Hidden Through Time 2: Myths & Magic Indie Video Game Review

Released around three years ago, Hidden Through Time was a fun hidden object game. The game reminded me a lot of hidden object books like Where’s Waldo? which I enjoyed when I was a kid. I enjoyed the game quite a bit. That is why I was excited when I saw that a sequel was coming out. While it shares a lot in common with the original game, Hidden Through Time 2: Myths & Magic is a fun hidden object game that fans of the genre should really enjoy.

If you played the original Hidden Through Time or any other game in the hidden object genre, you pretty much should know what to expect from Hidden Through Time 2: Myths & Magic. The sequel is divided into four different worlds including a 1980s/Stranger Things world, a Greek Mythology world, a Medieval/fantasy world, and an Arabian Nights inspired world. In each level you are given a set of objects/animals/people that you need to find. You will scan the scene looking for these objects. Most will be out in the world, but some are hidden inside other objects or inside buildings. When you find an object, you click on it. Once you have found all of the objects you can move onto the next level.

The one area where Hidden Through Time 2: Myths & Magic differs from its predecessor is the addition of different versions of each level. Each level in the main campaign has two states. For example you can switch between day and night, or summer and winter. While the landscape mostly stays the same, the objects, animals and people will change positions. Some of the objects that you have to find for each level can only be found in one of the two states. Some can be found in both states. Basically you have to scan through the level in one state to find the corresponding objects. Then you need to switch it to the other state to find the other missing objects.

At this point you probably already have a pretty good idea of whether you will enjoy Hidden Through Time 2: Myths & Magic. The game is very similar to its predecessor, and most other games from the hidden object genre. If you played the original Hidden Through Time or any other similar hidden object games, your feelings towards those games should apply to Hidden Through Time 2: Myths & Magic as well. Fans of the original game and/or genre should enjoy the sequel as well. If you don’t really care for the genre, I don’t see the game being for you.

As for me I enjoyed the game like the original game. It doesn’t revolutionize the genre, but it didn’t really need to. The game is fun because the premise is enjoyable. Ever since I was a kid I have enjoyed the hidden object premise. It is satisfying being able to search a large scene, and find small objects hidden in plain sight. There is no time limit or other pressure to find the objects quickly. You can just take your time and relax. The game is quite relaxing allowing you to sit back and have some fun without having to put too much thought into what you are doing.

As for the addition of two different states for the levels, I thought it was a good addition to the game. It doesn’t drastically change the game. The gameplay is basically the same. You now have two similar looking scenes that you have to look through in order to find the hidden objects though. While the two scenes are similar, there are definite differences which you need to carefully examine to find the objects. This adds a interesting new twist to the game that I enjoyed.

Lets move onto the game’s difficulty. It has been a while since I played the original game so I can’t directly compare the difficulty of the two games. If I had to classify Hidden Through Time 2: Myths & Magic, I would say that it can be kind of easy with a few objects that can be kind of challenging to find. If you take your time and carefully scan the scene, you can find most of the objects in one pass through the scene. In some of the larger levels you will then have a couple additional objects to find. In your next scan you should find most of them. Occasionally there will be an object that you can’t find within two or three scans.

The good news is that the game has a good hint system which can help. If you are having trouble with an object, you can hover over it. This gives you a hint about its location. These hints help guide you in the right direction, without telling you exactly where the object is. I really liked the addition of hints. I usually only used them when I scanned the scene at least three times. When I needed a hint though they were useful. While they help a lot, they are vague enough where you still feel a little sense of accomplishment when you find the object. Some of the objects are quite small and are hid really well. These would have been quite frustrating if there weren’t hints helping you find them.

So there are two main elements of Hidden Through Time 2: Myths & Magic. First is the campaign mode. These levels were hand crafted by the creators of the game. There are four different worlds with each having their own little story that guides you though the levels. Each world consists of eight levels. The first couple of levels for each world are on the smaller side with less objects to find. The last couple of levels for each world are quite a bit larger and have more objects to find. Between the four worlds I would guess it would take most players around 6-10 hours to complete the campaign.

The other piece to Hidden Through Time 2: Myths & Magic is user created levels. The game includes its own level creation tool. This allows you to create your own levels to share with other players. While I haven’t extensively used the creative mode, I could tell immediately that it is quite easy to use. The menus are straightforward making it easy to find the objects that you want to place. You basically just pick the object that you want to place and where you want to place it. You can also change the objects in a number of ways. Using all of these tools allows you to easily create your own level. While I am usually not the type of player that uses these type of creator modes, I found it easy to use and kind of fun to create my own levels.

What is so valuable about the creative mode is that it could potentially create a ton of additional content for the game. You can share your levels with friends, and you can also put your levels up online where other players can play them. Playing other players’ levels is really straightforward. Just find a level that looks interesting and click on it. That loads the level and you can play it right away. These levels play exactly the same as the levels in the campaign. The quality of the levels will likely vary quite a bit, but there was already some fun levels uploaded when I checked out the feature before the game’s official release date.

This feature is something that could be huge for Hidden Through Time 2: Myths & Magic. The previous game also had a creative mode which added a lot of content to the main game. I have a strong feeling that the same will hold true for the sequel as well. If the community starts creating a lot of good levels, there will be a ton more content for the game. With how creative players can get in creative modes, I think some players will come up with some really unique twists.

At the end of the day Hidden Through Time 2: Myths & Magic is pretty much what I expected out of the game. It sticks pretty closely to the original game, but it is still a really fun experience. There is something oddly satisfying about just sitting down and finding objects hidden in plain sight. The game is quite relaxing and a fun way to pass the time without having to put too much thought into what you are doing. If you don’t really care for hidden object games, it won’t change your mind. It can be a little easy at times as well. It is just a really fun experience though. With the addition of user created levels, there is potential for a ton of fun levels to check out for a long time.

My recommendation for Hidden Through Time 2: Myths & Magic is quite simple. If you don’t care for hidden object games, it is not going to be for you. If you liked the previous game or the genre in general, I think you will really enjoy Hidden Through Time 2: Myths & Magic and should seriously consider picking it up.