TRUE FEAR: Forsaken Souls Review for Nintendo Switch

Released by the studio The Digital Lounge on Nintendo Switch, iOS, and PC, True Fear: Forsaken Souls is a duology, soon to be trilogy, of games that are a strange mix of puzzle game and horror. If I could compare it to anything, it would be a similar trilogy known as The Room, which also was quite successful and even spawned a fourth game. The question is, how well does the part one of this trilogy set up the rest of the series while remaining a solid standalone experience?

The game begins with a woman known as Susan, who travels to her sister’s house in order to find her. However, as Susan explores the house, she eventually comes to the horrifying realization that her sister is actually dead, and another person in the house was practicing some sort of satanistic ritual using a pentagram and series of knives. Frightened yet undeterred, Susan travels to the old house she used to live in and explores it, finding that underneath there is an ancient graveyard containing a tape, revealing that Susan actually had a third sister named Dahlia, and to solve the mystery she needs to travel to Dark Falls Asylum, as the tape is shut off by Dahlia after leaving. The bonus chapter takes place in the Dark Falls Atrium and merely focuses on getting into the asylum, where Part 2 picks up on.

While the story itself is a bit minimalistic, the sheer atmosphere and the way the lore is presented make it rather chilling to experience, and kept me engaged the entire time I was playing. The story on its own was already a good incentive to keep going, but it turns out that beneath it lies a pretty solid puzzle game.

In terms of the presentation, it’s fantastic. Right at the start the game gives you an option to set the brightness level, and if you set it just right, the game uses a chilling combination of lighting and shadows to make the places you explore not only creepy, but genuinely terrifying. I almost broke out into a cold sweat numerous times while exploring the second puzzle house, and I can only assume that it gets even more frightening in Part 2. As for the music, it strikes a good balance between being atmospheric and being genuinely creepy, further putting me on edge every time I explored a room.

As for the core gameplay…it’s a point and click puzzle game. You move between rooms and examine different parts of the room for items you can collect and place in different locations to solve puzzles. However, these puzzles, especially late-game, are genuinely devious and challenging. I had to use a walkthrough numerous times, especially considering I played the game on the hardest of three difficulties, which blocks off both hints and presumably the fast travel system. The last one in particular is an issue I have, as blocking off fast travel doesn’t make the game any harder, it just makes it more tedious to travel between rooms by pressing the back button 6 times in a row. I feel if only the hints were shut off in expert mode I’d enjoy playing said difficulty more.

On occasion, you’re also required to enter grayed out segments of the room called HOPs. These put you in one confined area where all the items you need to finish the puzzle are available, and the item you get at the end is the only one you can take out of the HOP, which will help you solve a puzzle elsewhere.

Other than that, there really isn’t much else to the core gameplay. The game clocks in at about 4 hours long if you know what to do, including the bonus chapter, but since the game is at a reduced price and is only part 1 that can be excused. There is also achievements and the ability to replay all the scenarios and puzzles for the fastest time if you’re interested. I personally wasn’t, as I had gotten my fill of this game upon completing the bonus chapter, but I can see why someone would devote time to mastering this game. I definitely enjoyed my time with it, and I am interested to play the other two games if possible.

7/10

Here is the TRUE FEAR: Forsaken Souls Part 1 Nintendo Switch Gameplay Trailer:

TRUE FEAR: Forsaken Souls Part 1 is available worldwide on Nintendo Switch, and already on PlayStation 4 and Android devices through the Google Play Store, & for PC on Steam.