Casual Adventure Game 'Grim Legends 2: Song Of The Dark Swan' Out On Steam, Our Review Of The Game

The latest game in the fantasy hidden object puzzle adventure (HOPA) series Grim Legends, Song of the Dark Swan, was released on Steam for Linux last week.


Song of the Dark Swan puts you in the role of a famous healer who has been summoned to Eagle Castle to cure the queen of a strange illness which has rendered her mute. When the infant prince is abducted under mysterious circumstances shortly after your arrival, the queen is accused of practising dark magic, and it is up to you to unravel the sinister plot.

I enjoyed the previous game in the series, The Forsaken Bride, and would rank it among my favourites in the HOPA genre. Since the story in Song of the Dark Swan is not related to the previous game, it can be played and enjoyed without any previous experience with the series.

The good
Song of the Dark Swan is possibly the most puzzle focused of Artifex Mundi's games so far. There are relatively few hidden object screens, and of those that are, many are of the puzzle oriented variety. This is of course a matter of preference, but to me that's a definite plus. The adventure game puzzles and minigames are also good, and though they might be on the easy side for a seasoned point-and-click veteran, they feel satisfying to solve.

Artifex Mundi has gotten pacing down to a fine art, and, for the most part, this game is no exception. I did get stuck for a short while on a couple of occasions due to not being able to find hotspots in the environment. In my opinion, these could have been signposted better, and I ended up having to systematically swipe backgrounds for hotspots. I always play these games on expert difficulty though, and if you play on casual mode you won't have this problem, as hotspots are highlighted with regular intervals.

These problems apart, the visuals are of the usual high quality, and the game has a clean colorful look, which makes it easy to spot objects you can interact with. The game itself runs flawlessly on my system, like the previous games from Artifex Mundi.

The bad
A while into the main story you come across a spirit who has the ability to grow or shrink plants using fairy dust. This could have made for some interesting puzzles. Unfortunately, they are always spoiled, since the spirit makes a sound to indicate them; even on expert mode. I also found the sounds these spirits make slightly annoying, and since the bonus story is centred around them, they really got on my nerves by the time I got through the bonus story.

And it's not just the spirits, since the voice acting in the game overall is a mixed bag. The voices of the most prominent characters are for the most part good. Not triple A quality good, but of the usual quality, and they get the job done nicely. There are a few exceptions though, and the children especially were almost painful to listen to.

Conclusion
The main game and bonus story took me a little over five hours to beat. This makes it a bit shorter than the previous game in the series, but in the range of the 5-7 hours it usually takes me to complete one of these games. If you care about achievements, you'll be happy to know that this game only requires one playthrough to get them all. I enjoyed the game, and though I prefer the previous instalment in the series, this game might be among my top five favourite Artifex Mundi games.

Grim Legends 2: Song of the Dark Swan is available from Steam and is 40% off until Thursday. If you missed it, you might be interested in reading our interview with Artifex Mundi from last month. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.