There are more technical traps such as rotating wheels with spikes on them and swinging spiked clubs that you have to time your jumps to avoid. As you travel through the wooded area you need to avoid traps, such as falling boulders, spike pits and collapsing bridges. The gameplay is very simplistic, involving you just running and jumping. There is literally only one instance of a musical score which is a rather sombre string-piece at the game’s title screen – I guess this is trying to set the scene of bleakness ahead of you. Therefore, you would expect some environmental storytelling or the use of music or colour to showcase emotion, as demonstrated incredibly well within the game Gris, however, this is non-existent in Fobia also. You would expect that having the game being called Fobia that the fears she is facing would be linked to popular phobias such as spiders and snakes or being trapped in dark places, however, the only noticeable fear I can conclude from this game is that the girl has a fear of being lost alone in the woods ( Xylophobia).Īgain, like Limbo and Inside, there is no story narration within Fobia.

The premise is that you are a little girl having to face her fears and overcome obstacles in her path. It, therefore, has chase sequences, traps and puzzles but unfortunately, don’t go expecting anything new or ground-breaking for the genre. Developed by Tapteek, a two-person team, Fobia is a 2D puzzle platformer very reminiscent of games like Limbo and Inside. Fobia is a first for me in that writing the review for the game has taken me longer than actually playing the game itself! It’s an incredibly short but not sweet experience.

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