Tales of Fear - Episode Zero

About Tales of Fear - Episode Zero

Tales of Fear is MediaTale's series of playable horror stories, and Episode Zero is its free first episode. Each story puts you in one person's shoes for a single bad night. Some of the stories are fiction and some are based on real events, and at the end of each you decide which you think it is. The maker says it made this episode free as a proof of concept, to see how players take to the idea before further episodes.

The three cases are picked from a book of case files. In Enfield Encounter, Patrick McKelvy's quiet evening at home turns into a night of fearing for his life after he meets a creature that, the store says, does not exist in any history book. In Alice and Bob, a tech company employee is left alone on a night shift with an artificial intelligence experiment that goes well, then too well. In Doai Station, a freelance journalist chasing a rumour near Mount Tanigawa in Japan waits for the last train home, while his brother learns that the train left hours before the call that cut off.

You play in first person, walking real-looking places such as a suburban street, a dark office and an underground platform, talking to people, doing small tasks and mini-puzzles, and waiting for what comes. At the end you can compare your guesses with other players and hear the story behind each case.

MediaTale is a team of three in Austria. Episode Zero came out on Steam for Windows on 1 September 2026, in twelve languages. It suits players who like short, story-led first-person horror such as the Fears to Fathom episodes, and anyone curious about urban legends and the true stories behind them.

How to play Tales of Fear - Episode Zero

1. Open the case book from the main menu and choose one of the three cases.
2. Play the story in first person: explore, talk to the people you meet and do the tasks and mini-puzzles it sets.
3. Get through the night until the story ends.
4. Say whether you think the story is true or a tale, then see how other players guessed.
5. Play the other two cases, then hear which stories were real.

Tips

• Look for clues as you play: details in each story hint at whether it really happened.
• Play with headphones; the maker built a dynamic audio system and much of the dread is in the sound.
• It is free, so it costs nothing to try; each case can be started from the case book.

Questions