True Fear: Forsaken Souls – Part 2

Genre: Graphic Adventure / Horror

Players: 1

.

Review:

True Fear is a Graphic Adventure and Horror series about a woman searching for answers about her missing sister. The franchise was planned as a trilogy, with this second installment kicking off by recapping the events of the first game (so you should play them in order if you don’t want spoilers), before picking up where that game left off, having protagonist Holly Stonehouse arriving at the now-abandoned insane asylum she had seen in her nightmares, searching for answers about her long-lost sister.

Given that this asylum was teased throughout the first game, it’s gratifying to finally be able to visit it yourself, putting this game a leg up over its predecessor. Another plus is that this game is roughly twice as long. Then there’s the presentation, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

This game was first released on PC in 2018, coming to PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in 2019, with a port to Xbox One in 2022. I should note that even though the final installment of the trilogy hasn’t been released yet, the developer still claimed to be hard at work on it in an update in 2024, so there’s still hope.

In any case, this game makes use of the same style of 2D visuals as the first game, with similar cutscenes. However, the visuals have definitely improved, with both 3D elements and pre-rendered animated elements being present in the gameplay this time. It’s not much, but it definitely shows improvement over the prior game. And these visuals are once again backed by sound design that… well, I suppose it works well enough for a Horror game.

Yeah, once again, True Fear is a bit predictable with its scares. It has occasional jump scares, and you can generally see these coming a mile away. And the formulaic sound design trying to emphasize these is so lacking in subtlety, these moments are often more adorable than scary. It’s a shame too, because beyond these moments, the game itself generally does a good job of being creepy enough to be unsettling, so by comparison these moments bring the game down a notch.

The controls here are straightforward, and not great but not bad – you’re moving a cursor around the screen, with a few common commands tied to button presses. Or, if you prefer, you can play the game in handheld mode and use the touchscreen instead, which will probably provide a more natural experience.

As a Graphic Adventure, True Fear is a fairly typical exercise in picking up various objects and finding the right place to use them, with occasional puzzles to solve as well. While this is nothing special, the game does have a few mechanics that are laudable for the genre. There’s a customizable hint system here that can either help point out hot spots and even what you need to do next… or it can not, or it can have a timer to show you the way only every once in a while, if you’re struggling. The game also doesn’t make you navigate through its labyrinthine map, letting you fast-travel to any location you’ve visited before. These mechanics make it easier for novice players to enjoy the game, while still giving more skilled Graphic Adventure players an option to tackle the game without help.

Overall, I think that Part 2 of True Fear: Forsaken Souls is a better game than its predecessor. It once again has an excellent hint system and Quality-of-Life features put it ahead of many other games of this sort, but this time the story seems to be answering questions asked in the prior game, the presentation is improved, and the overall game is twice as long. I still recommend playing these games in order, but those who played the original will almost certainly find this to be a step above the previous game. Now here’s hoping that we don’t have to wait too much longer for the third game in the trilogy.

tl;dr – True Fear: Forsaken Souls – Part 2 follows the story of a woman investigating an abandoned insane asylum searching for information about her long-lost sister. The jump scares are too predictable, but this is otherwise an improvement over the first game – it’s not only a solid Graphic Adventure and Horror game with an interesting story and some well-crafted mechanics, but it’s longer, with better visuals, and is finally getting to stuff it only teased in the first game. You’ll still want to play these games in order, but this game is sure to please fans of the prior game.

Grade: B

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