Fear & Hunger, The Disturbing Horror Game That Pulls No Punches

You wake up to the smell of rotting flesh. You’re lying amongst hundreds of corpses with only a torch in your right hand for light. Except that is the only appendage you have left, as the rest of your body was destroyed when you clashed with that ogre. You’re barely holding it together as you dig out of the plethora of corpses. Trying to find a way out, trying to cling on to hope.

Until you have a bad feeling… a decapitated head emerges from beneath the corpse-filled ground. It laughs at your frail self and begins chanting. From the abyssal darkness, you see a looming figure approaching, that gets closer as the chants get louder. You plead with the head, attempt to hit it, and even try to run away, none of these actions do anything.

As the light dims, the figure (now a giant) looms right above you ready to squash your miserable existence. You’re filled with regret on ever coming to the dungeons of;

Fear & Hunger.

What Just Happened?

This, my dear reader, is what you could expect to happen if you’re not careful in Fear & Hunger. A game I highly recommend for fans of hardcore RPGs and survival horror, such as; Darkwood, Darkest Dungeon, Cry of Fear, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and Silent Hill 2.

The game utilizes the RPG trope where, you’re not the hero of your story, instead, you are the victim. Sometimes, something as minuscule as a rusty nail can end your run. In other moments you can find yourself starving to death or going insane from the stresses in the dungeon.

Some Of The Game’s Many Mechanics 

Can someone explain what makes Fear and Hunger scary?
byu/HollowCalzone intruegaming

Miro Haverinen, for 2 years developed this game, mostly solo. Despite being made in RPG Maker the game isn’t an RPG in the traditional sense but rather a survival horror with a heavy emphasis on resource management and quick thinking. 

Disclaimer: I must warn you that the game is rated 18+ due to its casual usage of shock horror and nudity. Also if you crave the experience I have described, I suggest playing on the “Terror & Starvation” difficulty.

Fear & Hunger has a unique take on loot as it’s never guaranteed from combat and most loot from chest/barrels is randomized. You will get accustomed to death in the dungeon, and what you learn from it is what matters. Thus, a trial-and-error style of gameplay, where players learn from past failures, is encouraged.

During combat, players may realize that each enemy’s limbs(yes even the stinger) has its turn. This makes party members a valuable asset to have and maintain. Each limb can be targeted, but a monster will not die unless the head is destroyed. Simply attacking the head first isn’t simple; you’re more likely to miss it. Each monster in the game has its own gimmick and strategy to beat it.

However, this also means your limbs aren’t safe either, a few wrong moves and you can permanently lose your limbs. In such cases, it’s best to cut your losses and reload the last save, this is where the trial-and-error aspect of the game comes in. 

Did I forget to mention that there is also a hunger and sanity meter, that slowly depletes as you desperately try to keep them satiated with whatever dwindling resources you find in the dungeons? After all the game’s called “Fear” & “Hunger.”

This mix of a hopeless environment coupled with rapidly depleting resources and horrifyingly daunting enemies around every corner makes for a terrifyingly good premise for a survival horror game. 

Life And Death Decided By A Coin Flip

By far my favorite and most hated mechanic in Fear & Hunger is the coin flip. It’s a mechanic so integral to the game that it deserves its own subheading. Every so often in certain scenarios, you’d be asked to flip a coin; Heads or Tails, you call it. 

It is especially “fun” during combat when an enemy initiates a coin flip attack, if you win you get to live. However, if you lose then it’s death…the excruciatingly painful kind. This article introduces what happens when you fail a coin flip against a prison guard enemy. Every enemy does this…good luck.

Coinflips also decide whether you get good or crap gear when searching chests, bookshelves, crates, etc… They also decide whether certain events kill you, or let you live through them, like whether you fell down a hole or not.

So here’s a tip from a veteran of the dungeon; hold the Shift key to toss 2 coins simultaneously to increase your chances of success. Be careful, as you only have a limited amount of “lucky coins” so best save them for something important.

I could go on about how nerve-racking resource management is, how saves are limited, and how the general atmosphere of the dungeon is suffocating & stressful almost to an ethereal extent. However, I’d be robbing you of the experience of traversing the dungeon yourselves.

If you’ve already played & liked this game, I highly recommend its sequel; Fear & Hunger 2: Termina.