Clear Your Calendar and Make Your Appointment With F.E.A.R.
When last we left the intrepid Tin Man Games at PAXEast, Neil Rennison was showing an early iteration of Steve Jackson’s Appointment With F.E.A.R. a choose-your-own adventure story centered around a superhero in Titan City.
After several months of patient waiting, we have a release date! The game will hit Steam, iOS and Android on August 27th! Tin Man Games were kind enough to send us a preview copy to play.
Since last we saw the title, the story has been fleshed out and the customization options have been expanded. While they’re not as extensive as other games you may have played, there are a healthy number of options. Your hero was modified in utero and began to manifest abilities in your teenage years. Now you spend your days as an intrepid journalist (with a comical civilian disguise that basically consists of nerd glasses) and…other parts of your day as the respected <insert your hero name here>.
For the purposes of my experience, I selected the name “The Obvious Awesome.” My relationship with my boss was tumultuous at best and closely resembled that of Jay Jonah Jameson and Peter Parker. 
Which…is convenient since my editor’s name was Jonah. However, I have better things to do than toil at a desk, as I was busy getting clues, saving the day and preventing a catastrophe involving the assassination of the President.
(Now, were this DFAT, all I’d have to do was tell them “Brb, saving the world” and I’d be fine. Unfortunately most other employers are not this progressive.)
My adventure had me resolving a petty theft at a candy shop, saving a talented performer from her crazy super villain ex-boyfriend and preventing an assassination. And some undead guy who apparently reincarnates, which is annoying. (I feel once I kill someone, they should remain dead, but that’s just my preference)
The game mechanics are incredibly simple: gain Luck points to improve the cards you get (you gain them after each battle), Hero points as you do noble things and lose them as you do…less noble things, and gain Stamina as you sleep. You will lose Stamina as you fight the criminal element in Titan City, but you will also inflict pain with varying levels of difficulty.
How you choose to answer the situation will be influenced by clues you accumulate throughout the game, aided by your C.R.I.M.E. watch which acts a bit like a Power Rangers communicator. You will also learn new things by interrogating characters and overhearing conversations.
The mechanics are simple – point and click. Just like with the choose your own adventure stories of your youth, every choice you make affects how your experience will play out. This means if you didn’t like how things turned out this time, the next time will be different. The story was fun and entertaining and gave me a brief but enjoyable escape from the ordinary.
The title will be available on Steam for PC and Mac and on iOS and Android starting the 27th of August. Go check it out!
~Myrrick
