Review: Finding Joy in Hidden Through Time 2: Myths and Magic

Hidden Through Time 2: Myths and Magic could be an introduction for many players to hidden object games or object games, and is a great entry point. Many of us have played or seen various games like this in magazines or books like iSpy and Where’s Waldo. While you might not think a full video game could build on this idea, Hidden Through Time 2 does a fantastic job of creating cute, unique scenarios with just enough variation and interactivity to keep players entertained for a good amount of time.

The game is simple like any other hidden object game: find the object. That’s all there really is to the game: find items, go to the next level, find more items, go to the next level again and again. Hidden Through Time 2: Myths and Magic adds a couple of interesting mechanics to keep things interesting though. One of these is a day-night cycle that leaves certain objects detectable during the day or night. The developers use small scenarios and character interactions to determine where objects might be in that loop, adding depth and a bit of realism to each level. For example, if you were looking for a bowl of cooked meat at night, you might look for someone who grills food during the day. There are tons of little interactions like these that keep players interested in what’s actually happening instead of just sifting through every single pixel for every object. I wish this was used a little more creativity and these interactions were used more, but it’s good enough for the simplicity of the game.

The best part of this game is the aesthetics. This game is so adorable and whimsical that it’s legitimately fun to just watch the scene without looking for the items. Watching the characters interact, looking into different buildings with cute groups of people reading books or having conversations is delightful. Along with the super cute characters, animals and locations, the audio and music are perfectly relaxing to listen to for hours.

Hours, an interesting word to use when playing a hidden object game. Playing this will definitely take you some time, easily a few hours. But I don’t know who would really want to do it for that long. Maybe picking it up and playing it for 15 or 20 minutes every now and then could be fun, but I don’t see how the game is super engaging for more than an hour at a time. I could be completely wrong and there could be a large audience that enjoys these types of games for very long periods of time, but long sessions don’t work for me.

Lastly, the game has a great creator mode. Being able to use in-game assets and more to create your own hidden object levels is where I think the game can really shine. Creating levels and sharing them with your friends or simply going online to download a new scene created by your favorite creators can add a lot of longevity. While making entire scenarios can be time consuming due to all the possible customizations, it is relatively simple and straightforward.

Being a very, very simple premise and repetitive process, Hidden Through Time 2: Myths & Magic offers a lot of fun and a lot of sweetness. I wish there was a lot more interactivity in the game and that the day and night cycle wasn’t as deep as I think it could be. However, considering the low price and hours of enjoyable entertainment, this game is easy to recommend if you really enjoy these types of games/activities.