Did you really think it was over? Did you think you could just walk away? True you got out of the house, now all you have to do is get back to your girl. She's waiting in the car, isn't she? Right, sure she is. We know this because girls are always waiting in the car in scary stories.
Fair warning, this is not a G rated game. Don't play this one with your kids. I mean it. Trust me. If you played the first Forgotten Hill then you know what to expect and you won't be disappointed. There are fewer spiders and bugs this time (although all things considered there would almost have to be). There is a good deal more blood. It's what I'd call creepy rather than outright scary, no jump scares or anything like that. They did a good job of the atmosphere.
There are plenty of puzzles to keep you busy while you're enjoying the apparently carnival inspired graphics and music. There's a rather eerie contrast between the bouncy tune and the action of the game. You will want the speakers on for this one since at least one puzzle can't be solved without sound.
So does this installment answer all the questions and leave us with a satisfactory ending?
You'll just have to play it and see for yourself I suppose.
Play FORGOTTEN HILL: PUPPETEER
Think I got the bad ending. I got the exit ticket, which was the last thing in my inventory, and then the Puppeteer got me.
Liked the shoutout to Monty Python - guess those fingers were 'wafer thin'.
Some critique of this game (both positive and negative)
First, the positive: Excellent atmospherics. Creepy shadows for the win. The bell puzzle for Mr. Griswold was an interesting twist on an old idea, as was the '15-style' slider puzzle. Even though I may have gotten the bad ending, I still felt that the story line was very well done.
More neutrally: The 'dog and broom' puzzle requires sound, which may leave some players flummoxed. The solution clue for the grid slider (which I still think is a good puzzle) was very difficult to read on my monitor.
The negatives:
Several puzzles hit me the wrong way. First, the marionette puzzle, which was frustrating in both control and required accuracy. Secondly, the 'moon and eyes' puzzle, which seemed unnecessarily complex, allowing for solutions which appeared valid but would not register.
There were two puzzles, however, that seemed intentionally broken. One was the clock with the symbols, where one of the 'clues' to the solution could only be found by going through the very door that the puzzle opens
and down the locked trap door that you can't unlock without solving other puzzles in that hallway, and into the room with the cabinet.
I admit, I BFed that one, so the frustration didn't hit until I saw where the final clue was actually located.
The other was the drink machine slider puzzle. There is one clue that is given that is crystal clear and accounts for three symbols. There are two other clues for individual symbols (found earlier) that are ambiguous at best. After that, there is still one symbol that is completely unaccounted for. I'm not entirely sure how I got past that one.
All that said, the Forgotten Hill series is shaping up to be on par with Rusty Lake, both in mood and ability to engage. I'm looking forward to find out how our hero continues on from this incident (assuming that there is a good ending!) I'm going to rate it at 3 mushrooms.
The dog puzzle doesn't quite require sound. The dog moves a bit for each bark. But the puzzle's difficulty is probably at least 100 times greater for those with the sound turned off. A more eye-catching movement would have been better.
My main issue was with the overall darkness which made some clues nearly impossible to see. I couldn't adjust the brightness and contrast of my monitor enough to see some of the brown on black clues. I had to put a screenshot into Paint and hugely enlarge small areas to see some of them. (I didn't even know they were there to be seen until I was using a walkthrough video to get unstuck.) I also found it difficult to read the red-on-black writing due to the spidery font.
Aside from that, a great game. I think my favourite part was the marionette puzzle. I had temporarily given up on solving it since as far as I could tell I had it exactly the same as the image.
Later, after I discovered that I could slash various pictures, I saw the true image that I was supposed to copy. Thrill of discovery! (I found it quite easy to copy the correct picture, maybe because of the earlier practice at copying the incorrect picture :-)
Can't get the bug; therefore can't finish. Sad. Love the game butI my hand eye coordination is terrible. That is why I play escapers rather than arcade games. Please developers; if you include this sort of puzzle at least have a give up and continue option so we klutzes can enjoy your game. Or at least a disclaimer at the beginning warning us. Wouldn't hurt to mention it in the review either. End of rant. Carry on.
Bill, if you mean the
"green" beetle on the wall between the doors to the dressing room and stage, you don't actually need to be quick to catch that one.
You can use an item on the wall to catch the bug.
The item you need is in the buffet room.
That pile of dishes on the floor sure is really gross looking.
Take the green glob from the top of the dishes, which becomes "sticky stuff" in your inventory.
Use the sticky stuff on the wall and chase the bug into it, it'll get stuck and you can capture it.
Also, that beetle is in no way green coloured, it's totally yellow, I don't care what the inventory says.
Eh, why not, let's try a walkthrough.
Getting in.
You start the game with a ticket and a silver cross in your inventory. The door to the show requires a 3 symbol code.
Take a closer look at your ticket. Note the 3 symbols in the bottom center.
The code is a moon shape, an hourglass, and three dots.
The lobby.
You're in a room with a closed door, a ticket booth, and a slashed poster. Click on the window of the ticket booth to zoom in, and again to open it. Give your ticket to the creepy puppet guy.
Before we exit the lobby, take a moment to note the symbol below the ticket window: an arrow with a square on it pointing down and to the right.
The hallway, part 1.
Go through the lobby door to enter the hallway. In the first part of the hall there's a door to a bathroom and a vending machine. The top left of the vending machine has a slider/colour puzzle, which we have no clues for yet. There also appears to be a heart in the vending machine, which we lack the money to buy yet.
The bathroom.
The bathroom is pretty standard creepy bathroom: cracked mirror, sink full of blood, and bloody handprints all over the walls. You can open the cabinet under the sink, but there's nothing in there but some questionable plumbing choices.
Clicking on the mirror, however, gets us a shard of glass.
Lobby again.
Go back out to the lobby (click the arrow on the left in the hallway to get there). That poster is already slashed, what's the harm in defacing it a little more?
Use your mirror shard on the poster to reveal a 3x3 grid of skulls and red circles. Note the pattern.
The hallway, part 2
Go back into the hallway and go right, past the part with the vending machine, to a section with a fat puppet sitting in a chair, who will hereby be called Mr Creosote puppet. On the table in front of him is a newspaper clipping, which you can read for some creepy backstory. There's a door to the buffet, and a picture of some bells. Note the sizes of the bells in the picture. Talk to Mr Creosote puppet, and he will tell you he's hungry, and would like you to bring him something to eat.
The buffet
Go in the buffet door. There's a poster with some mandrake-looking plant people, a set of 3 different sized bells on the wall, a table with a serving platter (sadly empty), bird skull, and dirty plates on it, and another pile of dirty dishes on the floor.
3 bells, huh? Where have we seen that recently?
Use the code from the picture in the hallway on the bells.
middle, small, big, small, small, middle.
Entering the code will make the serving dish on the table wiggle.
Open the serving dish and take the eyeball.
What is that green muck on the pile of dirty dishes on the floor? May as well take it, never know when you might need some sticky stuff.
And before we leave, defacing that poster in the lobby was so much fun, let's do it again.
Use the mirror shard on the plant-people poster to reveal 3 skeletons on orange, green, and grey backgrounds.
The hallway, part 3.
Back to the hallway and right again, this time to a view with doors to the theater and the dressing room, as well as a poster on the wall with a puppet on it. Below the poster is a bug.
Click on the bug to get a closer view of it. When you try to click on it, it runs away from you (if you run it off the screen you'll go back to the hall view, just click on the bug again to zoom back in).
If only we had something sticky to catch the darned thing.
Use the sticky stuff from the buffet on the wall while zoomed in, and chase the bug into it; the bug will get stuck, and you can grab it. We have a green beetle now!
Another poster? Well, we've had good luck with defacing them so far...
Use the mirror shard on the puppet poster to reveal another, creepier puppet. Make note of the position of its arms and legs.
The dressing room.
Enter the dressing room. There's a closet with 3 coats, and a 3x3 grid with skulls and blood drops.
The coats are coloured grey, orange, and green; where have we seen colours like that before?
Move the coats around until they're in the order from the poster in the buffet: orange on far left, green in center, grey on far right.
Click the green coat and a photo will fall out. Picking it up, it seems to be the family described in that newspaper clipping back with Mr Creosote puppet.
Now on to the 3x3 grid. Where have we seen something like that before?
Click on the skulls and blood drops until it matches the poster from the lobby: skulls in a T shape, blood on the side.
Personally, I found it easiest to get them all to skulls, then click on the bottom 2 corners
A hidden passage! Wow! In the hidden room is a creepy raven saint painting above a blow of green stuff and a pair of candles. A wrench inexplicably hangs on the wall, and a card in on a table. Take the wrench and card (a joker); as we've sadly lost our mirror shard we can't deface the raven saint painting, so we may as well head out for now.
The theater.
Head back out to the hall and go in the theater. A new creepy puppet (some sort of cat/bear thing?) in a top hat will pop up and want to play cards. Sounds like fun.
When he tells you to choose a card, use your joker from your hand. If you can't cheat an evil cat/bear puppet, who can you cheat? Victory also nets you a coin.
Once the cardsharp puppet leaves, take a look around the theater. There's symbols on the back on the seats, and a stage with the curtain drawn.
Go up to the stage and click to open the curtain. What a surprise, a creepy puppet! By clicking and dragging you can move his limbs around.
While we've seen a lot of creepy puppets, this one should look somewhat familiar. Remember that poster back in the hallway?
Move the puppet's limbs so they match the poster in the hall. It can be somewhat finicky, and resets when you go away, so you may want to take a screenshot of the poster or make a drawing of it or something.
Once the puppet is gone the backdrop lifts, revealing a door to backstage and a large wheel with three arrows. We don't have all the clues for the wheel yet, so let's go backstage.
Backstage.
Backstage is a hall with 3 doors, a picture on the wall, and a locked trapdoor in the floor. The left and middle door are also locked, but the right one opens when you click on it. Take a look at the picture on the wall; make a note of the symbol and colour it's on.
Go in the rightmost door. There's a set of 4 more creepy puppets and 4 picture frames, 3 with photos and 1 empty. The top picture is a hand with 3 fingers up, the middle is a spooky house, and the bottom is an arrow with a triangle on it pointing up.
An empty frame, and we have this nice family photo here. What could possibly go wrong?
Zoom in on the empty frame and put the photo in it. Oh dear, the family is now all evil. However, there's also some symbols in the top left corner now - make a note of them, then zoom back out.
We can click on the puppets, and sometimes this makes the number of fingers in the top picture change. Could there be a pattern?
The number of fingers tells you which puppet to click next.
3, 1, 4, 2, 3, 1
Another bug! Just what we always wanted! Take the azure beetle.
Backstage, part 2.
Return to the backstage hallway. The middle door needs an 8-symbol code, which all seem to be circles of some sort. Where have we seen 8 circle-shaped symbols?
Enter the code from the backs of the seats in the theater.
The middle room contains a shelf with a lighter, a bucket, some graffiti of bells, a broom, and a grate in the wall with glowing eyes in it. Take the lighter and bucket, and make note of the bells. When you click the broom it taps the bookcase, and the creature in the vent barks.
The number of barks tells you the number of taps to make with the broom next. This puzzle is easier with sound on.
2, 3, 2, 1, 3
A yellow beetle this time. Yay.
Backtracking!
Before we tackle that last door, let's use some of these nifty items we've been picking up.
Back into the hallway, through the dressing room and into the secret room. Now that we have a lighter, let's light those candle under creepy raven saint. A heart-shaped key is our reward.
Still saddened over our inability to deface creepy raven saint, we leave the secret room and make our way back to the buffet. Use the code from the center backstage room on the bells.
middle, small, big, small, middle, middle.
Another shake of the serving dish, and this time we get a brain. Yummy.
And now to the bathroom.
Place the bucket in the cabinet under the sink and use the wrench on the pipe to get a bucket of blood. In now blood-free sink is a red beetle for us to take.
Backstage, part 3.
Head back to backstage. The heart-shaped key doesn't seem to unlock the trapdoor; bummer. The left door has a bunch of symbols on it you can slide around, and circle with roman numerals on them from 1 to 8 over some of the spaces. Do any of the symbols look familiar?
They're from the family portrait in the rightmost backstage room. Slide the symbols around until each circle has the correct symbol under it.
Another creepy portrait, frames for 4 bugs, and a desk with a note that says something about things opening when evil can't see.
4 frames for bugs, and 4 bugs in our inventory. Once the bugs are in their proper frames, the painting slides away to reveal some sort of safe. Two buttons move circles with eyes, two move circles with moons to block the eyes. Didn't that note say something about making it so evil can't see?
Rotate the circles until all the eyes are covered with moons.
This can be done by trial and error, but the simplest way is
2nd button 3 times, 3rd button twice, bottom button once.
Once the safe opens you'll get two pieces of paper - one with symbols on colours, and one that looks a little like music notation.
Buffet, yet again.
Return to the buffet. The music note paper gives yet another melody for the bells.
big, middle, big, small, middle, small
This time the shaking serving dish give us fingers.
Hallway.
Back into the hall with Mr. Creosote puppet. Poor guy's been so hungry, but we haven't really found any real food. I guess the random body parts from the buffet will have to do.
Give Mr. Creosote puppet the eyeball, brain, and fingers to eat.
Oops, I guess that was too much food after all. Take the key from Mr. Creosote puppet's exploded stomach.
Backstage, part 4.
We have a key, what still needs unlocking?
Let's try this key in the trapdoor backstage.
Huzzah! It works!
Oh no! Our girlfriend is being turned into a puppet! And her chest has a little door in it! And some sort of tube is going into her arm from a vat on the wall! Also there's an arrow on the wall with a circle on it pointing left.
That little door in her chest is locked, but lucky us, we have the key to her heart.
Use the heart key to open the little door. Alas, her heart is gone!
Fortunately, we have that heart we got from the vending machine for $5. Put it in her chest cavity, and close the door
Hmm, still no response. Maybe the heart needs something to actually move around?
Empty the bucket of blood into the vat on the wall and press the red button.
She's alive! Well, an undead puppet, actually. Drat. She gives you some ominous warnings and a piece of paper with some symbols and colours on it.
Backtracking, part 2.
On our way back out to the hallway stop at the stage. Remember those three arrow with shapes in them?
Arrow with a square from the ticket booth in the lobby, pointing down and right. Arrow with a square from the photo in the right room backstage, pointing up. Arrow with a circle next to our zombie-puppet girlfriend in the trapdoor, pointing left.
Push the buttons until the arrows match their clues. A key falls from a rope on the side of the stage. Take it.
Let's get out of here! Time to head back to the lobby.
Oh dear, there doesn't seem to be an exit, but what's up with the ticket window?
Solve the rotating tile puzzle and get another key.
Getting out.
Well, we can't get out the way we came in, so let's see what else we can do. Our inventory has two pieces of paper with colour/shape clues, and we still haven't solved that puzzle on the vending machine. Let's go try that.
The picture from the backstage hallway tells us to match up the grey tile with the symbol that looks like a little man raising his arms. The pieces of paper in our inventory tell us where to put the other symbols.
You just need to move 1 to yellow, the other are already in place.
Another secret passage! We enter a room with a locked cabinet (with 2 locks) and a door.
2 locks, and we happen to have 2 keys.
Unlock the cabinet and reveal... a creepy puppet. I'm detecting a bit of a theme here. This seems to be the puppet-ified remains of the mom from that happy family we saw in the photo/read about in the newspaper clipping. She want our help.
Not much we can do as far as getting her to her family, but perhaps we can offer some spiritual solace?
Give Mom-puppet the silver cross. She dissolves away, leaving an exit ticket.
Take the ticket and go through the door. This looks sorta familiar. Click on the ticket window a couple times to see our old friend the ticket-taking puppet again. Sorry, mate, I'm afraid your puppet show wasn't to my liking.
Give the puppet the exit ticket, and make your way out the door.
And get captured by the evil puppet master in the closing cutscene. I don't know if there's another better ending, I haven't been able to find anything.
First, can someone answer me why the heck this game isn't appearing under the "New" tab?? I feel like lots of people are missing out on a great game because of it...
Second, this game is a LOT better than the first one was. Puzzles are a little more challenging, and the art of the game isn't as generic. The blood bath feel is a little over the top, though. Tons of blood isn't what makes a game scary, rather the overall mood, suspense, underlying story and the occasional jumpscare (FNAF 1 is a great example of this, hardly any blood was present in the game, graphics weren't high quality, but it presented the creep factor very well). Narrative in the beginning and end was annoying, and takes the player out of the experience quickly. Hearing a voice representation means its no longer us that is trapped in the puppet theatre, rather someone else. There are no scenes or references that pull the player out of first person to suggest 3rd person play. We don't see who the narrative voice belongs to, which contradicts the experience presented.
I give it 3 mushrooms for sake of improvement and having a good base element of creepy, but it's still pretty rough around the edges.
Yes I can answer. The 'New' tab lists only the games we host on our servers. So typically the games which were in the box 'Free Online Games' on the top of the homepage. But we also (and often) review games we do not host so if you want to be sure to not miss any games, best is to look at the homepage.
Oh friggers. All this time I had bookmarked the wrong page! How many other great games have I missed because of it?? Thanks for clarifying!
i kow this is not in reference to the game but recently I was playing a lot of the older jayisgames games such as strawberry café and biancobianco and a lot of these sites are dead. not sure if you guys have time but you might want to check some of these so you can pull them from your site. just a suggestion.
A better suggestion might be to post those failed links on the game comments where they're happening.
That way people will know which ones aren't working and you just never know. Someone with a little time on her hands (and a mild OCD issue) might take it into her head to go out and look for new ones. :)
very nice and interesting game! loved the theme and the puzzle, although some puzzles were boring and took really longer than they are supposed to, but all in all i enjoyed it.. (I used walkthrough video to help solving some puzzles that needs a specific strategy :p)
Could somebody post "Forgotten Hill : Surgery" walkthrough, there are lots of video walkthroughs of it around but non in text explaining them and making sense to things rather than just doing things. Maybe Jayisgames is up for some reviewing too. ;)
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