Please, Touch The Artwork 2

With hidden object games being a fairly saturated genre, it can take a lot to try and stand out. One such game that I had recently come across is Please, Touch The Artwork 2, a game by former Hitman dev Thomas Waterzooi made around the art of Belgian artist James Ensor. While I had not played the original Please, Touch The Artwork game, the presentation and it being free led me to download and play it, which proved to be a short, yet worthwhile experience.

The game centers around helping a skeleton painter find his way home, as stated in the store page description, though there is also a running subplot of a mysterious assailant jumping through paintings by ripping holes in them.

 

How the skeleton painter is introduced to the player.

Though thin, these plots tie in pretty well with the core gameplay loop, in which you locate hidden objects for inhabitants within various paintings to progress. These paintings are carefully chosen such that they form a cohesive environment when placed together, creating a living world with the aid of very simple animations (some of which can remind one of Terry Gilliam’s work on Monty Python’s Flying Circus). The objects themselves are designed in a way that they blend in very well with the environment, forcing one to look more closely at, and subsequently appreciate, each of the paintings to find what it is they’re supposed to be looking for. Besides hidden objects, there are also other activities to provide some variety to progress, including repairing paintings damaged by the assailant and even a “spot-the-differences” puzzle. I will also mention that the minimal sound design and voice acting also work well with the presentation, though some voices can get a little grating.

 

The intuitive UI also helps keep track of objectives.

Please, Touch The Artwork 2 displays a great affinity for James Esnor’s work and, speaking from experience, can serve as a neat gateway into the artist’s work due to playing something like an interactive museum, especially since it’s a free offering. Even if you haven’t played the first game, this one is worth looking at and may even make you consider playing the original down the line.