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.

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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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.

Unless you've played the first one and want to continue the story, I don't recommend this game.

Why? Because it's not the complete version. The game is fun and has a good story but there was more to do and a little more story added in the Collector's Edition. In this version the ending is rather cut short with no explination for the prince's actions, though that part is easy to figure out on your own anyway.

Overall I enjoyed this game and if you have the first one then yes, grab this (on sale) and play it. But if not then find another hidden object game to pass the time.

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.

Princess Isabella 2 is a good fantasy-themed hidden object game… and that’s about it. It does nothing to make itself as memorable as the first episode; it’s just a generic HOG with a lot of running back and forth.

Like with most hidden object sequels made years after the original, Princess Isabella 2: Return of the Curse has little to do with the original: it’s just a dime-a-dozen fantasy HOG with stock setups, stock settings, and stock plot.

The only thing that really ties this game to ‘A Witch’s Curse’ is that we play again as the titular princess, who this time has to rescue her kidnapped infant daughter. This task requires solving a lot of generic puzzles and generic hidden object scenes in order to travel through a generic cursed forest and fairy tale town. The settings look great, but the constant backtracking quickly wears out their charm.

Of course this doesn’t mean that Princess Isabella 2 is bad, but one wonders why it was released as a sequel instead of a new (copycat) franchise– the return of the hidden object duel minigame at the end hardly justified this decision.
Oh, also, this is the standard edition, lacking the bonus chapter that explains quite some about the plot.

Princess Isabella: Return of the Curse is the sequel to Princess Isabelle, in which you defeated a witch. That opponent returned and kidnapped your baby girl, named Bella. It's up to you to uncurse your lands, as now, darkness spread out of the castle.

And that sequel was really well done in terms of story, because I never expected that twist in the end. Now, we're introduced to more creatures: while the fairy is still your helper, you meet villagers, dwarves and even a dragon that will you replace the fairy for a moment!

The game mechanics are still the same from the previous games: you uncurse the scenes, you free people from their jails or their sleep, you play some puzzles, some HO, you use the dragon or the faery's powers, etc..

The settings are still wonderful and the soundtrack is still good. I experienced one crash though.

Go for it. Because I wanna know what will happen to Bella and Isabella. And I wanna see the dragon a little more because the voice acting behind it is fantastic.

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.

About 5 hours long to play through. Well written. Casual/Hidden Object game with some mini games. There's no counter-intuitive backtracking, no objects appearing in a scene after you've already cleared the area - none of that nonsense which is common in the poorly designed HOB games. Delivers exactly what you'd expect. Not worth full price, but definitely worth playing.

I read some reviews which said the game was buggy - I did not encounter any stability issues whatsoever.

My biggest complaint would be the Hint mechanism - even though the game isn't overly complex you can miss things and get stuck and in some instances the item missed is many scenes back - clicking hint is almost always useless, so you have to have a degree of patience to play it through, backtrack and revisit incomplete scenes.

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... >.>