A fantastical finale in "Roots in the Sky: The Hand of Glory 2"!

The hero shot...

The world is once again saved in 14,5 hours, exactly the same as the first Hand of Glory game. That's quite the coincidence, or perhaps perfect developing by Madit Entertainment and Daring Touch. There wasn't a moment in Roots in the Sky I didn't enjoy. The goals were always clear, the puzzle solutions sometimes not immediately - the way it's supposed to be in a quality adventure game! - but in the end everything made sense and it was great fun to play with Lars and Alice again.

That guy looks like bad news...

After leaving Rome for Jordan the last time, the globetrotting continued as our heroes traveled to India, which is probably my favorite part of the game. Jungle settings always speak more to the imagination, and there's quite some adventuring to be done, finally revealing some of the mythological themes in this story. There was also one cut-scene that blurred my eyes, not because something sad happened but because it was so endearing and sweet. To be honest, I don't rightly know why it touched me so. It doesn't even relate to the general story, but I was very glad the scene was there.

Quaint Japanese harbor town...

But seriously, every location in this game has its charms. After India it was on to Japan and there is so much attention to detail in both the setting and the characters you meet. This part reminded me a lot of the Thera bits in Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. You also go diving, but finding the exact location of where you should go is one of the puzzles in the game that tripped me up a bit. It was my own fault, though, with purely a misinterpretation, or wrong assumption, on my end regarding the directions.

Will we need a bigger boat?

Throughout the game you already received some glimpses into the personality of this story's villain, during cut-scenes in between the chapters, displaying him as a very human character. Why, then, is he so dead set on doing what he wants to do? The finale of Roots in the Sky is very rewarding in revealing it all, and those last scenes are both suspenseful and emotional. With everything going on in this game, it deserves a very high place in my top ten of 2026!

You can find Roots in the Sky on Steam, GOG and itch.io!