Gretel and Hansel Part 2 is just how I like my point’n’click games: short, curious and sinister, like some kind of… really short… sinister… private detective. I’m sorry, I think I’m out of simile credits.

Alec wrote about Part 1 of this indie retelling of the Hansel & Gretel story when it was released almost a year ago, calling it “lovely, in a vaguely malevolent way.” Part 2 provides more of the same ominous watercolour puzzling, and is just as deserving of your time. Go play! Video walkthrough after the jump, because who has time to play a point’n’click game without a walkthrough these days? Thanks to the Indie Games blog for spotting this first.
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This is very lovely, in a vaguely malevolent way. It’s a narrative puzzle game of minimal dialogue and hand-painted graphics, a little in the vein of Samorost. Hansel is an idle, blinkered boy-child, and Gretel his industrious, concerned sister. She feels it’s imperative to escape their angry, abusive mother (and subjugated father), and thus puzzling begins. The puzzles are simple but thoughtful, and as a more visceral bonus, usually involve whacking something with your catapult at some stage. The look’s what really makes it, though – cutout, waterpainted shapes moving in pseudo-stop motion, evoking vintage Eastern European animation.
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