After saving her son from the Dark Overlord, Susan is brought back to the Lost Lands, because of the threat that pose the four Hoursemen of the Apocalypse. However, it's been centuries there since her first adventure. Now, it's time to save again the Lost Lands!

This game is a sequel of the first Lost Lands. We find Susan again, in a fantasy world, with a standard gameplay. However, while the story is still good, I'm disappointed on the less variety of the HO scenes. Indeed, exit the list and the replace the object. Only the shapes scenes stayed. As for the puzzles, they're easy to do, even if some requires a little reflexion.

I find it very long, maybe because some cutscenes are long in dialogues.

However, the game comes with a lot of bonus: the chapter is telling the tale from the dwarf's point of view, just sometimes before Susan's arrival and during her quest. You can play minigames outside of the game, you have concept arts, music tracks and other interesting stuff.

The graphics are good, really fitting into the Lost Lands and the mysteries behind. However, when in presence of some characters, they can explain the surrounding to you like the dwarf in the mines or the female warrior in the bonus chapter. The sountrack is pleasant.

Anyway, was I bored by the game? No. Is it better than the first one? Well, while they've reduced the variety, it is still very good. Are you lost during your quest? You may be clueless by moments or because you have many items in your inventory without knowing what to do.

Anyway, it's still a good bargain. So, well, go for it!

Great HOG with travel maps and hints on the map where you should go. Bonus-the maps also show you where any hidden special objects are left to find too! Great game for those who love HOG's. The story is also interesting.

Great little puzzler to pass the time. Point and click, hidden object, some potion-making.

Nothing overly mindbending here, but should you get stuck, there is a built in walkthrough (though even that won't solve all the puzzles for you). The game's difficulty varies on how much or little help you want (ie, easier difficulties highlight important objects or tell you where to go next on your map).

Sequel to Lost Lands: Dark Overlord and second in the Lost Lands series. Though Lost Lands: A Hidden Object Adventure is created by the same developers, Five-BN, and quite possibly occurs in the same world, these games are not related by storyline. Though it would be interesting if somehow the developers managed to tie the storylines together.

Storyline: A few centuries have past in the realm of the Lost Lands and a new threat has appeared in the form of the Four Horsemen: Chill, Flare, Death and Darkness. These Horsemen are slowly and methodically destroying the Lost Lands world and Maraan, the wizard/druid sets a spell in motion to bring the warrioress and once before savior back to the Lost Lands. The intrepid Suzanne is teleported to the Lost Lands where she embarks on the quest of defeating the Horsemen and finding the Compass of the Worlds (the key to a magical portal) before one of the Horsemen does. For help on the quest, Maraan sends a dwarf named Folnur to Suzanne as a guide, to protect, and to provide useful information.

Gameplay: A quasi-open world with area based bottlenecks, and more of a Point and Click then Hidden Object quest adventure. The Hidden Object scenes are silhouette finds of the interactive type. Each Hidden Object scene shows silhouettes which when found are then used to do other things like open boxes, scrap wax from a table, cut roots out of the way, etc. until the main object of the scene is obtained. Nothing overly difficult though some intuition (such as looking in baskets or crates) and careful searching is required.

The Point and Clicks aspects are more complex and require not only careful searching of an area to find all the needed inventory items but often travel. There is a no penalty fast travel map which the further and further along in the story the player proceeds the more and more the fast travel map is needed. Many items and several puzzles found early in the game or in previous chapters can not be accessed until a later time when the needed inventory is eventually found. If playing on casual mode these items and locations are highlighted. If playing on Hard mode, notes or a good memory is needed. The game will give the player hints about where to find something, such as 'Where have I seen that before?' among other comments. There is also an in-game strategy guide if one gets stuck or can not find an item needed.

The puzzles are mostly sliders of some variation, straight picture sliders, put the correct piece in the correct place, and rotating sliders. There is also matching, codes, and picture puzzles. Nothing overly hard, but there are a few puzzles that do require some thought to solve. NOTE: One particular puzzle in the beginning of the game has an achievement attached if the player can solve it in less then 70 moves. The in-game stategy guide does the puzzle in 92 moves, so achievement hunters will have to earn that one on their own. (This puzzle can also be accessed through the mini-games in the Extra menu after both the main game and bonus chapter are completed. So no need to play the entire game again just to play the puzzle. Love, love this feature.)

The bonus chapter concerns the dwarf Folnur who Maraan has asked to help Suzanne after her arrival in the Lost Lands, and Folnur's preparations to do that and to craft a magical dwarven hammer. In the main game the player sees his arrival which is the conclusion of the bonus chapter.

There are two sets of extra finds: 1) is morphing objects (35 total) and 2) machine parts (35 total) found through out the main game. If the player finds all 35 pieces of the machine this unlocks a bonus feature which is a set of extra puzzles.

A few words about achievements: All achievements can be earned in a single playthrough since most are gameplay oriented. For one achievement the player can not use any hints DURING GAMEPLAY in either the main game or the bonus chapter or in any puzzle or Hidden Object scene which is standard. One achievement is found in the bonus chapter and is a timed picture puzzle. Also both the main game and the bonus chapter must be completed to earn a couple of achievements. If the player missed the puzzle achievements during gameplay they can be earned through the mini-game section in the Extra menu. That is so innovative and eliminates a forced second playthrough.

Extras: First of all there is the in-game strategy guide which makes playing the game on Hard mode the first time through easier if the player gets stuck or misses some needed item. This game has many extras which become available after completing the bonus chapter. Extras include wallpapers, concept art, music and cut scenes. It also includes a replay of the 21 puzzles found in the game and 3 picture puzzles. If the player found all of the machine parts there are 20 extra pipe puzzles to solve under that bonus feature.

Overall, an enjoyable game to play, not too hard and not too easy. Despite a bit of fast traveling near the end of the game, it plays smoothly and relatively logically. Well worth the price.

The Four Horsemen is a beautiful lightweight adventure game with great puzzles and a long play time… although a large portion of that time will be spent by ungodly amounts of constant backtracking.

Although it is not uncommon, it is still interesting to see when a casual series decides to switch genres between games. Lost Lands: The Four Horsemen is a good example for this. Unlike Dark Overlord, which was a hidden object game, this one is closer to a lightweight point ‘n’ click adventure that tried to include as many interesting puzzles as possible as a consolation for HOG fans.

Sadly, it forgot to get rid of the biggest issue of the last game, the constant backtracking that takes up almost half of the 5-8 hour play time. They just masked it with another great story, where we can meet the heroine of Dark Overlord, who this time is summoned back to the Lost Lands in order to help the fight against the titular Horsemen. She may be a little too okay with being dragged into a fantasy conflict against her will, but it is hardly recognisable with this interesting plot and engaging puzzle design.

What a fun game! The story was interesting and the game play challenging.

I found the game to be more puzzles than hidden item games. The hidden item scenes were all the type where you have to find pieces and puzzle solve to complete a goal. That being said, I have nothing against those types of scenes but am a fan of more traditional item finding. That being said, all the scenes and puzzles offer a good bit of challenge and works your brain so don't think that this is push over game.

With the puzzles also come an engaging story. You play a woman from the Earth realm summoned to a magical land to save it from doom. Sadly, our hero Susan doesn't say much but everyone else has solid voice acting. I was quite a fan of the dwarf you gain as a sidekick.

Overall it's a definate buy for fans of puzzle games and hidden item games, it will offer quite a few hours of enjoyment.

Great chapter of the Lost Lands series (you can easily play them in whatever order you want) and also one of the best HOGs on Steam. Lots of minigames and puzzles, the hidden object scenes are interesting because you have to find tools in a specific order and solve minipuzzles to complete them and find the final object needed to continue the story. The game in general is very well detailed with several different scenarios, there's also an extra chapter with some backstory and a nice bonus game unlockable finishing the main story.

In a nutshell: Sadly, not as good as Dark Overlord. They share some common features (which is why I recommend it), but Four Horsemen has far more unintuitive gameplay. You'll probably end up using the in-game Strategy Guide way more than expected.

I was really hoping Four Horsemen would live up to its predecessor, Dark Overlord. They're in the same universe with the same protagonist and by the same developers, so what could go wrong, right? Apparently enough to make it a disappointing followup.

The backgrounds and drawn versions of the characters are just as nice as the previous title. A few scenes have some strange or confusing angles to them, but I'll chalk that up to "artistic freedom". The character design is definitely better.
3D cutscenes are also just as clunky where movement is concerned, but I'd still say it's an improvement overall.

The positives fell apart for me here. While Dark Overlord was more-or-less simple to figure out where you needed to go next, Four Horsemen dropped the ball. I often found myself wandering back and forth between locations trying to figure out my next course of action. If you're playing on Easy or Normal and not bothering with achievements, you may not have an issue, since the map and hints directly indicate what you should do next. But playing on Hard mode with the achievement requirement of no Hint use whatsoever (even outside of games/puzzles), it was frustrating enough that I resorted to the in-game Strategy Guide a lot. I try to avoid doing that whenever possible, but some actions were simply too obtuse or unintuitive, like needing to click on a thin, easily-overlooked chain hanging from the ceiling not once, but twice in order to continue. Unless you're pixel-hunting, that chain just looks like a generic fore/background element. And that's only one example. I could write up a whole list.
I did like that they kept the multi-use tool aspect, and the knife and hammer remain at your disposal until the end of the game.
There's one point where an annoying app-style "rate us" window pops up, clearly identifying the game as a (lazy) mobile port. I don't know why nobody bothered to just take that screen out, or change the word "touch" in the achievements to "click".
The bonus chapter was okay (minus the "wtf do I do now" moments), but somehow felt lacking compared to the first game's bonus chapter.

The puzzles were good and varied, with the difficulty bumped up a tad from the previous game.
If you're going for the "Lord of Animals" and "Artist" achievements, you're going to need the Steam guide (not the in-game one) and some quick visual thinking, respectively. However if you missed either achievement during gameplay, you can exit and try again via the Extras menu instead of starting a whole new game. I really appreciated that.
The HOGs on the other hand, were kind of disappointing. It seemed like most of them were the "find then use" silhouette type, but with actions or hiding places that were more of a chore than necessary.
Four Horsemen also continues the "beyond objects" trend, but it seems like the devs got a bit overzealous about it. They doubled (or even tripled) the hunt with a set of parts you need to find for some kind of machine, which means there's 1 morphing object and 1 machine part at every location, plus 20 lorebook pages scattered about. The number of parts and pages you find are accessible via the toolbar and journal, but afaik there's no way to check how many of the morphing objects you found, other than catching the number that pops up when you actually find one. Your best bet is to not leave a location until you find both the object and part. The pages stick out against the backgrounds, so they weren't a problem.

Pretty solid, though kinda forced at points. You don't have to play Dark Overlord to follow or enjoy this one, but it helps. Suzanne's defeat of the Dark Overlord made her a legendary figure in the Lost Lands (which apparently operates on something akin to "Narnia Standard Time" - a few months for us = centuries for them). Gandalf's brother a wizard named Maaron knew of Suzanne and summoned her (what is she, a genie?) to help with their Four Horsemen crisis. Of course nobody thinks to call ahead to find out when's a good time, so Suzanne effectively gets kidnapped in the middle of a shopping trip. The tie-in to the existing Lost Lands universe and previous game did a lot to help the plot, seeing as there's no explanation of why everyone thinks Suzanne is some kind of messiah until you find the last lorebook page, which makes a direct reference to the ending of the first game.

And not that it matters for gameplay, but some of the basic facts are a bit inconsistent, at least where Maaron is concerned. In the bonus chapter he talks about summoning Suzanne because he knew of her prior deeds, but in the beginning of the main game he seems utterly surprised that she's a "fragile female" (really?) and not some buff and mighty hero.

You're introduced to some of the lore of Middle Earth the Lost Lands through the pages you find while you're exploring, which is a nice touch if you like reading, but they're really not much more than another collectible (achievement included).

Unfortunately the grammar and spelling suffer in this game. I don't know who slacked off at Five-BN, but it led to a lot of oddly-constructed sentences. To be fair, most of them were in the written parts (only two or three in VOs). Nothing immersion-breaking, but enough to notice.

Voiceovers were as high quality as Dark Overlord, with the exception of the mermaid, who was only a few notches less annoying than the protagonist of Dreamatorium 2. Thankfully you don't have to talk to her much. Maaron and Folnur (Gimli's cousin the dwarf) were excellent. There was only one inconsistency I noticed in the bonus chapter, when you speak to Tectonica. At some point the text says "but you may cut it with a diamond thread", while the actress says "but you may smash it with a hammer". Those would yield wildly different results. :P
The music was hit and miss. Most times it suited the context well, but there were several moments that felt out of place. SFX were fine.

If I was to rate Four Horsemen as a standalone game, I'd probably give it something slightly higher than "meh, it's decent". But as a sequel in an existing universe with the same protagonist, it has a little more charm. Unlike Dark Overlord however, I don't see myself going out of my way to replay it in the future.
Play Dark Overlord first for a more cohesive experience.

Good hidden object game.
Beware! The free "Lost Lands" games work completely differently!

The Four Horsemen doesn't really have have those big hidden object scenes, the ones it has work more like an adventure, but basically, it's a collection of casual puzzles strung together by inventory puzzles: you find some item and have to remember that the puzzle you need it for is halfway across the map, unless you don't play on hard, in which case the map shows you where to go. It's done fairly well, and it does have 2 bonus objects hidden in every big scene. Just don't expect much of a story or explanations why there are so many puzzles and why the parts are all over the place (i.e. don't expect a point&click adventure).

Gameplay-wise, if you are going for all of the achievements in one go (which means hard mode), it's a lot of pixel hunting and searching and some casual puzzling. Wrap the fish in a leaf from the bush nearby. Or you can be lame and follow the walkthrough called "strategy guide". Be prepared to work for the "artist" achievement (you can do that on the extras section).

This game has everything I expect from a game of this genre (apart from big hidden object scenes). Recommended.

This game runs fine on my old Windows XP computer.

Again, this is a pretty good Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure. The puzzles are quite good and there is good variety and interesting things to do (mini-puzzles) even within the Hidden Object Scenes. The story isn't bad, and the animations are quite good. This would probably place in the top 25% of HOPAs.

The bonus chapter was also really good. It served as an epilogue to the main game and also had a couple references back to Lost Lands: Dark Overlord. So I would suggest playing that one first, although I think "]Four Horsemen" is a slightly better game.