Forgotten Hill First Steps

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Mr. Larson's first night in Forgotten Hill, from the woods to the surgery clinic.

Platforms: PC, Mac, iPhone, Android
Stores: Steam, itch.io
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (94% of 177 reviews); 4.6 out of 5 on Google Play (203 reviews); 3.9 out of 5 on the App Store (22 ratings)
Players: 1
Controls: Mouse: point and click
Made by: FM Studio
Released: 2021

Get it on Steam itch.io (Windows, macOS)App Store (iPhone, iPad)Google Play Forgotten Hill (maker's site)

What frightens Mr. Larson arrives in the dreadful town of Forgotten Hill on a cold November evening and finds a body hanging in the woods, a Puppet Theater with a leering marionette and a ticket man behind glass, and the Surgery Clinic of Colonel McMillan, with a patient strapped to a bed, a severed arm on a drip stand and bloody handprints on the walls; the store warns of fantasy violence and blood.
Content: blood, violence.

Forgotten Hill First Steps is a first-person point-and-click horror puzzle game by FM Studio that remakes the first three Forgotten Hill games, Fall, Puppeteer and Surgery, and joins them with new content into one story. You follow Mr. Larson from his arrival in the town through a Puppet Theater to his escape from a grisly surgery clinic.

About Forgotten Hill First Steps

Forgotten Hill First Steps is a horror puzzle game by FM Studio, released on Steam for Windows and Mac in June 2021 and also sold on itch.io, the App Store and Google Play. It brings together the first three games of the Forgotten Hill series: Forgotten Hill Fall, remade with redesigned graphics, Forgotten Hill Puppeteer, where the Gambler first appears, and Forgotten Hill Surgery. New scenes join them into one long story, which the store calls the prequel to Forgotten Hill Disillusion.

You follow Mr. Larson's first steps in the dreadful town, starting on a cold November evening, through the horrors of the Puppet Theater, to his escape from the Surgery Clinic of Colonel McMillan. It plays in first person: you click from view to view, pick up and combine items, read notes and solve puzzles and riddles. A hint system gives help with one click and can also let you skip a puzzle.

The drawn scenes move from a locked garden gate and a body hanging from a tree in the misty woods, to a striped theatre with a grinning marionette on its stage, to a clinic of blood bags, a severed arm hung on a drip stand, a grinning orderly and bloody handprints on the walls. The store warns of a horror atmosphere with moderate fantasy violence and blood. One player found it creepy and surreal more than scary.

Players recommend it to puzzle lovers and Rusty Lake fans, though some puzzles are cryptic and one marble puzzle took a reviewer over an hour. It is the place to start the Forgotten Hill story.

How to play Forgotten Hill First Steps

Buy it on Steam or itch.io for Windows or Mac, or on the App Store or Google Play.
Click around each scene in first person to look closer and move from view to view.
Pick up items, combine them in your inventory and use them on the world.
Solve the puzzles and riddles to move from the town to the Puppet Theater and the clinic.
Use the hint button if you are stuck; it can also skip a puzzle.

Screenshots

A checkered clinic room: a patient lies in a bloody bed beside a drip stand hung with blood bags and a severed arm

A body hangs from a tree in the misty woods at night

A grinning marionette with claws dances on the stage of the Puppet Theater

A grinning bald man sits behind a desk with bells, under bloody handprints on a clinic wall

A brick path leads to a locked wooden gate between twisted trees at night

Tips

Read every note; codes and clues are often written in them.
If a puzzle needs quick hands, like the marble puzzle players mention, take it slowly and retry rather than skipping straight away.
Use the hint system before frustration sets in; one click gives help, and it can skip a puzzle outright.
Play it before Forgotten Hill Disillusion, whose story it leads into.