The Fabulous Fear Machine

Review

Starting a new game will take you to the screen selection page. Here you will find the tutorial and three stories: Double Blind, Shaking Hands and Saints or Sinners. Also on this screen you have a book which will record your progress as you unlock Legends, Guide Fears, Utopias, Arcana, The Power, The Form, The Passion and The Occult stories and cards.

To begin with though, you can only do the tutorial if this is your first time playing the game; it will take you over the basics of the game and give you an understanding of how the game mechanic works.

The object of the game is to take control of the Fear Machine and to spread fear so that you can have your wildest dreams come true. The Fear Machine is a fortune telling machine and the character looking into the crystal ball who is going to grant you your dream wish is Kirlian.  Kirlian and his agents will help you. In exchange for your wish, he needs to know your story which will play out as you progress, although be careful what you wish for...

Currently there are only three Campaigns, and each campaign is divided into missions. The first and third campaigns each have four missions while the second campaign only has two. The first campaign will unlock after completing the tutorial, and each subsequent campaign will unlock after you have completed the previous campaign. Once you have selected a campaign, a small cartoon-style intro will begin with you finding the Fear Machine and Kirlian waiting for you. After chatting a bit and agreeing to the conditions you place a coin in the slot of the Fear Machine and your dream will now commence.

It will then detail the current Mission objectives, the number of missions in this campaign and your starting Agents who will help you spread fear across the lands. The Agents will do your work across the lands; they will visit locations, extracting the necessary essences, infiltration and explorations, acting as your hands on the ground.

In the first campaign you play as Jen Hammond, and you have just been hired by the Phadro Pharm as their youngest researcher. But you have far loftier ideas in mind and want to seize control of the company and spread its influence in the pharmaceutical world across the globe.

To do this (and in the other campaigns) you must get your message out to the people. At the start of each new campaign, you will have to place the messages that need to be transmitted into the regions. This will be the message you will transmit once you have earned enough fear.  Once all messages have been transmitted, you will have completed the mission.

Before you can spread your message, you must take control of regions, and you do this by spreading fear. Once a region hits a certain fear limit you can then send your message out to the people. You will have to do this multiple times across several regions to complete the current mission objectives. You will also have to keep your rivals at bay as they will try to reach the same audience and get their own message out instead of yours.

Once you have placed your messages into the various regions, you must get the fear started by placing the Fear Seed into one of the regions on the map that is indicated by a red striped area within each region. It is from here that your fear will spread and increase your growth across other regions.

In the first campaign, you have three regions: England and Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Scotland and Ireland have one location in each, whereas England has two locations. Fear will spread from the Fear Seed, but it will need feeding if it is to spread across the regions.

In the Psychic Centre there are four categories of fear: The Power, The Form, The Passions and The Occult. Each category contains two types of Terror. Selecting a category will display the cards you can use to spread terror and fear. The categories also detail how much terror they will spread, and you can increase the terror through the upgrading of the cards when placed on locations.

You will use the cards of terror from the Psychic Centre and place them down in the locations. However, first you must visit and explore each location with an Agent before you can add cards and increase the terror in the region. There could be two or three places to visit in each location. Once a place has been explored you can add a card of terror, providing you have the resources.

To place a card will require Oleum, this is the fuel which you will gain through the spread of fear and terror. It is also used constantly as you progress; without it the game will end. So, you must try and keep as much Oleum in stock as possible; creating fear from multiple locations can help keep a steady supply of Oleum. You can earn Oleum from events, although at the same time events can cost you Oleum.

At a location you can implant various resources, one of which is a refinery for the Oleum; without this refinery, you won’t collect Oleum. As there is more than one place at a location you can also implant other Resources to be extracted from that location. You must use an Agent to perform an extraction of a resource, with a total of eight resources that you can collect. These resources can be used to upgrade the cards four times, increasing their fear. You can also use any extra resource and convert it into Oleum if you find yourself in a pinch.

Every time a card is levelled up you will add to its story by choosing a single word from a bunch of eleven. Not all the words offered will fit with the story of the card, so you must choose wisely.  You won’t be punished or anything if you don’t get the correct answers, but you will miss out on some much-needed bonuses that can increase the terror faster. Pay attention to the cards as you level them up and you may just spot a clue here and there.

There will be some events; sometimes you won’t have to do anything, but other times though you’ll need to send an Agent. You can also send your Agents to infiltrate your enemy, they’ll uncover secrets which can then be used against them. You’ll use up some of your resources against the enemy and it may take you some time to deal with them, but the quicker you do the better. You can also upgrade your Agents, which will allow them to extract resources and perform faster.

Once you have spread enough fear and terror throughout each region a little popup will appear that will allow you to transmit your message. When all messages have been transmitted, the mission objectives will have been completed. You will then move onto the next mission until all missions of a story have been completed and your story has played out.

The artwork is fantastic! The game has Easy and Normal difficulty modes. It can be quite challenging, which isn’t a bad thing by any means, but one mistake and it could be game over. Currently there are only three stories, and I don’t see much replayability once you have been through each story. Maybe they’ll be some new stories added in the future.

I have enjoyed playing the game thus far and I have not had any problems with running the game.

In the settings you will find options for Resolution, Full Screen (On/Off), V-Sync (On/Off), Limit FPS, Language (English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and German), General, Music and Effects Volume Sliders, Show Tutorials During Game (On/Off).

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com

The Fabulous Fear Machine Steam Store Page