Thank you to all who have commented regarding my family issue, my wife is recovering well, but I will be too indisposed to moderate as normal. Will look in as and when I'm able, to moderate. Regards Whiterabbit

Behind the Reflection 2: Witch's Revenge

In Brief

A Hidden Object game from 2012

Installation:

Behind the Reflection 2: Witch's Revenge downloads to a 264 MB zip file that unzips to three files, (a setup.gcd security wrapper, the set-up file and a read me). Those with multiple hard drives can save games on any drive they wish. The newly installed game is 267 MB in size. The game installs to the following path by default, but can be changed by the user if you prefer:

C:\Program Files (x86)\MyPlayCity.com\1001 Nights - The Adventures of Sinbad

Four shortcuts are installed to the desktop, three of which can be safely deleted (Play Online Games, MyPlayCity Games and shortcuts to a free online game which vary each week). Also, if you don't like icons installed to the quick launch task bar, make sure you uncheck the box when the additional tasks window appears (after the Select Start Menu Folder window)

Introduction:

The malicious witch is back. Her heart is full of revenge and she again needs boys' souls to get stronger. Help the hopeless mother to save her son Jacob's soul and do not let the witch acquire the magic strength in the fabulous game Behind the Reflection 2: Witch's Revenge! The game will offer you a variety of tasks to cope with. Search for hidden objects, deal with superb mini-games and unlock numerous locations. Get ready to accept this magic challenge! The game Behind the Reflection 2: Witch's Revenge will leave only a positive impression on you!

Edited reference accessed HERE. 27th February 2018

The Game:

If I wanted to be lazy about reviewing Behind the Reflection 2: Witch’s Revenge, it’d be easy enough to do it. All I’d do is copy and paste the text from our review of its predecessor, Behind the Reflection, and ta-dah! I’d be done. The fact is, developer Veles Studio cranked out a bland, lacklustre hidden object game several years ago then a year later (2012), rather than learn anything from the experience, they’ve cranked out another one.

Behind the Reflection didn’t have much of a story to tell, but Witch’s Revenge does its best to milk what little narrative there was. The first game had the heroine’s young son being inexplicably trapped behind a mirror by a generic evil witch for incredibly vague reasons. While there was some hint that the boy’s capture was related to the acquisition of a magical item, the “story” merely gave players an excuse to move through a series of seemingly unrelated scenes, cobbling together random items. Sadly, Witch’s Revenge does pretty much the same thing. The anonymous witch is back and she’s none too pleased with you for foiling her first nefarious plan; being something of a wiccan one-trick-pony, she once again imprisons your son behind a mirror and once again, it’s up to you to get him out.

If the team at Veles hasn’t learned anything in the last year about crafting a better story, they also haven’t learned much about making a better-looking game. Aside from a handful of really nicely rendered 2D item portraits, the game is packed with forgettable 3D art. It’s as if every scene was assembled from a storehouse of stock 3D art objects.

In one no doubt unintentionally humorous instance, a hidden object scene featured a calendar from 1995. Considering the game’s dated graphics, the reference made perfect sense.

In addition to being aesthetically challenged, Behind the Reflection 2: Witch’s Revenge has issues with interactivity as well; for starters, the rules of interactivity keep changing. Sometimes you’re clued in to where to go by big, fat “go here!” arrows that pop up on screen. Other times random sparkles appear whether they need to or not, making you return to areas where nothing more can be done. On some occasions, you’re ordered to look for things by characters spewing awkward, poorly-translated dialog, and on others, you can only find items by clicking objects to move or open them. Top this inconsistency with puzzles that are peppered with pernickety pieces that often disallow you from placing them, and you have a recipe for boredom and frustration.

Granted, the game does have one somewhat interesting thing regarding puzzles: the idea of gathering the parts that trigger them. Where most games present puzzles as mini-games separate from hidden object scenes, Witch’s Revenge more closely integrates the two. The main point of the game in fact, is moving from place to place triggering puzzles by collecting items then taking items earned from solving those puzzles and constructing various key story items. It’s a good idea that could really have taken off, but it’s weighed down by the game’s myriad failings.

Flimsy story, boring 3D art, confusing interactivity, bad dialog—Behind the Reflection 2: Witch’s Revenge has it all. Although here and there hints of the Veles team’s talent show through, somehow in the development process, a lot more than dialog got lost in the translation. A bit of friendly advice Veles – next time, do both yourself and us a favour and learn from your mistakes.

Edited reference accessed HERE. Originally posted by
Neilie Johnson on Feb 27, 2012. Edited and reposted by Whiterabbit-uk 4th March 2018.

Other Reviews and Videos of Behind the Reflection 2: Witch's Revenge:

You can see Big Fish community reviews of Behind the Reflection 2: Witch's Revenge HERE and more information in the Big Fish forums HERE. There are several in-game videos of game play HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

Conclusion:

I’ve not played the game long enough (due in part to a family situation this weekend), so haven’t included a conclusion, though I did find the game a reasonable HOG despite its age and contrary to the review above.

Suggestions:

After you've had an opportunity to play today's giveaway please take a few moments to give some positive or negative feedback; for example, what you liked or disliked about the game, or how it could be improved. If you don't like the genre at all, please explain why and if any, what improvements would change your mind? If you don't have time to post a comment today, please do so at your convenience, thank you. If you wish to post a review or comment about the game later, you can access the comments section by going to the game giveaways home page, then scroll to the bottom of the page where it says Archives and select the date the giveaway was live (giveaway days are in bold type). This will open the appropriate page for you to post your comment or review. Alternatively, you can google the name of the game and include Gamegiveawayoftheday in the search. This should give you a list of links to whenever this game was given away.

If you miss today's game giveaway you can always get the game via MyPlayCity 24/7 HERE; or If you prefer to purchase the game you can get it HERE via Big Fish Games.

Problems getting the game to work:

If you're having problems installing or activating or getting Behind the Reflection 2: Witch's Revenge to work please visit the FAQ's Thread HERE and read through the communities comments because sometimes fixes have already been posted, for example, a common issue seen since the Themida wrapper was introduced three years ago is that some community members installation of the game are blocked by their security because Themida code has been known to hide malware, (usually an error message is flagged for example 'The executable is corrupted' even though in reality it is not); so as a precaution some anti malware programs will block and even delete the suspect installation files even though the files (i.e. the setup, read me and setup.gcd files are actually totally free from malware. This issue can be solved either by rebooting your computer in safe mode with networking or a quicker method is to temporarily turn off your security software to allow the installation. You could also try whitelisting the setup.gcd file. In the almost 11 years this game giveaway site has been operating there has 'never' been a game given away that was infected with malware.

If for any reason you want to contact the giveaway team, for example, you have a game to offer the community, or are unable to download the latest game or other issues that the FAQ's thread or these comments don't cover or solve you can do so HERE

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank MyPlayCity for giving away Behind the Reflection 2: Witch's Revenge and also to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing other ways to get free games.

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:

If Behind the Reflection 2: Witch's Revenge doesn't interest you, but you still hanker for something new to play, you'll find details of some game deals whether they be sale items, indie bundles or games being given away for free HERE (I've not updated the thread in a while, but most of the links still take you to the latest deals).

The rest of the information that used to be posted in the game review can be found in the forums HERE. Finally, check out Delenns threads for details of other free games and offers HERE and elsewhere in the game discussion forums HERE, (usually on the first page of the game discussion forums).