Up until now, Artifex Mundi has had the monopoly on the Hidden Object Game (HoG) genre on modern consoles, this is a genre I and my parents love to play as the games are fun, casual, accessible for everyone and above all, interesting with their various art styles and stories. However, in comes Goblinz with True Fear: Forsaken Souls ~ Part 1, out now on the PS4 – a developer and game I hadn’t heard of before but since playing the game, I am following very closely.
Whereas Artifex Mundi likes to be fantastical with their games and send you off to enchanted lands filled with magic and talking animals, Gobliz has created a much darker, realistic game in which it aims to try and scare and disturb you. The question is, can this game stand out and appeal to existing fans of the genre and those looking for something casual to play?
Just so you are aware, this is part one of the trilogy, a trilogy that still isn’t complete even though the first game came out on PC back in October 2016. The latest update from the developer on Facebook goes into the reason behind why part two has been delayed and won’t come out for a few more months (it’s out now). The gist of it is that over the last six years (the developer wrote the story six years ago) factors have come into play and the story has been changed and things altered. The developer wasn’t happy with the final product, so they went back to it and they are working on making it more like the original vision. It also appears the game has come to the PS4 in order to help them financially – so I advise all those who like the look of the game to go grab it and help the developer out.

The game moves from the fantastical nature of Artifex Mundi and more towards a dark, gritty thriller style.
True Fear: Forsaken Souls ~ Part 1 (which I’ll refer to as True Fear from now on), isn’t a typical horror game. The game is more akin to a psychological thriller puzzle game with Hidden Object segments and a rather big bonus section (which I’ll get into later). The story revolves around our protagonist, Holly, as you receive a letter from your sister whom you haven’t heard from in over ten years. She desperately advises you that she needs help and requires your presence in her house as soon as possible. From the moment you arrive at the address you know something isn’t right, the house looks abandoned and it seems as if nothing has been touched in years.
You find the key and head inside, beginning to explore the building for your sister – she must surely be there as she sent you a letter telling you to come! As you search through the rooms and find seemingly random objects which help you progress in other rooms, you begin to see things, a young girl maybe? Clearly, you believe you are going nuts as you don’t believe in ghosts – there has to be someone here as ghosts don’t have the ability to send letters, do they?
The problem is, the more you look around the house, the more things you uncover about what’s gone on there. The question is, do you carry on uncovering the truth or do you leave and pretend you were never there? That’s up to you… Obviously, I’m not going to spoil the story, but you have a solid 5-7 hours of gameplay here if you’re a once and done type of person; however, if you are looking to get the platinum or most of the trophies then you’re here for a lot longer!

These are all the investigation rooms within one of the main locations – there’s quite a lot to do and see.
Before I get into the nitty-gritty of the game itself, there is something a game like this needs and something they should all have – perfect controls. I’m sad to say that this is the one place that True Fear: Forsaken Souls ~ Part 1 fails in my eyes and the Artifex Mundi titles still reign supreme. The movement has some form of acceleration, so the longer you’re holding the left stick in a direction, the faster it gets – which is beyond annoying if I’m being honest. I actually chose to play the game using the touchpad (like a mouse) as it was fast but super responsive and it allowed you to select things with a high level of precision.
Since the latest update, it appears they have slowed down movement on the touchpad – I have looked at the menus and there is no option to disable acceleration or to pick a movement speed. If the developer reads this, please give us a steady speed and the option to adjust the speed manually in the options in Part Two, having solid controls is probably the most important thing in these games.
That being said, the game is fully playable and my parents enjoyed playing the whole thing from beginning to end with the controller with no issues, It’s just as someone who is used to the controls in other games of the same genre, True Fear is clearly behind in that aspect – but only in that aspect…

The puzzles range from easy to tricky with the option to get a hint or skip if you are stuck. This one has you matching the design in the book (once you find it)
If you’re not familiar with Hidden Object games, maybe take a look at my two Artifex Mundi reviews (Eventide 2 and Abyss). Basically, you have three stages to the game – exploration, puzzles and hidden objects.
Within the exploration stage, you are looking around the house which is represented as great-looking still images of each room. You will also trigger a few cutscenes which can be both animated or a simple 2D image moving about (it’s better than I make it sound!). During this mode, your goal is to traverse around, look out for hidden diary pages (which explain the secrets behind the house and what’s been going on), interact with ‘hot spots’ for the other two sections below, seek out items to help you move on, and also use the found items to unlock new pathways.
The Puzzle stages are basically what you think they are, puzzles. True Fear: Forsaken Souls ~ Part 1 has a great selection of puzzles within the game, ranging from colour by numbers to building a railway track for a toy train. I thought these puzzles were all really well done with only one of them messing up on me (the painting one) but this has been fixed within a patch recently. There is also a lot of puzzles – if I’m being honest, a game like this would give you about 5-10 puzzles yet True Fear has 23 puzzles on top of the hidden object segments! That’s a lot of things to keep your brain active!
Finally, the hidden object stages are exactly what they say on the tin, a ‘hide and seek’ with various objects. If you’ve not played this type of game before – hidden object stages are scenes with a list of items somewhere on the screen and it’s up to you to find all of these items within a set time and without making a lot of mistakes. This mode is activated as the default way to play these segments, but if you don’t like them then you have an alternative option.
If you want something different, you can disable the hidden-object puzzles and change them into a different kind of puzzle. Instead of finding items, you will be in the same view with the same items on the screen, but it will be your task to find an item to perform an action to obtain an item for another task. It’s hard to explain, but one puzzle has you pull off a metal bar from a kiosk so you can use it to grab some keys, then you move a coat to find a locked box and you use those keys to unlock it, finding another object to use elsewhere in the same scene…
There is a lot of content in this game and some quite tricky trophies surrounding them – this isn’t your basic 3-4 hours HoG game with an easy platinum trophy – True Fear makes you work for your trophies!

There are a few typos (look instead of lock), but the art style is creepy and disgusting – It’s so cool!
Similarly to most of the Artifex Mundi titles, True Fear: Forsaken Souls ~ Part 1 also comes with a bonus story added on at the end – I won’t mention anything to do with that story, as it follows on from the main game and would be a little spoiler. It does add around 2 hours to the gameplay though, so that’s pretty good, and the story was equally as thrilling and creepy as the main game was. I seriously can’t wait for the next instalment! I really hope it comes to PS4 at the same time as it hits the PC this year as otherwise, I may have to grab it on PC first then PS4 later!
Another cool feature of the game lies within its ‘extras’ menu. Once you have completed the game and you take a look at the extras menu, you have access to some Wallpapers (which are a bit redundant on a console I guess), the trophies, what collectables you found, the cutscenes, and you can play all of the music. However, on top of this, you also have deleted scenes, the making of sketches (which shows the concept to final product), a trailer for True Fear: Part 2, and you can also view and replay all of the puzzles and Hidden Object/Alternative mode games in one place! This is awesome for this type of game as I’ve never seen so many options and bonus features for you to look at and interact with.
Another added bonus – there is a demo on PSN for free, which you can download if you wish to try out the game before buying it. It can be obtained by clicking here.
Official Trailer:
Final Conclusion:
True Fear: Forsaken Souls ~ Part 1 is an amazing breath of fresh air in the Hidden Object Game genre, and I would personally rank it up there as one of my favourite titles within it in the last 12 months. From the creepy realistic atmosphere to the confusing, yet solvable, puzzles, True Fear had me hooked from beginning to end and even had me turning on the lights at one point… Graphically, the game looks great and you can tell a lot of love and care went into creating a game based on a specific vision – we are all just hoping now that parts two and three follow suit and can equally match or surpass this level of quality.
If you like hidden object games then this is a clear no-brainer, especially at the low price. Grab the demo above if you’re still unsure, but I’m positive you’ll love it as much as I did if casual puzzle games are your thing.
True Fear: Forsaken Souls - Part 1
£7.99The Good:
- Very atmospheric with it's visuals and audio
- Really interesting story and setting
- Loads of puzzles to complete and secrets to uncover
- Great price for the amount of content in the main game, the bonus episode, and the bonus features
The Bad:
- The controls feel a bit stiff due to the acceleration in motion
- We aren't sure on when part two and three will be out (but part one is self-contained)
- Even with the new '2 minute' timer on completing minigames for a trophy - it's pretty hard!