Please, Touch the Artwork 2

If you enjoy independent indie game coverage, consider supporting Indie-Games.eu on Patreon. It helps keep the site independent.

• DEVELOPER: Thomas Waterzooi
• PUBLISHER: Thomas Waterzooi
• PLATFORMS: PC, Google Play, Apple Appstore
• GENRE: Puzzle
• RELEASE DATE: February 19, 2024
• INITIAL PRICE: Free-to-Play
• REVIEWED VERSION: PC

Thomas Waterzooi, you’ve won my heart. Please, Touch the Artwork 2 is a beautiful puzzle game created in honor of the 75th anniversary of the death of artist James Ensor, a Belgian painter and printmaker who had a significant influence on Expressionism and Surrealism, and who spent most of his life in Ostend. 

Before discovering this game, I was completely unfamiliar with his artistic body of work. That means I hadn’t played the first game either, so I went into this one with absolutely no expectations. What makes this game exceptional is the way the world around us takes shape, particularly within the paintings themselves.

This adventure transforms his iconic paintings into an unusual, cozy, and interesting hidden object game. In it, we search for specified items to solve the levels. By combining elements of a video game, a museum exhibition, and a work of art, Please, Touch the Artwork 2 presents an outstanding achievement that will forever be etched in my memory.

Great for Puzzle Fans

As a passionate lover of puzzle titles, I expected a very similar approach to other hidden object games. You will explore a series of interconnected paintings spread across several chapters, with each chapter being thematically symbolic and bringing diverse puzzles, including the search for pieces of wood, shells, or even food.

Additionally, in the game, you will have to repair paintings, connecting canvas lines to fill in a part that has been cut off and thereby solve the rest of the puzzles. Ingenuity is required, but nothing is too difficult; the key is just to use different parts of your brain.

If you happen to get stuck somewhere, a hint system is available that will automatically show you the location of the sought-after objects. Once you collect them all, you can automatically travel to the character who gave you the task to avoid walking back and forth.

The characters are diverse, absurd, and unique, and their simple integration into the paintings is interesting as you explore the art of James Ensor throughout his creative period. At one point, I asked myself the question, did this artist really create so many works that they could all be put in one game?

Final Verdict

Besides being visually impressive, the music also stands out. The classical music further immerses you in the game, from Frédéric Chopin to music that Ensor himself composed. When you combine all of this, you get a masterpiece. Finding the puzzles isn’t difficult; rather, everything relies on color contrast, and sometimes a little strain on your visual abilities will be required to find something. 

Also, there are a few minor issues, mainly concerning the hint system (sometimes it doesn’t clearly show where a puzzle is located) and potentially disturbing content in some chapters. For example, sudden depictions of death, the chapter called “The Wedding” shows vomiting, etc.

Some players might not like the excessive animation within the paintings themselves, where the images look very vivid. It might be helpful to clearly state exactly what we are looking for, perhaps in the corner of the screen, to make it easier to orient oneself. All in all, Please, Touch the Artwork 2 left a positive impression on me. I wouldn’t be surprised if this title were to appear as part of some art exhibition. It is a relaxing puzzle game, and if you love this genre, you definitely shouldn’t miss this experience.

Review copy provided by the publisher