Game EXP: Forgotten Possessions (MQ2)

[Disclaimer:  I received a review key for Forgotten Possessions through Keymailer, a third-party company that connects publishers and developers with content creators.  The game key was given without promise or expectation of a positive review, only that it be played, and content be created.  Unless otherwise noted, all content in the following article is from my own playthrough of this game.]

Forgotten Possessions

Systems: Meta Quest 2/3

Release Date: February 26, 2026

Publisher: Glock Software

Developer: Glock Software

Time Spent: 36 Minutes

Playthrough Videos on YouTube

I hadn't thought I was going to be writing a Game EXP article after playing for only 36 minutes, although it turns out that's all the time you need to beat Forgotten Possessions.

The description of the game prides itself on there being no handholding, that you figure out what you're supposed to do as you play, so I was initially a bit confused at the beginning of my first attempt when a hulking creature came out from the front door and began chasing me before I could do anything.  How was I supposed to play the game if it came at me shortly after starting the game?  Was this going to be like a more intense and frustrating Remothered: Tormented Fathers?  How was the player supposed to take in the setting if the game started with a terrifying chase right off the bat?  Where's the player to go from there?  Thankfully, the creature that stalks you throughout the house and the grounds of the graveyard is a lot more forgiving, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

By my third run, I finally gathered the overall objective and primary mechanics in Forgotten Possessions.  You play as a person (whose identity is at the moment unclear), and you enter the grounds of a graveyard keeper.  Nailed to the front door are three items you need to collect that are randomly generated in the house.  When you pick up an item, you can either carry it in your hand or attach it to your Batman-style utility belt.  The game tells you that the more you're carrying, the louder you are when you move/run.  Stalking the grounds and house is a hulking creature that will one-shot kill you if it catches you.  In more than one instance, I was able to run past/around the creature while being in very close quarters, so the creature has to actually strike you and not just come in contact with you.  After you collect an item, or after you collect all three, you place them in a coffin.  After all three items are in the coffin, you have to escape out the front door of the house, after which you are then transported back to the starting cabin.

That's pretty much the gameplay loop.  Avoid the creature, find the objects, place the objects in the coffin, and escape.

There are several in-game mechanics that sound great on paper, but their execution fell a little flat.  The inside of the house is made up of several rooms and a long hallway.  Some of the rooms are interconnected, while others are single rooms.  There is an outdoor area that's accessible through two exits to the house.  When you're inside the house, sometimes a ceiling beam will fall, creating both a jump scare for the player and also alerting the creature to where your general location is in the house.  In a traditional survival horror game, randomized falling objects would be terrifying, but I've found the beams fall when I'm sprinting, and that's when I'm running away from the creature, so my mind is elsewhere.  It probably also doesn't help that the beams don't physically affect the environment, as you can still pass through them, so it's not like it can block one of your avenues for escape.

The falling beams do create sound, though, which does attract the creature to your location, although I don't know if the creature has a limited listening range.  The sound design also doesn't feel as effective as it feels it should be.  In each of my runs, I'd listen pretty intently for the footfalls of the creatures, looking through windows and around corners to know where they were before moving into the next room.    I can hear the footsteps and the general direction they're coming from, but not the distance, eg, louder = closer.  I also can't tell how much noisier I am when I'm sprinting, carrying three objects in the utility belt versus one.  

The last thing I want to bring up is the doors.  I'm not a big fan of how the doors here operate, as I could never get them to open correctly.  I would grab the knob and pull (or push), but regardless of how much I pulled my hand in (or pushed out), the door would always seem to open only halfway.  During my first few runs, I had tried to open the door just to walk through, but that ended up being too cumbersome, especially when being chased by the creature.  Thankfully, I discovered that the doors can move both ways, and that as long as I grabbed the doorknob in the right place and just kept sprinting through, the door would open.  I noticed that sometimes the doors would remain open, and I don't know if that was a result of sprinting through them, but it didn't feel like it was supposed to happen, and at the same time, I couldn't plan for it or really exploit it.

After the last run, the game mentioned starting over with the promise of new item locations and events, but it turned out that it was the same gravekeeper's house and the same selection of items to collect the first time around.  That's when I decided to stop playing.

In the end, Forgotten Possessions was more than just 'alright.'  I liked scouring rooms with the flashlight while being a bit on edge, waiting for the music to become intense, telling me that I needed to run.  I liked the simplicity of the UI as it all felt very intuitive.  I liked the general layout of the house, but by the end of the second run, it began to feel rather small and cramped.  That there were only so many places items could be stashed and where the creature would be at any given moment, meant that there were fewer surprises, fewer places to explore.  For a solo indie developer, I hope that they're able to see some success with Forgotten Possessions to see what they can do with a larger area to explore and possibly more creatures to avoid.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Strange Eyes are Gazing