Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride

Developer: Artifex Mundi | Publisher: Artifex Mundi | Release Date: 2014 | Genre: Casual / Hidden Object | Website: Official Website | Purchase: Steam

Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride opens with our unnamed protagonist returning to the town of Ravenbrook to attend the wedding of her twin sister. Just outside town her carriage is almost knocked down a gorge by a rampaging bear. Her bear related woes doesn’t end there though, as during the wedding the same bear shows up and makes off with her sister. Joining forces with her sisters’ fiancée our heroine sets off to rescue her sister, but soon discovers that much more sinister forces are at play.

Most hidden object games feature fairly straightforward tales, so we were quite impressed by the multi-layered storyline of The Forsaken Bride. Featuring accidental curses, evil spirits, and plenty of twists and turns it makes for an engaging experience. Your quest will take you from the town to all kinds of locations like shrines, swamps, meadows, and even abandoned castles and dungeons. Each scene features beautiful visuals and are packed with detail which makes them a pleasure to explore. In addition to the detailed artwork the scenes also make great use of colors.

The Forsaken Bride is a typical hidden object game, so your time will be split between collecting items to use for solving puzzles and playing mini-games to further your progress. Joining you on your adventure is a very cute kitten and you can even use this furry critter to assist you with certain puzzles. The game features multiple difficulty settings and has the usual hint/skip button, so players of all skill levels can enjoy the experience. All the hidden object scenes make sense and features items that are relevant to the location instead of just a mish-mash of junk. However, players can also opt to play a domino mini-game instead of these scenes if they prefer something a little different. Overall, none of the puzzles were too challenging, but we did find them to be interesting and varied.

Players interested in learning more about the backstory of the game should keep an eye open for the “elusive” objects that are hidden in each of the locations. It takes a keen eye to find all of them, but it is worth the effort. For an extra challenge there are also 30 Spirits of the Forest hidden away in scenes throughout the game, just waiting to be found. Getting around is very easy thanks to the interactive map, but we found ourselves using it a lot less than in other hidden object games. This is because the game features surprisingly little backtracking, which is quite refreshing.

As far as the audio is concerned, there is very little to fault about The Forsaken Bride. Compared to some of the terrible voice acting sometimes found in the genre, the actors in this game actually do a pretty decent job. Here and there you’ll find a couple of very wooden sounding lines, but overall we’ve heard a lot worse. The music is nice and eerie when it needs to be and relatively tranquil the rest of the time. The game also features some nice sound effects and plenty of ambient noises.

Artifex Mundi has a well-deserved reputation for delivering polished and entertaining hidden object games with The Forsaken Bride being no exception. As usual for the Steam version of their games this is a “Premium” adventure, so it comes with an additional chapter that takes place after the events of the main game, as well as other extras like wallpapers.

Anyone looking for a nice relaxing hidden object game with an interesting story and beautiful hand-painted locations should add The Forsaken Bride to their collection. It is not only a good showcase of the genre, but a great game in its own right.