Hello Ladies, Gentlemen and those of a non-binary nature, my name is Daibhi and this is the Gamerhub Community. I absolutely adore the Where’s Waldo/Where’s Wally franchise, and admittedly, I’ve spent far too much money on the books over the years I’ve been around on this planet. From “where’s the wookie” to the controversial “Where’s Osama Bin Laden?” (which someone got me as particularly bad-taste Christmas present), I have lots of the books. So, when the first Hidden Through Time was released, I was delighted. It’s a brilliant and spectacular game that harkens back to the fun of the Where’s Wally books, but with a few unique tricks up its sleeve. So, with thanks to Lew Langton, who has done a spectacular job filling in for me, I have a copy of the sequel game. Is it good? Does it stand up against its predecessor? Did I really get bogged down into it? Well, brace yourselves folks, as I delve headlong into this review.
Before I do, and in full knowledge that he’ll be the first to read this: Lew, you’ve done an amazing job filling in for me, and I honestly couldn’t be more grateful if I’d try. Thank you.
Hidden Through Time 2: Myths and Magic is a Point-click game made for finding hidden objects in a hand-drawn crowd of objects available on all major console platforms, developed and published by Rogueside and was released on the 5th of October in 2023. It has however, had more recent trailers loaded to YouTube and the aforementioned Lew managed to secure me a copy for review on the PS5.
Hidden Through Time 2: Myths and Magic allows for some new tricks that the predecessor doesn’t. Finding the hidden objects is at the very heart of the game this time, and the “Time” in the title takes a backseat. It’s more like “dimensions” but I’m sure putting that in the title would have affected the brand recognition. Nevertheless, this game puts you in the 1980s with a twist I won’t spoil, Greek Myths, the world contained within 1001 Arabian Nights and beyond.
The levels are contained within what the game calls “chapters”, giving us a grand total of 32 levels (and I’m sure that there will be far more as the DLC gets released). Each one is beautifully drawn, and I really must stress that this is by far the game’s best strength. Dear lord, every level is a visual feast, with jokes and twists hidden in every level. The choice they made in not letting you see the entire level on one screen allows you to zoom in and out as required and the changing of the times in this situation gives more options to find stuff and appreciate the visual humour contained within. No matter how far you zoom in, day or night, you get some really good stuff and the images stay sharp. The use of what I suspect are vector images are really impressive, and I frequently found myself open-jawed at moments.
There’s also an impressive storytelling element to all this. Every level tells part of an encompassing story. It doesn’t outright tell you what’s been going on: it merely implies the story, leaving gamers to wonder what has gone on. For example, the zombie invasion level allows you to find things pre and post-zombie invasion, telling the story subtly, and I really liked it. You can tell that Rogueside must have had an awesome time making this game. I felt during the 48 hours of gameplay that you could feel the energy of the developers bleeding through the game. Having to play this game was brilliant fun, but the scrolling felt a bit weird, and I had to effectively flip my controller to get the most enjoyment out of this. I’m left handed, and whilst most games have a “lefty flip” option, this game didn’t and I wish it did. Apparently, this is coming in an update, so I won’t complain too much. Thanks to the technology contained within my PS5, this is easily rectified anyway.
There are some brilliant points, though. The online play situation is really cool, and people have spent way too much time in creating levels. One of the achievements in this game is called junior architect, and it’s brilliantly satisfying to get. To get this, you have to embrace the online side of this, where people really have gone to town in creating levels, and you have to do the same. Build your own maps, and get people to rate them. Thanks to the cross-platform support, which really works in this game’s favour, people can play your maps regardless of platform. Get one built, saved and rated, and hey presto- achievement unlocked.
There are, however, some downsides.
Let’s start with the biggest one: There are only 19 trophies, and while they are imaginative, this game is fairly easy for the completionists amongst us. To completely platinum this game, it took me 48 hours to get there. I felt as if I’d been on one heck of a journey, but for the price point, I really do expect more bang for my buck. Maybe that’s just me, but this game feels a bit too short for my liking. Maybe the DLC will help with that and honestly, if that’s the case, then we can completely disregard my point here. I’d happily publish a retraction if this is indeed the case.
Next up- the new gimmick of being able to change times is cool, but I honestly feel that Rogueside should have gone balls-in on this. I don’t see the point of being able to find frustratingly small objects on both sides of the time wall if only one counts to check it off my list.
The last thing I want to talk about is the use of colour- it’s somewhat sparse, and maybe that was Rogueside’s intention, but the lack of colour here seems a bit mean. Again, if Rogueside decide to sort this in updates, patches and DLC, I’ll happily retract my comments here.
Conclusion
If you’re a gamer of a certain vintage, who grew up with Where’s Wally/Waldo, then this is the game for you. There’s a lot of subtle storytelling to get your gaming juices flowing, and good lord, this game is really addictive. You can find yourself booting up the game for a short session and get the shock of your life when you find out that you’ve been playing this game for hours. The gimmick of two maps in one, when the time changes, is a good one to do. I wish that Rogueside fully committed to it, but the gimmick itself is cool, and leads for more potential sequels, and as the co-founder of Gamerhub, I can tell you that I cannot wait to see whatever Rogueside come up with next.
3.8 out of 5 Joysticks
For the Gamerhub community, I’ve been Daibhi, and you are all legends.
