Princess Isabella - Return of the Curse

so in the photos for this game i see collectors version content but in game its not there please add collectors version content

A pretty ok sequel, even though its mostly like the first part in most ways. The cristal puzzles are pretty annoying. The endgame is the same as in the first game. The "new" features are ok too. All in one is the game ok. Its recommandable

"Princess Isabella - Return of the Curse" is a Hidden Object puzzle game, the type you normally see on mobile app stores or even as browser apps. It's an older game from 2014. It's a venerable 10 years old at the time of this review.

There's literally hundreds of these on Steam, mostly published by Artifex Mundi, many of them free on mobile app stores, but this one will cost you money on Steam. There's a fairytale/fantasy theme to the game, but this is a just a veneer over a tired and overdone set of hidden object minigames and Adobe Flash tier puzzles, wrapped together with a bunch of static screens that you "move" through by tapping your finger on your iPhone screen.

While these kinds of games are popular amongst casual gamers, it's difficult to argue this is a great value proposition as a PC game, especially considering the price of this compared to the hundreds of free HOGs on the mobile app stores.

From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard.

There's no option to change the resolution and no useful graphics tweaks. There's no way to ensure this is running at the native resolution of your display. There's no guarantee this game will look right on any PC as a result of this hamfisted design decision.

The game only displays in 4:3 pillarboxed aspect ratio. It's possible they developed this using an old CRT they found in a dumpster, or this game has been specifically designed for people gaming on PC's from 1995... either way, this isn't really acceptable in the modern era of PC gaming.

The controls can't be customised because the game has such a dumbed down, simplified interface that it's just point and click stuff like a browser/Flash game. The fact that the interface is this dumbed down might be seen as a problem in itself, however... this is a fairly shallow experience if you're the kind of gamer that likes to play games with deep, rich control schemes and interaction. You'll get none of that here.

This is a really old game, and if they had made it today, it would be on the mobile app stores, but it predates those. It's not clear why they didn't try to dump this on the app stores (since it clearly seems to be here as some kind of nostalgia gouge). Maybe it was rejected by Apple and Google (they do have more rigorous quality standards than Valve does for Steam, after all).

Regardless, for all intents and purposes "Princess Isabella - Return of the Curse" might as well be a mobile app, it has the same limitations and dumbed down qualities. It's impossible to recommend such a game to PC gamers.

These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.

The poor quality of this game is reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the all-time peak player number was only 11 players. This is a remarkably low number, and now, the only player activity occurs once or twice a month, presumably someone loading it up to see what it is then quickly uninstalling it. Considering there's over 120 million gamers on Steam and well over 100,000 games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected.

So, should you buy this game? Is this one of the best of the 100,000+ games on Steam?

"Princess Isabella - Return of the Curse" has the almost comically optimistic (if it wasn't so sad) price of around $4 USD, it's not worth it given the defects and shortcomings with the product, especially considering the sheer number of completely free, much higher quality games on Steam. This is also competing with over 11,000 free games available on Steam, many of them far better than this paid product.

They certainly know their target audience;
You play as a princess, the main quest is to rescue your baby, & many of the puzzles involve cleaning & tidying.
XD

A lot of the art in this game is pretty mid,
but there are enough point & click style elements that I will probably come back to it at some point.
Not at atmospheric as other games in the genre but I didn't hate it.

No woke nonsense detected.

Unplayable

The end was far too abrupt. I am uncertain that I even won. The battle was over, a cinematic that explained nothing other than a baby being rescued by a dragon played, and then the credits rolled. I have no idea what happened. The hidden objects aspect of the game were standard. The game seemed convoluted. Somewhat enjoyable, but not nearly as much so as the first game.

This game is a far better improvement over the first one... But did it have to end on such a terrible note? I guess you really gotta own the trilogy to see what happens next... But jeez!

Oh and if you don't like games that don't give you VERY SPECIFIC hints on where to go or what to use... You will have a problem with this one. There is a part where you have to feed your dragon more berries to power him... BUT WHERE THE HELL ARE THEY?! I was about to give up... Then "accidentally", like 10x luck accidentally... I found a pot to put that "dragon seed" in. Above a book... Which I thought was only used for finding the Fire Pepper recipe. ARGH!

Anyway it's improved but not one of your "I am here to relax"... Still cool though. ^.^

Thank you!!! :D :) =)

P.S. The third one better have a good ending... >.>

Overall I enjoyed this game. I liked the helpers and actually thought the voices were cute unlike other reviewers. I did not like the ending, however.

Sub-par hidden object game with bland HOG scenes and not much else to offer. Unusable, broken hint system is just the final nail in the coffin.

It's alright. I feel its functionality is a lot better than the first game, though it still has some hiccups. The hint system wasn't always that helpful. Pressing the button would have the helpers indicate the puzzle though if you were missing pieces to that puzzle, it gave no clue on where they were.

The text on the map was so hard to read, especially the key.

Being able to mute the helper outside of turning the sound off was nice. Story was fine for a hidden object. I got it on sale and feel very satisfied with my purchase.

Didn't like this hidden object game. It is juvenile and a lot of the puzzles were just annoying. I asked for a few hints because I couldn't be bothered. Overall the ending was unique, but it only took 2.9 hours so I wouldn't recommend spending more that 70c.

Not a fan of the controls in this game. Also slightly nitpicky, but the voice actor is super annoying

This game is a sequel of the Princess Isabella. The quality of the game is simillar to the previous one. The game is just old too. Created 2011. You can feel it from the quality of graphics. You sould change relolution of the monitor to 4:3. HOS are darker but items are quite big. I liked using the items, it was logical and interesting. Two helpers are interesting but it was not necessary. The story is quite good and the plot followes the previous part in good way.
My recomendation is Yes for HOG fans but there are newer and better games.

This game is more of the same as the first but is certainly a little more interesting as in order to free the captured people you need to complete gem patterns, and you have two companions rather than one. However, at no point are the puzzles particularly challenging so it quickly descends into a prettily rendered grind. A cheap way to spend an hour or two if you got it on sale, but not sure I'd actually go out of my way to purchase.

Princess Isabella - Return of the Curse is the second game of the Princess Isabella series and also its peak probably. Coming out from Gogii games as its predecessor, the game narrates another chapter in the titular princess' life and her lifelong enmity with a witch.

Years after princess' adventure and commotion with the witch, the curse returns to her land. It's been several years now that she's been happily living with her husband, and baby daughter Bella; but dark shadows summoned by the witch infiltrate the castle and abduct Bella. They had an unfinished business after all. Isabella takes on a journey throughout her kingdom this time, facing witch's forces, aiding townsfolk cursed by the said witch and searching for her beloved daughter. Will she prevail and return Bella to safety?

The game is a loveable continuation to the series, with beautiful background art, hand drawn characters and fairytale design. Game being old, you shouldn't expect a miracle about resolutions though. In tone, it is somewhat childish and carries the nativity of the first game. This time, we are also capable of observing the realm of Isabella a bit more closely, weaved from countless European fairytale references. Our fairy companion - who is also happened to be Bella's godmother - is also present to accompany our quest just like old days, alongside a dragon hatchling named Nessie who joins us just recently. They both have different abilities and interaction options to aid you in your quest.

HOG scenes are quite basic and items are distinguishable despite the age of our graphics. Puzzles are various and a bit more of a challenge compared to the previous game, but item collection is all over the place. Due to your companions' various abilities getting unlocked in a timely manner, you'll keep revisiting different locations over and over again to harvest previously unreachable items. The HOG show down with the AI is still our preferred end game boss battle. Oh, and the ending isn't your usually happily ever after; rather a plot hook for the third game to come.

In the end, I'd recommend the game if you've played the first one and curious about what is to happen to Isabella. It's not a marvelous HOG, but a pretty little casual adventure game with an enjoyable story outline that would present you 2 hours of game time. Enjoy!

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Part 2 of Princess Isabella series and better than the first one.

This is not the collectors edition, so it has about 35 minutes less playtime as it's missing the CE version only area "The Witch's Trophy Tower" and lacks a small part of the story partially explaining the ending of this game.

Isabella's baby daughter Bella has been kidnapped by an evil force and Isabella has to follow the evil and de-curse areas as in the first game. In addition to the fairy helper from the first game she here gets a dragon companion with different abilities (but clearly the same voice actor).

The game has 2 difficulty modes, I didn't try the lower one but I assume all the clickables sparkle as they would in similar games. Without the sparkling some clickable areas can be harder to see, but normally not hard enough to get frustratingly lost. The map is helpful and you can teleport to any area, as well as see which areas you have cleared.

I encountered no bugs whatsoever and the game was very enjoyable. The puzzles felt a little harder than in the first game. Most dialogue is skippable with mouseclick.

Though this game seems harder and darker than the first one, it still feels targetted towards kids. Buy it on sale if you liked the first one and/or enjoy this type of game.

Although the game is fun and very casual. I wanted to make my point out there by giving negative review.

Firstly, there is NO support from the devs at all. I encountered so many bugs and I couldn't get them fixed.
Secondly, there is A LOT of bugs that prevent you from progressing or crashes your system.
Thirdly, I could not figure out the story and reasons for why something occured, I had to google it and found out that this game is missing HALF of the content that explains things clearly and has more game play.

Other than these reasons, this game is very fun and I enjoyed it a lot.

This is a casual game, which contains point and click and hidden-object components. It also has two modes. Normal mode caters for players that are more casual. The mode provides many hints, and important areas are always highlighted. Advanced mode on the other hand gives the player almost no hints.

There has been some improvement over the first Princess Isabella game, particularly in the art and design of backgrounds. The game’s areas are more varied than its predecessors were. And it’s very nice that this time around the witch decided to curse more than just a castle with similarly styled rooms! The ever-changing scenery also seems to have allowed this instalment to have more quirky characters than its predecessor does. Although I’m pretty sure those dwarves are living in a hobbit hole!

The only issue that arose for me when playing this game, as that I came to a puzzle that did not seem to let me manipulate the parts needed to complete it. Going back to title menu did not fix this. However, I found that changing the game between screen modes (Fullscreen, Widescreen and Windowed), seemed to allow the game to work out better where the mouse cursor was placed. So, there is an easy fix if you are to run into this issue.
I would recommend this game to people who enjoy these types of games. If you do not go into it looking for a life changing experience, and just enjoy it for what it is, then this is a fun little game, and worth playing. Bear in mind it is a little short, but worth the price, particularly if you can get it on sale!

When this game first came out, I just could not make myself play it, as I found the faery annoying. Saw it on sale here
on Steam, and thought, "Why Not?" Especially since I had played the first and third in this series.
The faery and the dragon didn't annoy me as much as I thought they would.
Despite what another reviewer wrote, you can click on them while they are speaking just to shut them up.
Especially when the dragon is repeating what someone just told you.
I actually did enjoy it, except for some of the HO's being difficult to find.
I like the fact that it has a jump map and you are notified when you are done in an area,
so you can just move on.
It was at times challenging, but not overly so. Puzzles are solvable without being to simple.
If your not sure what to do, there is a hint helper on top you can click on that will let you know what
to do. Otherwise, it stays out of site, for those who do not want hints.
There is a WT on the Big Fish site for when you get really stuck.
Not sure what the CE would have, as seeing I played #3 I knew how the story would end.

This is another ported game from the "Big Fish collection" and an old one at that. This is a standard version not the extended one, which contains longer story line. The ending for the standard version is abrupt and feels very rushed. This is another proof how some companies are trying to generate more cash creating different versions of the same game. Why? Wouldn't be better to have a full story and create a bonus material not relevant to the story? Anyway, when porting old games to the Steam use CE versions instead to attract new players.
The game mechanics is similar to any other HO game, it has good interactive map, which helps a lot when the game becomes repetitive. Some voice acting is very annoying especially those of the helpers. And they go on and on, and you can't skip them. Some of the puzzles are too easy some are pretty illogical.
In short I would skip playing these games on Steam but would rather got the web site like Big Fish where these games are coming from. You might even get a better deal there.

Loved it! Much more entertainting than part 1, look amazing and charming - atmosphere is darker, story is darker... and an unexpected ending! And: we have two "hints" now, with our beloved little fairy now comes a baby dragon! Yay! Maybe too easy. 8/10

This game is a pretty fun addition to the genre. It has some neat mechanics with the helpers' abilities that you can use to locate hidden items. However, this mechanic can also be a bit of a pain, because you have to scan the whole screen for spots to use these powers, which can turn into a pixel hunting adventure. This may only apply to the harder difficulty, I'm not sure, as that's the only one I played.

The ending isn't really satisfying, as I guess they are looking to make a follow up. In addition, they claim it has 6+ hours of gameplay, but I beat the game in 3 hours without the use of a walkthrough and did all the puzzles.

I'd recommend it if you like playing Hidden Object Games, but the fact that it can be beaten in half the time claimed was pretty frustrating.