HomeNewsThe Fabulous Fear Machine
The Fabulous Fear Machine, out today, is a strategy game of engrossing evilWho’s up for some dastardly machinations?
Who’s up for some dastardly machinations?
Image credit:AMC Games
Image credit:AMC Games
It’s a top-down management sim, which might not sound very scary, but just look at those colours - irradiated and unwholesome shades of purple and yellow, spreading over chunky, HyperCard continents emblazoned with pulp comic fonts. The visuals wear away at you like the stink of hydrochloric acid. And then there’s that red-eyed, turbaned figure, gazing at you in top left. This is the face of the Fabulous Fear Machine. Its offer: to enable your character’s world-toppling ambitions. Its price: that your story will become part ofitsstory. The game isout today, and I’ve got some thoughts ahead of a possible review.
‘The Fabulous Fear Machine’ Video Game | Official Trailer | AMC GamesWatch on YouTube
‘The Fabulous Fear Machine’ Video Game | Official Trailer | AMC Games
The Fabulous Fear Machine is a table-top-style espionage-driven experience based around maddening the population of each region so as to bring about an overall objective, like persuading voters to hand over a country’s healthcare to your character’s sinister pharmaceutical corporation.What an exotic idea!
You do have to worry about filthy do-gooders and rival villains, mind you, who may seed opposing ideas and strive to wrest the population from your control. You can have your agents dig up their dirty laundry to dispel their influence, but you’ll need to start that process early in each chapter to reap the benefits, and it’s always tempting to just focus on transmitting your own, vile message instead.
Image credit:AMC
I’ll have more thoughts in a bit. It does feel like it has a shot at making our list of thebest strategy games, or even our list ofthe best horror games, but I’m overly partial to the macabre. If I have a criticism right now, it’s that as with the production/upgrading phases of 4X games, you’ll often have to twiddle your thumbs while certain grim plots reach fruition. Speaking of grim plots, if you’ve read this far you might also digWorld of Horror.
