Tim Burton-style visuals animate Trine 2

Beautiful visuals that hearken to a Tim Burton film create the setting for a continuation of this colorful and interesting puzzle series.

Like with the original, you control a band of three heroes (a wizard, a knight and a thief) through luscious realms, collecting orbs and solving puzzles while trying to rescue a damsel in distress. Each character has a specialty, and while fighting with the knight or leaping about with the thief may be nice, most of your time will be spent conjuring spells with the wizard.

Environmental puzzles are in abundance throughout the forests and caverns you'll traverse. Once you're finished gaping at the wonderfully drawn atmospheres, it won't take long to discover that your mental capacities are going to be put to good use.

None of the puzzles is particularly difficult; rather, Trine 2 succeeds by having multiple solutions available to many puzzles, allowing you to experiment and discover interesting ways to advance. Sure, you could just levitate that log or redirect that water stream, but discovering a more inventive solution (even if by accident) gives the game a freshness and feeling of discovery.

Some online co-op modes help flesh out the game into a more complete package.

TRINE 2

RATING E for Everyone

PLOT The continuation of the puzzle platform game where you use the skills of three characters

DETAILS PC/Mac, $20

BOTTOM LINE Good follow-up