Hidden Through Time 2: Myths & Magic

In 2020, Belgian game studio Rogueside brought us the well-praised Hidden Through Time, a fun and relaxing hidden objects game that took players through various parts of humanity’s history. Together with my son (who was 3 years old back then), I spent some time finding all the objects. It was a good experience as I could introduce my son to gaming in a relaxing way. You’ll understand I was thrilled to pick up this second installment so I could enjoy some quality father and son time. Nonetheless, I was curious to see if it offered more compared to the first one. Let’s find out.

Narrated Journeys

In Hidden Through Time 2, your job is to find several hidden objects (well, duh) throughout four different historical eras. This time, you are thrown into the Middle Ages, Greek mythology, Arabian Nights, and the magical 80s. Each of these eras is accompanied by a narrated story, which provides some understanding of what is happening on the screen. For example, the Middle Ages narrative follows a group of adventurers sent on a quest to defeat an evil necromancer, detailing their journey and the ultimate battle to end his reign of terror.

Each of these journeys is separated into 7 different main levels and 1 bonus level. In each level, you will be tasked with finding a certain number of objects. The number of objects to find increases with each subsequent level. The objects you need to look for are shown at the bottom of the screen and provide you with a small written hint. These hints are somewhat cryptic but not too hard to crack. Additionally, each level contains a secret object to find, which can be somewhat difficult as they are not provided with a hint to guide you.

Adjusting Time

The well hand drawn visuals are fun to look at, and levels are filled to the brim with things to see and interact with. You can click on houses, chests, bags, etc., to see what is inside them. My son loved pressing everything he could interact with to see what the object would do. Apples get eaten, birds fly up and down, and NPCs move. While my son enjoyed it, I would have liked to see more animations that change things in the environment. Items can be hidden anywhere, so you have to search every nook and cranny. New in this installment is the option to switch between seasons or switch between day and night. This way, the game presents two different versions of the same level. Because you can switch between time, the environment changes, providing you with more to look at. To make things clear, each objective has a small icon indicating which timeline you have to search in.

Inconsistent hitboxes

The objects you have to find vary in size, with smaller objects posing greater difficulty to locate, of course. Additionally, objects are often hidden around 75% behind other objects or stacked on top of one another, making the search much more challenging. My biggest struggle with this game is the inconsistency of the hitboxes. Occasionally, I had to adjust my screen by about 30% because the game didn’t register my click even when I was directly on top of the object. This was particularly frustrating with smaller objectives, as precision is crucial. The music and ambient sounds are decent and match the environment well. Although the soundtrack is on a loop, it never becomes annoying.

Build it yourself

When you’re done with the campaign but still want to play more, Hidden Through Time 2 comes with a level editor and the option to play levels created by other community members. The level editor is very well-made, offering a variety of different scenery, objectives, NPCs, and animals to place. The controls are easy to get used to, and before you know it, you’ll be building your own adventure map with up to 20 hidden objects to find.