Fear & Hunger

About Fear & Hunger

Fear & Hunger was made by Finnish developer Miro Haverinen and published by Happy Paintings in January 2019. The store names its influences as ranging from Silent Hill to Nethack: a survival horror dungeon crawler built on Japanese RPG foundations, with roguelike randomness and a painted, pixel-art look.

You choose one of four adventurers, a mercenary, a knight, a dark priest or an outlander, each with their own reason to go down into the dungeons of Fear & Hunger. The fortress is an ancient meeting point of different planes of existence, where old and new gods struggle for power, and the deeper you go the more you have to choose where you stand. Other characters can be recruited along the way. Parts of the layout, events, loot and enemies change between plays.

Its horror is cruel by design. Combat is turn-based, but you can target individual limbs, and so can your enemies: a lost arm or leg stays lost. Hunger and mind drain as you go, death comes in many ways and is often not the worst outcome, and the game is built around trial and error, so you will start over many times. The store warns that it is for mature audiences only, with extreme violence, gore, sexual violence, self-mutilation and drug use.

It suits players who want the harshest, darkest kind of horror RPG and are willing to learn through repeated, ugly failure. A sequel, Fear & Hunger 2: Termina, followed in 2022.

How to play Fear & Hunger

1. Buy it on Steam for Windows or Mac.
2. Pick one of four adventurers, each with their own strengths and story.
3. Explore the fortress, scavenging food, light, healing and weapons as you go deeper.
4. Fight turn-based battles, aiming at enemies' limbs to disarm or cripple them.
5. Expect to die, learn from it, and start again further prepared.

Tips

• Target an armed enemy's weapon arm first to take away its biggest threat.
• Do not ignore hunger; a starving party is a dead one.
• Saving carries risks of its own, so choose when to do it with care.
• Think twice before fighting: avoiding a battle is often the better choice.

Questions