Dark Realm 2: Princess of Ice (IHOG)
A beautiful and exciting sequel.
Options include separate sliders for Music, Ambients, SFX and Voices, Full-screen, Aspect Correction and Custom Cursor. Choice of three preset difficulties, or you can go with Custom mode. Difficulty can be changed at any time.
Story:
Your evening slumber is disturbed when a polar bear invades your dreams, warning you of trouble in the Northern kingdom of Nypha. Their princess trapped in a tower of ice, your own kingdom suddenly wrapped in cold... That was no dream! Head north to confront whatever trouble lies there, aided by a magical connection to the mysterious bear and the powers that he has granted to you.
Although this could be played as a standalone, I highly recommend playing Queen of Flames first. One: It's an amazing game and not to be missed, and two: Multiple characters will make an appearance in this game, and it's more fun when you know their background stories~!
Our Journal gives only the briefest overview of the story, and mostly functions as a task list. Clues that we find will be stored here, as well - just click on them to enlarge. There are also tabs for the map and the available game achievements.
We once again have interactive stories that fill us in on the background story, although it seems like they were less of a focus than in the last game.
Gameplay:
Be on the lookout for
collectible crowns as you play. There is an indicator in the bottom right corner that is gray if you've not yet found the crown at your current location. These CAN be collected after the game is completed, but I'll come back to that down below.
The devs did an amazing job of making the game feel like you're right there in the action. Things like finding handholds to climb, or battling an enemy. Usually these fights are based on matching runes, but there is one sequence at the end of the bonus chapter where you have to click quickly and accurately three times in succession. These battles can be skipped if you're dexterity-challenged!
Our interactive
MAP has insta-transport available, and directional
HINTS are available.
Hidden Object Scenes are beautifully-varied in type, and even the standard HOS are interesting and beautiful. Keep an eye out for
morphing items whilst you play, too - one on each hidden object scene (indicator in the bottom right corner).
Our heirloom amulet has stayed at home, but our connection to the polar bear has granted us new abilities to help us along the way. There are items that we can interact with that we can "power" with this talent by doing a chaining-type match-3 game.
Pro tip: You can also match diagonally!
The other Mini-games were fun and inventive, and didn't interrupt the flow of the game at all.
Sights and Sounds:
I love the graphics in this series.
Every single thing is just so beautifully-detailed, yet never feels like "too much". The animations, the character design and the lip-syching are all outstanding, as is the soundtrack and the voice acting.
CE Content:
- Integrated Strategy Guide
- Bonus Chapter
- 44 Collectible Crowns - Find any you've missed in the Collectibles Hunt (Hints will work to find these!) Locate them all to unlock "The Ultimate HOP"
- 16 Wallpapers
- Making of video, which includes Concept Art, behind the scenes footage and more
- 9 downloadable Music Tracks
- 19 Replayable HOS, each with scoring and a morphing item to find
- Before and After Jigsaw
- Character Gallery - background info on 23(!!) in-game characters, each with their own character card
Bonus Chapter:
The main game ended with resolution for the storyline, as well as some preludes for the next game. This extra chapter takes us one year in the past, both explaining something that I had wondered about and giving us some foreshadowing for the series as a whole.
Verdict:
I loved everything about this game, from the story to the immersive gameplay to the amazing sound work. This is a hidden object adventure of the highest quality, and one which I wholeheartedly recommend.
