Playtime: 5h20m (completed)

Intro

The Hero of the Kingdom games are casual point & click adventure games in which you also look for hidden objects.

Review

HOTK2 is 1,5 hours longer than the first game but unfortunately that's not a good thing. It still has the same flaws as the first game (lack of information) and makes those worse while adding some new ones.

Like in the first game it invites you to just sell hidden objects (like mushrooms) but later on suddenly you need some for crafting. You have to get a ton of items for quests but they're still not shown in your HUD or even in a separate screen so you constantly have to move back and forth to check what you need. The lack of a resolution setting was okay in the first game but now you have to find certain items to proceed which was quite tricky in 4K.

The worst thing was the sewer dungeon, constantly requires you to leave to heal/craft but can't be reached directly from the map (unlike every area in HOTK1). Healing is also more annoying because sleeping takes several seconds and the game pauses if you Alt+Tab. Ugh. I really don't get how they messed up the pacing so badly. The first game had such a smooth flow.

Hero of the Kingdom II takes you on another adventure in a kingdom far away. After the dust had settled in the first installment and you found your father, it is time to explore new islands and parts of the kingdom to save your sister this time.

In this game, you and your sister finally found refuge in a small fishing village and were ready to start a new life. But then, a horde of vicious pirates kidnapped your sister and terrorizes the kingdom. You put on your adventure gear (I think) once again and set sail in a quest to save your sister and (of course) the kingdom.

Although the story is exactly the same as the first game, save your relative and restore balance to the kingdom, it is still as much fun. Sometimes you just don’t need anything more.

You, again, explore a big landscape with many different areas/maps, which all have a ton of stuff to do. This time, that also includes far away islands. You receive quests; find items you need to complete tasks and find hidden objects. Every quest has its own requirements and backtracking between the areas of the kingdom and its islands is necessary.

The graphics did not change from the first game and are still as colorful and beautiful as the first game. The same goes for the sound and music, the added sounds of the sea and the wildlife there is a nice addition. There are also a lot of different items and collectibles to find, giving it even more variation.

Hero of the Kingdom II adds some new and unique puzzles that gives the game its variation in comparison with the first game. The inventory system and mechanics, however, are still the same. This game is a lot bigger however, and packed with much more content, places and stuff than its predecessor. It is safe to say that it is almost twice as big.

Once again, although a fairly simple and cheap game, it is packed with content. You never get bored and are constantly searching for items, combining previous found objects and solving challenging puzzles. Because this game is much larger than the first game, the value you get for your buck is excellent.

I once gain enjoyed every minute of this game. It never bored me, and it is games like this that I miss sometimes, giving you a break from all the frustration of shooters and RPG’s.

I would definitely recommend this gem.