Eventide 2: The Sorcerers Mirror

Developer: The House of Fables | Publisher: Artifex Mundi | Release Date: 2016 | Genre: Adventure / Casual / Hidden Object | Website: Official Website | Purchase: Steam

Mary, the protagonist from the first Eventide game, is taking a well-deserved break after saving her mother and the heritage park. Unfortunately, her idea of a vacation is mountain climbing in very remote areas, and to make matters worse, she brought her niece Jenny along for the adventure. Mary finds her trip up the mountain literally cut short when a sorcerer from a nearby forgotten village shows up to kidnap Jenny. Narrowly escaping death, Mary sets off to the village on a quest to rescue her niece and thwart the sorcerer.

The original Eventide was a breath of fresh air in the hidden object game genre, thanks to the fact that it used Eastern European folk and fairy tales as its inspiration. Eventide 2 follows in its footsteps, but unfortunately, the assortment of mythical creatures is notably absent. Instead, Mary has to deal with some local villagers and a couple of imps standing between her and the rescue of her niece. The antagonist, Tvardovsky, is a bit of a tragic character whose motivations are more selfish than purely evil. Mary also crosses paths with a man named Yanosik, who is apparently a famous outlaw from Slavic folklore. Most of the townspeople Mary encounters are being manipulated by the sorcerer with promises of speaking to their loved ones using his magical mirrors. While the story is interesting, it doesn’t quite live up to the standards set by the original game, and it is a little disappointing to see the old “rescue a kidnapped family member” cliche trotted out again.

Before starting your adventure, you can choose a few difficulty settings. Choosing “Casual” mode will allow you to breeze through the game with the hint and skip buttons recharging quickly, active zones glimmering, hidden object puzzles sparkling, and available actions indicated on your map. Casual mode also has no penalty for hidden object puzzles, and objects in your inventory that you can interact with are marked with a plus sign. “Advanced” mode makes things a little trickier with slower hint and skip button recharges and a slight penalty for wrong clicks during hidden object puzzles. “Expert,” on the other hand, takes away the sparkles and glimmers that reveal active zones and hidden object puzzles while also doling out harsher penalties during the hidden object scenes. Finally, there is a custom mode where you can adjust everything to your own liking. Whether you want to change the timers or toggle the glimmers and sparkles, this is where you can do so. Unfortunately, even on the highest difficulty setting, Eventide 2 is not a game that will leave you stumped for too long and can easily be completed in a single session.

One of the areas where Eventide: Slavic Fable excelled was the visuals, and the sequel doesn’t disappoint in this regard either. Everything from the sketched cutscenes to the hand-painted locations looks great and features plenty of small details. The animations could have used a bit more polish, but as far as the genre is concerned, they aren’t too bad. The hidden object puzzle scenes look good and actually fit in with their surroundings instead of looking like the contents of an overturned garbage truck. Some provide you with a list of items to find, while others show you pictures of the objects you must uncover. There are also a couple of scenes where you must find a specified amount of the same objects, like herbs or flowers. These also make sense as Mary is a botanist and frequently uses her skills to create medicine throughout the game. None of the hidden object scenes are ever repeated during the game, so there is no unnecessary padding. None of the puzzles or mini-games really stood out as exceptional, and while they are entertaining enough, we don’t think there are any we haven’t seen before in the genre. Having to interact with certain inventory objects adds a little more depth to some of the puzzles, but veterans should be able to complete the game quickly.

Sadly, Eventide 2 doesn’t feature any bonus chapter after completing the game, which is strange as the original title had one. Instead, the game now features a couple of moral choices, which can play a small role in how events play out towards the end of the story. For example, when creating a healing potion to assist someone who has been hampering your progress, you can choose to add some ingredients that would temporarily paralyze him as well. Although this is not very moral, it can save you a lot of trouble. There aren’t many of these moral choices, and their impact isn’t quite as significant as we would have liked, but it is still an interesting addition. The only other “extra” during your adventure is hidden imp cards and mirrors that can be found if you are an achievement hunter or completionist.

While Eventide 2 falls a little short in most areas compared to its predecessor, it is still an entertaining adventure and a polished example of the genre. The lack of mythical creatures and its length count against it, but we would be lying if we said it wasn’t fun to thwart the immortal sorcerer. The audio is fairly good, even if there aren’t that many background music tracks, and the voice acting, which actually features narration by Michael McConnohie, isn’t too bad either. If you were a fan of the original, you might have to lower your expectations a bit for this sequel, but despite its flaws, it is still one of the better games in the genre and well worth playing.