STAFF REVIEW of Hidden Through Time 2: Myths & Magic (Xbox Series X)


Wednesday, January 24, 2024.
by Peggy Doyle

Hidden Through Time 2: Myths & Magic Box art Hidden Through Time 2: Myths & Magic is the sequel to the first Hidden Through Time game from Belgian studio, Rogueside. Launching in October 2023 on PC, it’s now hitting Xbox and I’ve been lucky enough to spend a few hours exploring this gem. It’s a puzzle game like many of us have loved since childhood where your mission is to find objects hidden in a larger environment. While I’ve been playing these games, like “Where’s Waldo?” and “Eye Spy” since I was young, it was quickly apparent that the appeal of these games hasn’t lessened as an adult.

For their second game, Rogueside has chosen to focus more on the storytelling in each chapter, using magical places from history and mythology, as well as even an amazingly nostalgic 80's chapter where there were more Easter eggs than I can even begin to point out here.


There are four chapters - The Middle Ages, Greek Mythology, 1001 Nights and The Magical 80's and each chapter has eight maps. Each map has between 6 and 18 objects to find, allowing you to start small and gradually find more items. Each chapter has one bonus item you’ll find on each map, it might be a trident or a treasure chest, and if you find the one item that all maps have in common on every map, you’ll open a bonus map in each level. The search area isn’t just what it appears on the surface either. Garbage cans, cardboard boxes, car trunks, outhouses, etc. can all be opened for additional search areas. Houses can be clicked on so you can see inside too. There are a lot of areas for objects to be hidden.


One dynamic I loved in Hidden Through Time 2 is the reality shift toggle feature. This will be either daytime/nighttime, or rainy/sunny, or summer/winter. Some items can only be found in one cycle or the other. Like an owl in the nighttime, or a sun umbrella in the summer.

Besides the multiple levels you can play that were designed by the developers, you can create your own levels and post them for others to play, as well as play levels that others design. I played a little of some of the user-created levels and some people are very creative.

As with a lot of PC games that come to console, there were some finicky times with the pointer in the game. Sometimes the pointer wouldn’t register properly, even when zoomed in as much as possible, and I did run into some frustrating experiences trying to click on some hidden objects.


There isn’t much in the way of dialogue in the game, each of the four chapters has an opening narration that explains a little background to the story you’re playing, but other than that, dialogue the audio is minimal.

A feature I would like to see is a colourblind mode, and a way to increase font size. A lot of the search area is very monochromatic and the hints you get when stuck have a small font size. A few accessibility features could be a good asset here and would open up the game to a wider audience.

Hidden Through Time 2: Myths & Magic was a fantastic way to chill over the course of about 7 hours. While spending time finding hidden objects in wonderful worlds, I found it hard to find things I didn’t like about the game.

**Hidden Through Time 2: Myths & Magic was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**




Overall: 8.0 / 10
Gameplay: 8.5 / 10
Visuals: 8.0 / 10
Sound: 7.5 / 10

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