Review:

The American History of the Wild West frontier is filled with interesting facts about pioneer people such as James Bowie, General Armstrong Custer, Sam Houston, and Levi Strauss who invented blue jeans pants. A lot of books and movies were devoted to this interesting period of American history. And here is the hidden object game from Anarchy Enterprises – Wild West Quest 2, where you’ll meet prospectors, bandits, ranchers and sheriffs.

For those who haven’t played the original Wild West Quest, here are some words about the original story. A young woman, the main hero of the game, was cleaning her granny’s house before putting it up for sale. On the attic she found an ancient pocket watch that once belonged to Grandpa Willy, her ancestor from the end of the 19th century. That magical watch could transport its holder through time. So, she traveled to a Wild West and saved her Grandpa from bandit Black Jack.

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In Wild West Quest 2 – the second part of the game, a young woman returns to the present time and finds her Grandpa Willy alive. But not only good changes were waiting for her. She found out that Black Jack managed to escape from prison and killed Grandpa Willy’s son Junior. The main heroine has to leave for the Wild West again to save her another ancestor from being killed.

Though the plot is rather interesting and intriguing, this game is presented in a pure hidden object genre. About the adventures of the main heroine we learn only from long journal entries in between chapters. You can read or skip the story, it doesn’t influence game play somehow. Willie’s granddaughter visits such interesting locations a jail, a gold mine, the sheriff’s office, a saloon and other interesting places. Each time you thoroughly search location to find all hidden items which are on the list. The tasks for hidden object levels are different, so that you'll have to look for items given as a list, a category, silhouettes, pieces of a picture, differences and so on.

Constant looking for hidden objects can become tedious, so be ready for numerous mini games. One of mini game is “puzzle pieces”, it is rather fresh and original and you can also consider it as hidden object. Here you have a picture divided into about 150 tiles. Some of them show up twice: once on the main picture and once at the bottom of the page. Your task is to find needed tiles and click on the places in the picture where the tiles would go. This task is rather difficult, sometimes even more difficult than searching the locations.

Another mini game is "find the differences". Here you compare two pictures for differences. It is also challenging enough, because there are many small details on the pictures and you should have a sharp eye to notice all of them.

If you stuck, you can always press hint button. Fortunately, hints are unlimited in this game and the only thing is that you should wait for “Hints” button to fill back up. In each location you can find Sheriff’s stars somewhere. These stars are very useful as they are reducing the time it takes to refill the “Hints” button.

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You can choose from two game modes: Timed and Relaxed. In Timed mode you have a time limit and penalty for random clicks, and in Relaxed you are free to take your time and just enjoy the puzzle.

The graphics of Wild West Quest 2 is polished and varied. You will notice photos, drawn scenes and animation. Music is in western style, so it fits the Wild West theme and atmosphere perfectly.

This game is a must for all lovers of hidden object games and Westerns. Fans of Westerns will enjoy the story and hidden object fans will get pleasure from a couple of hours of captivating game play in a Wild West setting.