Dark Strokes: The Legend of the Snow Kingdom CE Review: Lovely Graphics, Beautiful Story

The sequel to Dark Strokes: Sins of the Fathers is out and, yes, it’s awesome. Called Dark Strokes: The Legend of the Snow Kingdom, the Collector’s Edition is not only an excellent casual game, it also comes with a slew of extras.

The storyline of Dark Strokes: The Legend of the Snow Kingdom

In Dark Strokes: The Legend of the Snow Kingdom, what will hit you right from the beginning is how beautiful the game is.

In the opening scene, a mysterious man appears to King Henry, the king of the Sky Kingdom, and offers him a magical tree. He tells him the fruit of this tree will feed the people of the Sky Kingdom, people who are starving due to famine. If he takes it, the only thing he has to promise is that he will give the man a golden apple that will grow on the tree in 18 years time. Desperate to save the lives of his people, King Henry agrees and the man disappear.

It’s now present day and you, Alan, find yourself protecting King Henry’s daughter, Princess Adele. Unfortunately, the princess is soon kidnapped by the Ice Knights and whisked away to be imprisoned in a crystal ball prison. It’s up to you to get her back.

Gameplay

While gameplay in Dark Strokes: The Legend of the Snow Kingdom isn’t too difficult (even in ‘hard’ mode), it’s definitely fun and, with three difficulty modes, you can play it as easy or as hard as you like.

Hidden object scenes are typical at first, but then you’ll find other hidden object games that require you to find pieces of an object to piece together, while others have morphing pieces that can be quite hard to find.

Mini games are also included, and most of these are incredibly cool. There’s one game where you have to ride a horse which moves faster and faster, while avoiding debris lining the pathway. Another has you throwing snowballs at the enemy while trying not to hit Princess Adele.

Bonus content and extras in Dark Strokes: The Legend of the Snow Kingdom

Not only does the game have a huge amount of bonus content and extras, but some of it is the best I’ve seen in any hidden object game.

You’ll get 12 magical scrolls to collect, 10 magic objects to find, 35 snowflakes to unearth, and achievements to master. There’s a bonus chapter that’s quite long, a good strategy guide, a tutorial, and beautiful wallpapers and screensavers.

Add on the stunning soundtrack, excellent voice overs and beautiful graphics and, if you enjoy a good hidden object game with an interesting story and a long amount of gameplay (took me about 8 hours with the bonus chapter), then you’ll love Dark Strokes: The Legend of the Snow Kingdom.

You can grab it exclusively at Big Fish Games.

Meanwhile, if you’d like to start watching a walkthrough of Dark Strokes: The Legend of the Snow Kingdom, there’s an excellent one that starts in the video below.