Much like the first Trine, Trine 2 is a colorful fantasy platformer with puzzles as well. While Trine suffered from a lack of enemy variety and having to abuse physics too much. Trine 2 fixes this with a variety in enemies, better puzzles, and simplified systems that didn't make sense in the original.
Trine 2 begins with the Trine whizzing by the Wizards house. The wizard, now named Amadeus, recognizes the magical artifact and chases after it. The Trine brings the knight, now named Pontius, to Amadeus after Pontius had saved a village from overgrown vines. They then meet up with Zoya, the thief, to follow the Trine and discover it's purpose for them.
Most of the cast retains their voice roles. I loved the narrator in the original Trine, and he does the same great job this time around. He changes his voice slightly, and I think it fits the game a little better. There are more voices besides the three main characters as well, some goblins occaisionally have voices as well. Alix Regan and Charlotte Moore both do great as twin sisters, and they serve as the antagonist and main damsel. The soundtrack is much better this time, and fits the fantasy theme just as well as everything else does.
Some of the annoyances of Trine's gameplay are gone. There is no longer an energy, something that prevent the wizard from moving boxes and platforms around too much. This never made sense in the original, as you only had to travel back to the checkpoint to refill, it just felt like it was stalling you. The puzzles are made much more complex, but without the constant abuse of physics. There are a few exceptions to that, especially when you have to water a plant by carrying around water with your platforms, which takes forever and is just really frustrating. No other puzzles were as frustrating without reason. Most of the puzzles are ideas presented in the original Trine, whiuch is a shame with the amount of originality that Trine had in it's puzzles.
Even more than the first game, Trine 2 looks beautiful. The developers again take full advantage of the fantasy setting to make some stunning backgrounds and elements to the environment. Giant iguanas and tutles block your way, spiders giant spiders attack you, and particle effects are everywhere. Trine 2 holds a special place in my heart, as it was the first game that I played on my new gaming PC in 2012, and it opened my eyes to how colorful games can be.
SO MANY COLORS
The story has much more effort put into it, with characters that actually shake up the plot. Granted, the story isn't to the level that To The Moon is, but it is nice to see something beyond "beat the bad guy to achieve peace and happiness." The ending isn't completely happy, something that I'm glad Trine is trying.
The combat in Trine 2 is so much better than that of Trine 1. There are multiple enemy typesand variants within them, and it's actually a challenge sometimes. There is strategy in trying to avoid all of the hits from flaming swords, how to deal with enemies with armor and shields, and entertaining bosses. Beyond enemies that walk toward you and try to hit you with swords, there are spiders that crawl all over some levels, archers, and much more. I can tell that a lot more effort was put towards the combat, as it's actually fun and engaging. If you don't like it, you can still crush some of the really weak enemies with boxes, like how you could in the original game, but that doesn't work all of the time.
Trine 2 comes with some DLC entitled Goblin Menace. The premise involves Amadeus's wife being taken by the goblins, and you must hunt them down. The mechanics are the same as the base game, with no radical changes. It's not game changing DLC, but if you can get it on sale it would be worth it.
Trine 2 is another fantastic, beautiful puzzle platformer. Everything has been fixed or improved in someway from the original Trine to create one of the best titles of 2011. it does rely a little too much on what the first Trine did, and doesn't branch out in ways that it could have. With that in mind, Trine gets a 9/10.