Lost Souls: Timeless Fables HD Collector's Edition takes the player on a journey through various locales as Bella searches for her brother, Stan, who went missing following their last adventure. She will have to travel through five different classic stories in order to retrieve the pieces of a shattered relic that can release Stan, so you'll get to see locations from Call of Cthulhu, Robinson Crusoe, The Three Musketeers, Jack the Ripper and finally, Titanic. You'll spend time in an old village, a somewhat deserted island and pirate fortress, locations in France and then England, and lastly, some time on a pretty famous but tragically sinking ocean liner. All of the locations are beautifully drawn and intricate, with animated backgrounds and tons of character and ambiance.

Background music does its job and stays in the background, but always fits the area you are in and is pleasant. The voicework is a tad bit overdone, but it doesn't take away from the game in the slightest bit (although Cthulhu is mispronounced). Overall, it's a great looking and sounding game, but Lost Souls: Timeless Fables HD Collector's Edition is not just another pretty face.

Playing through Lost Souls: Timeless Fables HD Collector's Edition has honestly been the most fun that I've had with a Hidden Object Adventure in a long, long time. Every puzzle was engaging, interesting and most importantly, fun! Sometimes in Hidden Object Adventures, I'll encounter puzzles that are simply a drudge, but that was never the case here. There were one or two puzzles that I will admit to skipping simply because while I knew how to solve them, I knew it would take a while and I wanted to get through the game quickly for the sake of the review. Despite this, I found all of them to be clever and fun.

For starters, when you are presented with a book to delve into, you must swipe your finger across it to clean it, then you can dive in and get started. Puzzles include rearranging pictures, matching games, spot-swapping games, slide puzzles, a "Simon" variant, puzzles where you can't intersect one line with another, and even a paint-by-number mini-game/puzzle. You'll need to pay attention to your environment because there are plenty of things you'll need to pick up to make progress in the game.

There are also ample Hidden Object Scenes and these are always indicated by sparkles (if you are playing on Easy Mode, anyway). They can list pictures of the items you seek or list them as words, and some can be hidden from view, requiring you to locate them (these appear in a different color in the list). You might need to move a curtain or a hat, or open a drawer to find an item. When you complete the list, you are always presented with one last item to find and this item will help you on your way.

I really loved how the puzzles and environments just made sense with the stories you were working through. In Call of Cthulhu, you had to rescue the professor's important papers and travel through a portal. In Robinson Crusoe, you had to release Friday from the pirate's capture and help Crusoe make his way off the island. In The Three Musketeers, you had to help the Queen of France save face by retrieving a set of royal baubles she had given to her lover, ahem, I mean friend... before she was expected to wear them to a ball. In Jack the Ripper, you actually work with the police and a local reporter to solve the case. Finally, in Titanic, Jack was accused of stealing the diamond and was being held in the ship's hold, while his accuser was running around with a gun, even as the ship was sinking. You must help exonerate Jack and get Jack and Rose on a rescue boat before it's too late. And it's all incredibly fun.

Lost Souls: Timeless Fables HD Collector's Edition has two difficulty modes: Easy Mode and Expert Mode. In Easy Mode, which is the mode in which I played the game, your Hint and Skip buttons will charge more rapidly and all Active Zones (such as Hidden Object Scenes) will be indicated by sparkles, in addition to a little sparkle or star that will flash if there is something to be done or something to be picked up (hence, the Active Zones). In Expert Mode, the Hint and Skip buttons naturally take longer to charge, and you'll be on your own in finding any Active Zones, since they won't sparkle.

That being said, the puzzles won't change depending on your difficulty mode selection and I thought the difficulty levels of the puzzles was spot-on. I never felt frustrated or confused by any of them and actually really enjoyed playing them all, which is a rarity. Overall, I felt like the difficulty level of Lost Souls: Timeless Fables HD Collector's Edition was just about perfect.

Lost Souls: Timeless Fables HD Collector's Edition uses the standard tap mechanic for picking up items or selecting them in Hidden Object Scenes, but you'll also use your finger to swipe across books to dust them off and to slide items around during puzzles. It's pretty basic stuff, but a little bit more involved than a lot of other Hidden Object Adventures out there.

I pretty much loved everything about Lost Souls: Timeless Fables HD Collector's Edition, but I didn't give it a perfect score because there were a few slight issues during my gameplay experience. For one, sometimes it took a few taps to pick up an item or to get the game to recognize that I was trying to select something. This occurred both in the environment and also during puzzles. It wasn't a game killer, for sure, but did introduce a little bit of frustration, especially since there were times I was certain an item needed to be picked up but my tap didn't register, so didn't go back to it, but instead resorted to using the Hint button, only to discover it was what I had initially tapped all along.

Overall, Lost Souls: Timeless Fables HD Collector's Edition is a near perfect Hidden Object Adventure that uses classic tales to weave an exciting adventure that any fan of the genre can enjoy. A little better testing and quality control on Fenomen Games' next title could garner them a perfect score if it is anywhere near as fun as Lost Souls: Timeless Fables HD Collector's Edition. Highly recommended.