The enduring popularity of the Where’s Wally books tells you one thing: people love to find things. That probably doesn’t extend to your keys, matching socks, your mobile phone, or a clean spoon, but Hidden Through Time 2: Myths and Magic poses an interesting question: what if it was a goblin’s spoon?
Hidden Through Time 2 is a hidden object game in which you’re presented with a delightful diorama to scour, while the similarly delightful denizens wander, dance or sway while you do so. At the bottom of the screen you’re given a selection of items to look for, each of which also comes with an enigmatic hint to perhaps help you look in the right place – or thoroughly confuse you in some cases – while a pleasant ditty plays in the background.
The original Hidden Through Time was a household favourite, and much of what made the first game such a hit is present and correct here as well. The graphics have certainly been improved, with each stage feeling more vibrant and alive, and many of the items you’re looking for now reacting to your interaction. Audio and visual effects such as the rustling of leaves or a bite disappearing out of a chicken drumstick make it feel as though you are an almighty god looking down on this snapshot of a magical world.
That interactivity makes the stages far more challenging as well, and you can lift the roofs off each dwelling, peer inside caves and thoughtlessly open the outdoor lavatories while you’re on a mission to find them all. A new addition is different time zones or weather. Some items will appear in both sunshine and night-time, while others will only appear in one. In some cases you might find the object or character doing something else during the daytime, and then you can use that visual hint to discover where they might be at night. It adds a new wrinkle into the formula, and it’s one that works really well.
Hidden Through Time 2: Myths and Magic is unsurprisingly themed around the magical and mythological, boasting campaign settings that move from a Lord of the Rings-esque fantasy world to an Ancient Egyptian land. There is a story that runs through each area, and it’s presented like a storybook, furthering the idea that you’re reading through it with your children.
It’s all perfectly presented and put together, and they really are delightful, making this a perfect family game, or one for the kids to play on their own. My 7-year-old was non-plussed by some of the hints that he was given, but that didn’t stop him from finding everything in the old-fashioned way: looking with his eyes.
Hidden Through Time 2 is almost the perfect chill-out game. It’s laidback, there’s no time limits, scores or counters ticking away as you rifle through an elf’s drawers, and there’s no hint of expectation. However, when you can’t find something and you’ve been around the map twenty times scouring what seems like every goblin nook and elf cranny, you might just feel a little tingle of ire start to well up in you. Just a little.
Once you’ve bested all of the included maps in the campaign, it’s time to start on your own ingenious creations, and Hidden Through Time 2 makes things easy for you. The Architect mode lets you use every single one of the in-game items, as well as sticking them together to create your own presets as well. My son forged an amazing volcano-castle, turned it into a preset, and was then able to put copies of it wherever he liked.
It’s simple enough that anyone can do it, and once you’ve built it you can create your own objectives, with disastrously confusing hints of your own to vex anyone willing to try. You can then share your creations with the world, and hopefully the Hidden Through Time 2 community will keep this game going for many years to come.
