Fear & Hunger

Fear & Hunger is a 2018 survival horror role-playing video game developed by Finnish game developer Miro Haverinen. Taking place in an anachronistic dark fantasy setting mixing Medieval and present-day environments, Fear & Hunger follows one of four playable characters as they delve into the Dungeon of Fear & Hunger, facing off against deadly traps, puzzles and monsters as they make their way deeper, in order to find the knight Le’garde.

The game received generally positive reviews, with critics praising the game's atmosphere, gameplay, storytelling and difficulty while criticizing the presence of semi-frequent typos and the game's handling of some of its more mature themes, particularly that of sexual violence.

A sequel, Fear & Hunger 2: Termina, was released in 2022.

Gameplay
At the start of the game the player chooses one of the four playable classes: The Knight, The Mercenary, The Dark Priest or The Outlander. The player then selects their backstory, the answers of which grant special items or abilities. The player will be prompted to choose one of four difficulty options, the last of which must be unlocked to use. The player must then traverse the dungeons of Fear & Hunger, dodging or fighting the many monsters and traps that occupy the dungeon. Throughout the game, the player can meet numerous NPCs, some of which can be recruited to the player's party.

The game features a "turn-based strategic dismember combat system" where characters can target different body parts of their enemies. Likewise, enemy attacks can cause the playable characters to permanently lose limbs, affecting their speed and ability to use weapons. The player must also maintain their hunger and sanity which both worsen over time. Many actions throughout the game, including saving, are determined through a coin toss mechanic, with the player having to correctly predict an outcome of 'heads' or 'tails'.

The game features multiple endings based on choices made by the player.

Development
Fear & Hunger was built on the RPG Maker MV engine and was developed over the course of two years.

The game was designed almost solely by Miro Haverinen. In an interview, he stated that the idea for the game was born from his school days when he would propose morally awkward hypotheticals to his classmates that would all take place in a morbid dungeon. The first demo of Fear & Hunger served as the practical portion of Haverinen's academic thesis. Haverinen has stated that the inspiration for the game came from a desire to create a sensation of relentless darkness and experiment in different way to evoke hopelessness and horror. Silent Hill, Hellraiser, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Nethack, Berserk, the Souls games and Mortal Kombat were all named as inspirations by Haverinen. Some aspects of the game, including a swimming section, were cut during development.

Release
Fear & Hunger was released on Steam and Itch.io on 11 December 2018.

Reception
Fear & Hunger has garnered widespread acclaim from both critics and players alike. Critics praised the game's atmosphere, gameplay, storytelling and unforgiving difficulty. Writing for DualShockers, Marcus Jones wrote that, "Fear and Hunger is the absolute essence of grueling, with death being a natural part of the game. Yet those who persevere and apply their knowledge of past playthroughs to the current one are granted a one-of-a-kind dungeon crawler that will literally have you crawling back for more."

Dominic Tarason, writing for Rock Paper Shotgun, praised the game's gameplay and atmosphere but criticized the semi-frequent typos, varying quality of the artwork and some of the more sexual aspects of the horror.

Lorenzo Sabatino of The Games Machine generally praised the game but criticized the chance based elements of the game's difficulty as being unfair and frustrating.

Brazilian reviewer Cauê Batista described Fear & Hunger as "captivating" but "problematic", praising the game's atmosphere and immersive mechanics but criticising some of the more "morbid" aspects of the game, particularly the "trivialization of sexual violence."

Sequel
A sequel, Fear & Hunger 2: Termina, was released on 9 December 2022 for Steam and Itch.io.

The game is set in the same universe in the 1940s, some 300 years after the events of the first game. Taking place in the town of Prehevil, the game follows 14 strangers who are forced to partake in the titular Festival of Termina over the course of three days.