Haunted Halls 2: Fears From Childhood

Haunted Halls: Fears From Childhood
by: ERS

Series links:  Haunted Halls 1: Green Hills Sanitarium. Haunted Halls 2: Fears From Childhood, Haunted Halls 3: Revenge of Doctor Blackmore, Haunted Halls 4: Nightmare Dwellers

Available at:
Big Fish for PC: Collector's Edition / Standard Edition
Big Fish for Mac as Collector's Edition / Standard Edition
iWin Standard Edition



Explore the evil Dr. Blackmore’s latest experiment in Haunted Halls: Fears from Childhood, a terrifying Hidden Object Puzzle  Adventure game! After dragging Tim through a mysterious portal, Dr. Blackmore reveals his newest atrocity: a world that makes the fears of children a reality. Help the hapless victims confront their fears and return home. Track Dr. Blackmore to his lair and save the day in Haunted  Halls: Fears from Childhood!

The Collector’s Edition includes:

• Bonus gameplay
  
• Stunning screensavers
  
• Wonderful Wallpapers
  
• Concept Art
  

For the Standard Edition:

• Strategy Guide
  
• Blog Walkthrough (Big Fish)
  

Click images to enlarge
     

Haunted Halls 2: Fears from Childhood SE (IHOG)

There are separate sliders for music and sound, plus options for full screen and custom cursor.  There are two difficulty modes to choose from.  I chose the easier mode since I've been having trouble concentrating   Still, I wasn't overwhelmed with sparklies, so that was nice.

The beginning of the game felt very familiar, and it should -- it takes up right where the bonus chapter from the first game, Green Hills Sanitarium, left off.  (At least I think it was from the bonus chapter... I don't remember seeing a portal during the regular gameplay, but I do remember one at the end of the bonus!)  The difference in ambiance quickly becomes apparent as you progress through the game.  This one's a bit brighter, not as creepy, and feels a bit more... how to put it... compartmentalized?  It follows the same kind of gameplay formula as the first one:  Helping people to overcome their various fears to progress in the game.  I think what's different is that in #1 we had to work on multiple victims at a time, as we found ways to help them.  Not so here.  We enter the doorway to their fears, and everything for that one child is contained in that new "world" so to speak.  The exception is that we do find some of what we need in the introduction area, which spans 4 locations (5 if you include the room of doors.)  We have one other section to explore once we've finished with the children, too.

We have five children to help, with the following themes (skip this part if you don't to know):

• Forest
  
• Toy store
  
• Monsters
  
• Graveyard
  
• Museum
  

The journal is my least favorite kind -- the kind full spoilers.  If you need the help, it's handy, but unless you want unsolicited hints, I don't recommend reading it.  There's no extra story in there, anyway.  You do have a second tab, though.  Whereas in the first game you had "patient charts," this time you have "fairy tales."  Nothing really exciting to see, but they're there if you want to read them

The hint is refillable, and if you use it during the adventure portion of the game, it will either point out something you've missed, or tell you that there's nothing to do there at the moment.  There is no map, but there's no reason to really have one with everything contained so neatly.  You CAN revisit any part of the game that you've been to before, which I appreciate, but no real reason to do so.

The hidden object scenes are lightly interactive, and you will play each scene twice.  A kudos for the devs here, in that found items stay FOUND, and any action you've done on a scene previously will STAY done when you revisit it.  For instance, if you cut a piece out of something on your last visit, you'll see that it's still got a piece missing when you come back.  There is a rapid-misclick penalty, but you have to click pretty quickly for it to come up.

The music and sounds are OK, and I dislike most of the voice overs *wince*  Ah well, that's why the sound is turned down on this one

This is a good game, don't get me wrong, just a bit less challenging that I normally like.  I enjoyed many of the tasks that we had to do, and learned some new things along the way.  Overall, a nice distraction for a few hours.

I would like to know what happened in the bonus chapter, though, if anyone knows!

Dr Blackmore’s Bringing Nightmares To Life!

   

BASED ON COMPLETED GAME

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
An impressively scary introduction shows a small girl awake in the night, with terrifying transformations all around her, including a really evil looking teddy bear. We feel a sense of urgency, as well as general creepiness and vulnerability, and are reminded that Dr Blackmore, with his disgusting tentacles, is still out there...

SIGHTS & SOUNDS
The technical quality of the graphics of this one are less impressive than in the first game of this series, even though they are far more interesting and creative, with surreal touches that evoke an instant emotional reaction. Again, there is voiceover only for the narrator of the introduction, but he is well done. The environmental sounds vary from mild to almost unendurable, but all are appropriate to the location.

WHAT’S HAPPENING
This story picks up from where we left off in the first of the series (Green Hills Sanatarium). The mad and evil Dr Blackmore has escaped us and taken that boyfriend of ours with him into some sort of portal, so now we must confront the doc of his own turf. This turns out to be a weird fragmented corridor in what appears to be space. We soon discover that the doctor has kidnapped 5 children and is feeding off their fears, and we must save each of them from their worst fears turned real, before seeking out Tim (the fool who got himself kidnapped, twice).

MAKING PROGRESS
The game is primarily about HO scenes, there are a lot of them and they are all visited twice. There is a little animation and some interaction in them, which is a nice improvement. Puzzles are a bit harder than in the first game, and I found I had to skip a number of them, although there’s nothing we haven’t seen elsewhere. The nature of this story is purely imaginary, so that has allowed for some interesting twists in the adventure. I really enjoyed this aspect of this game.

Figuring out how to defeat some really scary monsters and rescue the children is really quite challenging at times. Certainly, lateral thinking is required. The action is broken up into self-contained chapters, so a map is not at all necessary useful, but we do have our electronic notebook with us, which keeps track of the story, and gives background on the childhood fears.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS
This game’s appeal is its very simplicity, at a time when games are getting relentlessly more complex. The focus is on playing the HO scenes and finding ways around the obstacles/monsters. And that’s why I like it. I also think the story is more involving – who doesn’t remember being afraid of something in the dark when they were kids?

If you like HO games, and/or fancy a light-weight adventure, then you’ll enjoy this game.

I Recommend This Game!