When I heard people raving that True Fear is a truly scary hidden object game, I chuckled a bit as I added it to my basket of electronic goodies. I've played "scary" HOGs before, and they're usually no more frightening than a child's campfire story. So when I finally got around to firing the game up, I'd done so expecting little more than a mildly amusing spooky tale with decent adventure-lite gameplay that would at least satisfy my craving for HOGgy goodness. What I got was something more. Much, much more.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=807123647
Before I delve into the review, one must ask the question, how can a game elicit a fearful response from the player when the threat of death is completely absent? This same question is often brought up with many horror point and click adventure titles, some of which have managed to sufficiently unnerve me; and I will tell you this, the horrors of a man's heart is far more terrifying than a monster that wants nothing more than to eat you.

As appearances go, True Fear may look like your standard HOG, but is in essence a very solid point and click adventure title, provided you play on Expert with no hints, skips or highlighted areas. Yes, there are hidden object scenes (quite difficult ones, actually), but you can toggle between them and simplified adventure puzzles where you use items in the scene to ultimately retrieve the tool you'll need. These alternate puzzles help keep with the adventure feel of the game, something hidden object scenes often interrupt (a common complaint among HOPA critics).

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=808888993
Outside of the in-game environments, the CGI movies are fairly high quality. While the graphics won't hold a candle to any triple A game we've seen in the last 15 years (or even most indies), for a HOPA they're quite impressive. What's even more impressive is how the action is framed, utilizing camera techniques drawn from horror films to instill fear and unease. Sound, pacing and music all give these scenes a cinematic feel, even if the characters move a bit stiffly with limited facial expression. How you present the material makes all the difference in the world.

The best gameplay and graphics mean little without a compelling narrative to pull you in, and this is where True Fear shines. The way the mystery unfolds with each reveal leading to more questions as details build to an even greater mystery, it keeps you digging. The first in a three part series, I have several suspicions as to what happened, but only scraps of proof to back my theories. In the end, I could be totally wrong, but puzzling out the story is part of what makes the game so damn enjoyable. And that story is even darker and more twisted than I expected.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=808508929
Of particular note are the bonus materials that open upon completion of the main story. Aside from the bonus chapter, which I absolutely suggest playing through as it oozes creepiness while adding a ton of clues to the overall storyline, you'll want to look through the developer's extras for interesting insights into how the game was made as well as things that were cut for story-related purposes. This is one of the few times I've felt the bonuses are indeed worth looking through.

Have I interested you in the game yet? True Fear is in its own league, transcending the genre in storytelling and presentation while at the same time remaining grounded in familiar conventions that dedicated fans so love. If you were ever mildly interested in hidden object games, this is a great title to wet your feet in. As for HOG and adventure game veterans, it's a MUST play! You have been warned...

True Fear: Forsaken Souls (IHOG and/or Adventure-lite)

Beware ye faint of heart, for herein lies the stuff of nightmares.

True Fear: Forsaken Souls is by far the scariest IHOG ever made (at least that I'm aware of.) Be aware that the Big Fish version's intro has been CENSORED, so if you're bothered by scary things... Well shoot, if you're bothered by scary things, then you shouldn't play this game!

Options include separate sliders for Sound, Music, and Brightness, Full-screen vs. Windowed, Custom Cursor and three Difficulty settings. In addition, you can choose whether there are sparkles on the collectibles, and whether or not there are hidden object scenes!

This is a title that truly shines in every way. The storyline and situations you find yourself in are actually frightening, it's adventure-heavy, the voice acting is surprisingly good, I really enjoyed the graphics, and the hidden object scenes are not the same-old, same-old that you'd expect from this type of game.

HOS are sometimes your standard find-by-list fare, albeit with zoom-in areas that have their own, separate lists. You'll find, however, that many of the scenes have no lists at all. Simply find items that you can interact with, and use them on the scene; repeat until you've found something useful to add to your inventory.

There is a journal that keeps track of both the story and clues that you come across, as well as an interactive, insta-transport map.

Collector's Edition Extras:

• Integrated Strategy Guide
  
• 15 Collectible Figurines, and each one that you find adds to the story (possibly in the non-CE, as well)
  
• 3 Wallpapers
  
• 5 Music Tracks (can be saved to hard drive)
  
• Deleted Scenes - This is where you can see the original intro if you're a Big Fish player, as well as find info on three deleted characters
  
• Alternative Reality - 8 new versions of scenes from the game
  
• 25 Cutscenes
  
• "Making of" sequence that shows how a scene goes from concept to fully-fleshed version, along with 18 concept art
  
• 23 Replayable Puzzles
  
• 10 Replayable Hidden Object Scenes (traditional list-style)
  
• Bonus Chapter
  
• As of this writing, August 22, 2018, the demo for Part II is available to play from the main screen of the game~! (Steam version only)

Bonus Chapter:

This extra chapter takes up right after the ending of the main game, and while it reveals some great extra information (and is very interesting to boot), it's not something you HAVE to play in order to understand the story. The hidden object scenes are low-quality as compared to the main game, but that did not lessen my enjoyment - it was simply unexpected.

True Fear: Forsaken Souls is a quality offering, and one that I enjoyed the heck out of. I am looking forward to the soon-to-be-released Part II, and absolutely recommend this to those who love horror, hidden objects and figuring things out. As this can be played WITHOUT hidden object scenes (by list), I also recommend it to those who love casual adventures~!

This review is dedicated to Feena who gifted me a copy of the game

+Pros
• Carefully constructed environments; rich in detail and significance
  
• Blending of clues and objects into exposition to unfold the story
  
• Realistic graphics that add to the atmosphere
  
  -Cons
  
• The story is not complete and ends on a cliffhanger
  
• Switch to 3rd person perspective in the cutscenes jolts you out of the story
  
• A fair amount of backtracking
  
• Poorly placed UI and area transitions

Developed by Goblinz and published in 2016; True Fear’s story begins with a mysterious delivery at a ridiculous hour and then slowly begins to challenge the pre-conceptions of its protagonist Holly. Throughout the story her assumptions are proven incorrect and as she descends deeper into the mystery, relying on contextual clues given in the game, she attempts to fashion the supernatural events into a coherent story.

Through recordings and in game clips the game slowly introduces you to its absentee cast. Most people who are integral to the stories plot are missing or already deceased. Very little is revealed of them from a character standpoint instead their relationships form the basis of the events which Holly is attempting to understand.

Holly herself is driven by her motivation to find her estranged sister Heather. This is the lynchpin that sends her to explore her old family home. Holly is somewhat of an enigma herself. We are given very little information about her, and most of her character comes through in her curiosity, desire to solve the riddles of her family, despite having had no contact from them, and her penchant for throwing away useful tools. However despite her lack of current family bonds, Holly’s identity within the family is slowly revealed throughout the game, and is integral to the plot.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1575374305
Some of these hidden clues make Holly out to be an unreliable narrator, and her skewed perception is called into question as she ruminates on what she remembered as a child. It’s also hinted at that she suffers from selective amnesia. This makes the exposition in the form of materials she finds all the more important. The environment also adds to the narrative in a more descriptive way, hinting at plot elements. I truly loved this aspect of the game, since it felt like everything had a purpose, and made the exploration of place and story all the more compelling.

True Fear: Forsaken Souls Part 1, excels in the gameplay department. The Hidden Object (HO) scenes are very light in this one, and there is much more emphasis on point & click, adventure gameplay and puzzle solving. Each aspect cleverly melds with the others to create an immersive experience. The game relies heavily on contextual clues, and using the journal is an absolute must to play the game effectively as multiple hints are given in Holly’s detailed journal and case files. In this respect the game is similar to the first Enigmatis game by rival publisher Artifex Mundi, that also used the journal with the actual gameplay adding to the concept of the overarching mystery and assisting the player’s experience as a detective.

The aura of mystery and pursuit of solving it, whether it’s through the diverse array of puzzles, figuring out the clues given by Holly’s observations, or pixel hunting for a few obscure interactions, does detract from the horror atmosphere. Jump scares are relatively few, and the horror is hinted at in circumspect ways. At times it felt more like a psychological thriller than a horror game, which was further underscored by cut scenes that jumped to the 3rd person perspective of Holly rather than remaining in the 1st person. These were quite immersion breaking and at times even made me wonder if I was playing a living Holly at all!

Exploring from area to area and entering puzzle screens can sometimes be frustrating due to the position of the UI interface and the area movement. Even with the contextualized cursor, sometimes I’d click on the object bar at the base of the screen only to find myself exiting the puzzle or leaving the area. This was immensely frustrating at times. The HO scenes were also bizarre, there were no word lists, leaving me to search for pixels to find the appropriate interactions (the game’s advertising screenshots indicate standard wordlists, but they were not present in the version of the game I played. This may be because they are removed from the Expert playthrough. If this is the case then it’s a unique way at attempting to make a more challenging game, yet it was also frustrating at times, since it’s not the normal standard of playing and results in merely swiping the cursor about the scene to see where it changes. Not really a true challenge, and more frustrating than anything else.

There is also a fair amount of backtracking involved, with contextual clues given in the environment long before you need to access them. This adds a memorization aspect to the game, with new interactive objects that may be used in previous areas. It does add to the overall sense of place (and is rather similar to Alawar’s House of 1000 Doors series) and encourages a more thorough investigation. Careful observation and memorization leads to more effective puzzle solving, and the position of the objects adds to elements of the story that unfold. People did move through these environments prior to your arrival! The backtracking is also made easier with the inclusion of a travel map that allows you to quickly move back to previous areas to test your new object and see if it will reveal new clues.

The interactions are pretty standard, there are a lot of keys, snipping of wires, cutting overgrown hedges and the like. At times I wondered if there would be any unique interactions and there weren’t too many… what made the game unique as a whole was the superb way everything was incorporated into the design.

The environments of True Fear are rendered with a realistic overtone that is dire and portentous with it’s dull palette and sombre tones. The dilapidated buildings and rusted equipment add to the sense of isolation and abandonment, that mirrors the games themes of a disrupted family. The cut scenes are rendered exceptionally well and jump from establishing shots that hint at the supernatural environment to close ups of Holly in the 3rd person to show her fear and confusion.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1575373459
The music accompanies all of this beautifully, with low tones to increase tension and higher tones to hint at a supernatural presence. Environmental sounds, particularly those of Holly’s interactions thunder through the otherwise silent house and hint at the absence of life, as only the sounds of inanimate objects can be heard.

True Fear: Forsaken Souls Part 1 is an exceptional Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure, whilst it doesn’t quite live up to the horror title, it deftly manages to establish an unsettling atmosphere. The narrative hints at just enough to encourage speculation and keep the player intrigued without descending into a “been there, seen that” before mentality. This is without a doubt one of the best Hidden Object games I have had the enjoyment of playing.

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Sublime mix of a scary mystery story and a hidden object game! The puzzles are logical, make very good use of the rooms, and it makes the game very fluent.

Holly has nightmares about an asylum. When she receives a letter from her twin sister, whom she hasn't seen or spoken to in over ten years. In the letter she is urged to come and find her. During her search, she finds out that her nightmares maybe have a basis in real life. She discovers unknown facts about her family's past, and finds more horrors the deeper she goes!

In principle this plays like a 3D HOG: you interact with a couple of items in a screen, and with the mouse you can select which way Holly moves next. When you've done a couple of screens, you have to go back to a previous one, because you acquired an item that interacts with said room. That develops a familiarity with the rooms, and at some point you recognise which items should go where. Classic HOG, yet especially well done in True Fear! There are two scenes (and one in the bonus chapter) with around twenty rooms.
The game follows a HOG-logic that is a bit fantastical, yet comprehensible. For instance: when you water a dead plant, the plant will be alive and bloom.
The game offers fasttravel via a map. The scenes are cleverly crafted that no room is ever really far away. Furthermore there is hardly any loading time, so going room by room isn't too horrible either.
The game offers two modes for the HOG-puzzles, 'Adventure' and 'HOG'. HOG is a classic HOG puzzle where you have to find a list of items. Adventure is more of a logic puzzle. I tried both modes, because you can switch between them mid-game. There isn't much difference in difficult. I preferred adventure.

Visually the game may look a bit dated, but the rooms are beautiful nonetheless. They did a phenomenal job in making everything look very old and untouched for a very long time. The cutscenes are visually not the best either. Holly looks a bit expressionless (like she had a botox treatment gone wrong). The cutscenes deliver a good addition to the game, especially with some pretty intense jumpscares!

Sounds are great, the music, voices and sound effects.

There were reports of some bugs with achievements in the past, but the achievement of subject did drop for me normally. There was however one achievement that was awarded while I didn't meet the requirements yet.
Some achievements are badly designed. Asking players to complete the game in one session is in my opinion awful. Also, there are achievements of which you don't have any feedback on how your progression is. For example 'find every fact in the game'.
They did change the way the puzzles work at some point, on expert mode you had to complete them in two minutes! TF:FS2 has nearly the exact same achievements, but without the complete in one session. Probably because it is a longer game.

I'm quite surprised by this game frankly! To be honest, I don't have the highest regards for HOG. A while ago I played My Brother Rabbit, and I seriously thought that was the best HOG could get. Clearly I didn't know about True Fear: Forsaken Souls Part 1! What a marvellous game, and what a subtle application of horror! I get triggered easily by jumpscares, and this game got me good a couple of times. The majority of the game you're basically 'safe', so the scares are confined, and I very much like that!
I am very curious about part two, and the future released part three! Although I am not going into the next one right away. By the way, spoiler: this game has a very open end. It's not like there are hints towards the next game, no it's one story that quite abruptly stops. For this game I certainly don't mind.

86/100

Hands down, one of the best hidden objects games. Usually these Horror HOGs tend to go pretty dull and boring at some point throughout the game, leaving you with bad jumpscares, complicated storyline, minigames that don't make sense and no horror. This game though, is actually scary. It has one of the best horror atmospheres, intriguing story and exciting gameplay. The puzzles and HOG scenes are always fun, challenging but nothing that'll get you frustrated or stuck. I can't get over the beautiful art either. Only thing that I find a bit extreme is the achievements, but nothing that is impossible to unlock. Still epic. I definitely recommend to horror lovers.

Recommended? Yes, definite thumbs up from me.

True Fear: Forsaken Souls is part 1 of a (planned) trilogy of HOG-style adventure games. I refer to it as "HOG-style" because the HOG scenes are less hunt and click random items, and more of a chain of cause and effect. You need a piece of tape to fix a wire that gives power to a light that shows a code that you need for a safe etc etc etc - all within the same small scene. The first one of these puzzles took me back a bit, and I was almost disappointed. But, as I progressed, these puzzles felt a bit more logical and natural vs your standard fare.

The rest of the game is pretty standard static-scene adventure gaming. The puzzles were generally logical and the use of the map function made hopping from room to room easy. I did get stuck a couple times, but it was mostly due to my own idiocy in missing something very basic.

The setting is creepy and dark, but not overtly frightening. A run down house (actually, 2) with a cemetary in the basement and an abandoned asylum (bonus chapter) make up the locations. Typically, the scenes/rooms are fairly static, with some mild animations like bugs skittering across the wall, or lights flickering. But interspersed throughout the story are short cinematic scenes (again, fairly typical - though decent quality) that added to the horror element. It is in these that a few jump scares and PG gore would occur. My 10 year old son watched me play and got startled at the jumps, but nothing that gave him nightmares or anything.

All-in-all, if you enjoy the Artifex Mundi games but want something a bit darker and more forboding, this is for you. $15 may be a touch high for the time you'll spend, but the game itself is worth the price. If you find it half-off or better, it's a must-buy IMO.

True Fear has a good horror atmosphere and a surprisingly high difficulty for a hidden object game, but it has issues with click detection, backtracking, and story pacing.

True Fear: Forsaken Souls is not something I would recommend for a newcomer in the hidden object genre, because this game does not like to pull punches.
The story is especially noteworthy for its dark themes that tether on the edge of psychological horror, as we accompany a woman revisiting her childhood home, only to find some disturbing secrets about her family and youth.

The issue with this story is that it is all build-up with no pay-off; the bonus chapter has a thicker plot than the entire main game before it. Everything we do only leads to bits of a terrifying backstory, a cliffhanger ending, and more unanswered questions.

Gameplay is almost unforgiving, especially on expert difficulty. The hidden object scenes are so challenging that the game even offers to switch them off; the point ‘n’ click segments are difficult on their own, but the ridiculous amount of backtracking makes them even worse. Essentially, this game wants to stay above the casual level of most HOGs, and does it maybe a little too well.

This game was originally released in 2014, but it is still one of the best horror games you can play this year. You start off with a dream about a creepy-looking asylum, dead bodies around, and a creepy girl jumping at you. Holly, our heroine, wakes up to someone knocking on the door. It was a stormy night, and she wasn't expecting anyone, but it turned out she received a letter from her sister, whom she hadn't heard from in years.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=883467122

The story has many twists and a few jump scares that will keep you on the edge of your seat. The music and artwork are good, especially in the second act. I liked the new style of the hidden object scenes. If you don't like the puzzle-like ones, there is an option to trigger the old style of the name listing from the options.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=880383151

The bonus chapter adds a really good part of the story, and in the extra menu, you get a glimpse of how they made the game and their previous ideas/removed characters. In Steam's version of this game, we had the luxury of getting a demo of the second part, which will be out on Halloween 2018. (according to their Facebook page)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1209648164

True Fear is one of my favorite games. This is my third playthrough of it, and I'm still enjoying it and have my theories for who this girl is, what this family did to the mother, why they brought them to this house, why this happened after ten years. Where Holly was all of those years and why she didn't contact anyone. And above all, why she can't remember a thing.

Pros:
+Good artwork.
+Very good music.
+Useful journal.
+Fast traveling map. (Not available on the higher difficulty)
+Variety of puzzles.
+Collectibles (With background story about each figurine/character you find)
+Well made hidden objects scenes.
+Steam achievements.

Cons:
-Some of the achievements require you to play nonstop and not skip any cutscene or puzzle or even use hints. This can add pressure to some of the players.

If you have played the game, you'll know what I'm talking about, but really, this game is so much fun and creepy at the same time. I can't wait for everything to be answered in part two. I've been waiting for the release for years, so a couple of months of waiting wouldn't harm. :D I really recommend this for people who like story-heavy mystery games and don't mind a few jump scares.

Million thumbs ups and *kick Laudius family butt until they redeem themselves*

Other Reviews:
True Fear: Forsaken Souls Part 2 Review

𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤𝑠 𝑐𝘩𝑒𝑐𝑘 𝑚𝑦 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑝𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝐹𝑒𝑒𝑛𝑎'𝑠 𝐶𝘩𝑜𝑖𝑐𝑒

This is not a HOG. It's an adventure game with a lot of key fetching, and bad puzzles. Ring fallen into a crack in the stone? Pick it out with your fingers? No. Pry it out with a knife? No. Go up down left right to every room in the house for a special pair of pliers. So many times it would be easily possible to reach my objective with one of the 10 items already in my inventory only to be denied because it had to be some specific arbitrary item. No you can't use the screwdriver you had earlier! You have to use wire cutters for these screws! That just feels like bad game design to me. Music cuts in and out randomly. Mistakes in text were made. When it tells you the "Crow is clearly missing" It means cross. In the upstairs bathroom, when it tells you haven't turned on the water and you have, it's because it wants you to use something on the tub.

This is a casual point-and-click HOPA (Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure) game. It is the first installment in a trilogy. If you like the genre and you like creepy stories, you are pretty much guaranteed to like this game.

For the rest of the world: the thing that makes this game stand out is the story line. It isn't just the story itself, but the way it unfolds. It delivers a spook factor without resorting to gimmicks or gore. There is also a clever humor in the details (for example, at one point there is a book called Emblem Furniture: Where to Buy It, because no one actually owns a drawer that you lock by removing a piece of its carved surface)

The game comes from a very small indipendent developer. The second installment in the trilogy has been delayed, literally, years. But the hype hasn't died down. There is a large devoted following that is willing to do crazy things like repurchase the game on Steam simply to support the small operation (even though the developer warns that there is nothing to warant the re-purchase). That should give you an idea of how special this game is.

If you are looking for a big budget horror game, you'll probably be disappointed. But if you are looking for a well-crafted, casual, spooky experience for a rainy afternoon, look no further.