this game was supplied by the developer, but that does not influence my thoughts on the product.