Fear Equation

Fear Equation is excellent - one of the finest roguelikes I've ever played, and an early contender of one of my Top 10 Games of 2016. The biggest thing worthy of praise is the depth of this game - I still feel like I've barely scratched the surface. Between micro-managing supply raids, fuel consumption calculation, monitoring radio chatter, social engineering in the carriages, tense diplomacy between factions, monitoring dreams, and power management, this game is huge. If you like deep strategic games, you should get this. It's also a spectacular example of story-telling and atmosphere - throughout the game, you stand in 3 spots in 1 room, and the world feels big and epic and real. You feel terrified for the fate of little blobs on a radar. You feel scared because people you never see might not like you - or like you a bit too much. It works brilliantly as a train simulator. It's a great roguelike. It's a fantastic real-time strategic action game. This game is better at multiple genres than many games dedicated to just one genre are. I cannot recommend this highly enough. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73chxXs67z0

This game is on to something fantastic. All the base concepts and ideas of it are rock solid, new, and refreshing. But for all the fresh and fantastic ideas, the game falls short in execution. [GAME BASIS] You own a train in a world plagued by a hellish fog that causes peoples nightmares to become deadly reality. You are chugging your way from place to place finding survivors and trying to reach a final destination point. You are in the engine room of the train, and have outfitted it to be perfectly immune to the fog and the hellish things that come out of it. Sensibly, you never leave your room. You are tasked with a number of duties. You are the god of this little salvation train, and as such, call absolutely all of the shots. You need fuel to keep it running, food for all the passengers, and upgrades to the train to make it more efficient and well defended from attacks. All of these things require supplies. And you certainly aren't going out there to retrieve them. Your passengers are. You decide who goes out, and you decide how they approach their smash and grab tactics of looting places of everything useful before the pseudo-sentient fog gets too thick and swallows them up. In addition to this, the game has a reasonably in depth citizen management element. Your passengers will form cliques and factions with other likeminded passengers, and you need to keep them happy enough that they don't come smash through the door of your cabin and kill you. On the other hand, you could be such a benevolent and skillfull leader that they start more or less worshipping you, and will outright murder other passengers that don't share their fanatical devotion to you. [THE PROBLEMS] Where the game falls short is a simple lack of involvement and lack of true choices. Most "days" in game feel exactly the same as the one before, and very dull. You direct passengers on what to upgrade, and then go to sleep and see if the ship gets attacked. If it does, you do absolutely nothing about it. It's just a matter of how many defenses against that type of attack you have constructed in the past that factors in to the results. You wake up, read the report on how the attack went, and repeat the same steps. choose upgrades. Go to sleep and see if you are attacked. You do plot the course of the train on a map though. And make informed decissions based on things you're hearing over the radio. However, you rarely have much in the way of any real choice. A track is a straight line, so you only really have two ways to go. And back tracking is virtually never worth it, as the fog is always worse behind you, your fuel is limited, and you've probably sacked the locations behind you already. So you go forwards. The tracks branch here and there, but even if you make an effort to upgrade your radio heavily to improve your intel on the map, your choices are still pretty much nill. At any given branch, it's almost always a dead obvious choice. One route is clearly superior to the other. Even if by some miracle, the options are almost equal in details, the obvious route is the shorter one, since your fuel is a limited commodity. The most interactive and intriguing part of the game is the loot and rescue operations you perform at stops. You direct your team of 5 passengers that you hand picked yourself, based on their skills at smashing and grabbing, on whether to be a guard or a looter. and on the floorplan of the building you mysteriously have on hand, you direct them where to go guard or loot. You have estimated amounts of time it will take them to do it. And you know how long you have before the fog rolls in and starts eating people (you got a degree in engineering AND occult weather phenomena apparently). So there's some risk/reward here, where you can choose to really push those time estimations tight for longer looting time, or make a clean safe run where they have a good bit of breathing room, but possibly less loot. There's definitely some thought to go in to this. It's almost overwhelming your first time, though that is largely due to an obnoxious UI. But like the rest of the game, it quickly becomes extremely obvious. And this is largely due to lack of details and lack of involvement. All you know is the layout of the building, the names of the rooms (kitchen, bathroom, storeroom, etc.), and how long it will take when you send person X to do their job. Generally what you will find in a room is obvious where applicable, like a kitchen containing food. But the vast majority of rooms are basically a piniata you whack at and see what comes out. Storeroom of a bank? Ok? Bathrooms? Lounges? who knows what you'll turn up from those places. The worst oversight of the game, in my opinion, is that once you finish planning and begin the operation, you are nothing but a spectator. You watch on your radar as your team moves in and does their jobs, and they radio updates in to you in real time, letting you know if they find things, survivors, etc. But you yourself do nothing at all. Unexpected issues basically don't exist. Occasionally "The Fearless" will be on the map and wander it trying to attack your team. But ultimately, there is no point watching any of it. Because you can't do anything. Despite the radio beside you, you can't call out a change of plan. You can't call Billy back and tell him to abort because there's a fearless wandering right in to his room. Billy just stays in there and loots mindlessly until eaten. And you just sit and watch on your radar like a sick weirdo. This part of the game was really its chance to shine. But it falls short. This was a chance to get some solid gameplay in that had actual decission making that wasn't obvious. You shouldn't know everything about these buildings that you do. And at the same time, you should get more details as the operation proceeds. If it was a bit more like a RTS mini game, where you are revealing more of the map as you direct your team through the building, searching for useful items, telling them how to attack things if they are a threat, etc. it would be extremely cool. But as implemented, it's a pretty dull experience after your first couple missions. The citizen management aspect is equally lacking. They did a great job with the presentation of your passengers, having a sizeable random pool of photos, a good random name generator, and important statstical and idealogical differences between them that will make you want to remember their names and faces when making decissions. Each carriage even elects a leader, and the leader can impact the mindset of the others in the cabin. It's really neat. But that great presentation only really makes it more disapointing that you have so little involvement or interaction with any of them. You can't discuss anything with anyone. Choices over social issues do exist, but I've only seen one in a lets play video. I've only played 5 hours, but thats 5 hours with NEVER encountering one of those choices. It would almost be better if they hadn't put so much effort in to making your passengers feel so individualized. It's like dangling a carrot in front of you that you can never actually get. [CONCLUSION] 5/10. Fantastic ideas. Truly fantastic. But every last one of them felt woefully shallow in developement. If these ideas were developed more deeply, and the player had more involvement and more interesting decissions to make, this game would be something very special. But alas, I can't recommend it.

After about an hour of playing this game I can safetly say I know how the game is going to progress. So what is Fear Equation? Fear Equation is a horror game set aboard a train, what role do you play? You are the engineer! Or well I guess the guy who runs the entire train aswell, you are given certain areas to view things and interact such as the notebook which is where you will decide who does what via a lottery (Which I believe you can rig so only certain people get chosen) and upgrades, Defence building and Dream Logs. There is a computer which you do all the scavenging from and listening to comms. The front is where you man the train and decide where to go, if you stop the train and turn of the Throttle the battery will drain and if it runs out the entire train will go dark and depending on how long it's out for will depend on how many people disapear and never return, you however are completely safe. The back of the train is where you sleep and hope everything will be Okay! ---Gameplay--- One part you have to study dream logs and then counter possible threats depending on how many people are having said things in their dreams with defences such as barricades, heat etc, you have no other control over what they do. You can increase power to their carridges though I haven't found a use or problem for doing so as the tutorial seemed to just stop abruptly which in a sense is good as what's scary about a game when you know how to do everything. On the computer you will do scavenging which is similar to Dreadnaught except you only plan what they do and how long and then sit back and watch, make sure you have enough time as if the fog rolls in and they are in there then people will start disapearing and never been again. You use resources from that time in the next day where you build the defences and upgrades etc. --Is it Scary?-- I'd say there's more tension than actual horror in this game, there are some creepy scenes you will see at night through visions of sorts but nothing that will make you jump out for your seat (Though I haven't died or hopefully not seen all the scenes yet). --Custom Game-- This is a mode where you can choose from either preset cards with their own settings or create your own Engineer with custom or preset profile picture, you decide how hard or how easy the game will be, think the fog gets dense to fast? Choose the slow fog modifier. Think getting upgrades for something is too hard? Get it full upgraded. Think upgrading make the game to easy? Block the ability to upgrade. You can choose multiple ones to properly define your experience. --Conclusion-- I'd say for the Current price it's worth it, there's a lot of content and even custom which I haven't checked out yet but I will and update this review later. I give it a 9.5/10 For being a very unique and fun experience. --YouTube-- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv9D6LJ0jH4

I have to say, Fear Equation is my favorite of Screwfly's games. It blends the people management from Zafehouse: Diaries and the mission systemd from Deadnaut, without being super sophisticated. The learning curve is small, and you get the hang of things very quickly. It is very difficult, even with some of the easier engineers (engineers are the person you play as). I was a little hesitant at the beginning worrying that it would be too complicated and I would want to stop, but worked through my first few days on the train, got the hang of it, and was sucked into it for hours (And then died, customized the passengers as my friends, and started again.) As usual with Screwfly games there is a cool customization feature, where you can create your friends, family, and yourself as the engineer of the train and see them all show up. When creating a passenger it is pretty simple and straightforward, and includes ways to increase stats like choosing their occupation. There is also a pretty wide variety of portraits the game comes with for faces of your custom passengers, or if you're really into it you can put your friends' actual faces into the game folder and use it in-game. Lastly on the custom passengers there is a three question sheet that determines what faction that passenger will usually be in, and how influenciual they will be to other passengers in their carriage. You can also customize you engineer, the portraits are the same and you can choose different atributes for your engineer that will make the game easier/harder. I would recommend this game to most everyone, and I hope you enjoy playing.

First off let me be clear that Fear Equation is an interesting idea, but I’m just not happy with its execution. I wish there was a better system in steam then just yay or nay? Because this game kind of leans closer to the middle then being outright bad. That said it has some problems that need to be ironed out but can, and probably will, be fixed. 1. Mrjihun pointed out the save problem has been explained. Thanks Mrjihun! 2. After the fog attacks give me a summary of the damage that occurred. Lack of information isn’t just damaging to gameplay, it’s also boring in a game that is all about information and the decisions you make. 3. Fuel needs to be much more common because a “Hail Mary” should be a last resort when the random number generator really messed you up, not something you do regularly. 4. I understand the limitation to only sending five passengers out at once to scavenge for both technical and story based reasons. That said what I don’t understand is the mission team not bringing everyone you meet onboard the train, or as the “driver” my having the option to revisit a location to grab supplies they skipped out on the first trip. I admit I may have missed key details about how missions work but I remind you of the tutorial problem for any error on my part with this criticism. 5. The game feels generally vague and brief about everything it tries to explain. That said at the same time much of what I little I actually do feels like it’s largely out of my hands, and decided by the random number generator. This game like previous Screwfly Studios games is all about information and decisions. The problem is the information I am given regularly doesn’t feel exciting or interesting, which the same goes for the defences/upgrades I am building, or the passengers I am managing. The first exciting thing to have happened to me was when the train was attacked by the fog, but a lack of details about what happened made it very anti-climactic. The next exciting thing was reaching a town after six long days of skipping time, ended up being significantly less interesting then searching a house in Zafehouse diaries, when it should have been at least as interesting. I suspect it gets better when you have a larger train population so you can actually get faction intrigue. But the trip to get there is too boring and devoid of interesting things for me to do to be worthwhile. However considering Zafehouse Diaries again, I didn’t particularly enjoy that game when it was first released either but the developers made significant strides to improve it afterwards. So this review maybe entirely useless in six months, but for now I can’t recommend this game.

I find it somewhat baffling that this mostly excellent game seems to have been released and then forgotten by most. While most games at least have a reddit sub dedicated to them, there is nothing for this game at all. Very few comments on indie game sites as well. Which is a shame, since it seems that, as a forgotten game, the chances of ever getting a sequel with enhanced mechanics is slim. My only complaint with the game is that the social/faction mechanic is simply not as fleshed out as it could be. That whole aspect can be almost ignored with no consequence. Do they like you? Are they going to revolt? Meh...no matter most of the time. I would have liked to see some more interaction with the passengers themselves; in terms of maybe getting more detailed information by clicking on an individual passenger (relationship graphs to other passengers and to you. rumours, etc...) and perhaps be able to take more actions to affect their behaviour (ie. craft an edict. make a deal to send someone in with propaganda, etc...) In the end, it feels like an amazing game that has a single part of it that feels...incomplete and unimportant somehow. it's a shame this game doesn't get much love on social media since I would LOVE so much to see a sequel someday. If you're looking for a roguelike to pick up and play that gives you an amazing and original atmoshere, this is definitely the game you need to try.

Complex, Intriguing, Frustrating yet Addicting to those who enjoy a mental challenge involving psychological and tactical aspects! A unique take on survival strategy simulation games, Fear Equation blends micromanagement and turn-based strategy into a challenging and enjoyable game. There are a few issues that I have found, but it hasn't detracted from the overall experience; I would recommend this to those who enjoyed the Myst series, enjoy micromanagement and tactical planning as well as the thrill of horror themed gameplay.

The game has about 5 different manuals, but you still don't have all the necessary information. Pull a wrong lever by accident and you lose 12 people. Incredibly infuriating game. Not to mention passengers complaining as soon as they get on board. The game won't let you send supplies to their carriage until the next day, so there's literally nothing you can do if they decide to get in an empty carriage. Building defenses also doesn't do any bloody good. "The carriage was completely defenseless." my arse. I had you build and complete 3 defenses for that specific enemy.

Played 8 hours total so far and all I can say is that the game doesn't really work. The premise sounds fun at first but unlike Deadnauts it just can't pull it together into a fun experience. Here are some of my main gripes about the gameplay. Instead of a single cohesive experience, the ingame day is divided into several phases. First you have to assemble a squad to explore outside the train, you can pick auto here or choose which survivors to bring. However you have to do this every new day or the game will pick randoms, it also feels fairly inconsequential. The next phase is giving orders to each carriage, survivors can enact repairs or work on defences and upgrades. Upgrades can boost fuel capacity, increase radio range, armor, etc. You want to also check the dream diary for every occupied cart here to see if the chance and severity of nightmares merit dropping everything and building more defences. Next is the work phase is usually pretty dull, 80% of the time survivors carry out their repairs while you fast forward time to the nightmare/guard phase. The other thing you can do here, if the train is stopped att a location of interest, is send out a party to look for supplies and fuel. This sounds like it should be the games saving feature and a break from the repetition, but it's unintuitive and boring af. You set a desination and search/guard time for each squad member, you generally want to keep times for each survivor under the 'safe window' threshold or the fog will omnomnom their faces. The controls to do this are actually quite unintuitive, as you have to switch tabs to see room outlines, scanner output, fog density, etc. It feels clunky and you have no control whatsoever once the survivors set out to their set destination. Another note is that if you turn off the engine, fog will thicken slower and you can do more explorations at different buildings at a location, but once you turn off the engine the battery drains quickly from that moment, so you have to have the mission plan all ready to go before you pull the lever; once you start, you can not turn the engine off, and even worse, back on. It is too risky, don't do it. Last is the Guard phase. Here you are attacked by a random nightmare from the 5 you can be plagued with in any one run. Again this sounds more fun than it is, you generally just go to bed only to wake up to some very very overly loud noises and spooky lights (or shadows). You have no ability to affect the success of the defence during this time and just have to sit tight and ride out the trippy cacophony of horrendous noises coming from outside. In the morning you get a status report along the lines of ' 5 survivors were heavily injured, [survivor name] successfully treated 3 injuries'. The horrors themselves hold little info or suspense, you are perfectly safe and it feels like a badly orchestrated jumpscare, while the only info you get about them are a name and fragmented dream logs. They are all nightmares, end of story, nothing to discover or interact with, each is just different combinations of noise and effects. Also unlike Deadnaughts, upgrades/defences have little observable power over how things pan out. Here a defense only affects the rng of how many survivors become injured and how badly. In Deadnaughts you had to carefully manage risk/reward and resources to buy better gear that significantly impacts how you play through a run, unlocking new strategies with different combinations of RNG based marketplace availability. The game also has factions which give bonuses but can also initiate a purge and start killing each other. No matter what I did or how I moved survivors around to prevent one faction from dominating a rail car, they would always end up having a murder party. Honestly this just got tiring really fast. The game also has several bugs, such as controls failing until restart or survivors waiting to evacuate at the train for an infinite amount of time after they are done exploring. Lastly the RNG is a serious problem. I did several runs and sometimes you just find zero of one resource anywhere for several day cycles. This happens mostly with fuel and prematurely end a run in a very frustrating way. In addition the room layouts for exploration by squads can be absolutely terrible. Examples, once I sent a squad out about 10-15 seconds past the safe window and RNG decided I would lose them all, however the door to enter the building was so far away I really didn't have a choice. This happens often where there is no way to explore a building safely as all the doors are far away from the train and the survivors need to spend over one minute just making their way inside. I've also had bad survivor spawns where no one on the train had any hauling so I could not recover more than a few items at every stop. Overall I didn't feel like my actions mattered much, I couldn't do anything during the guard/nightmare phase nor anything to help or change expeditions once they launched. The game quickly turned into a monotonous cycle of doing the lottery phase, checking dreams, and making sure the defenses matched before going to bed for the night. I can't recommend it. I'm sorry, it just doesn't work. Get the developers earlier game, Deadnaught, instead, it pulls off the spooky mystery atmosphere far better while also having fun realtime strategic interactions as a base for the gameplay.

This game is a game where you play as the one who will save mankind. How? Make them board a train and manipulate them into creating a religion around you and your crazy plan to escape the fog. Pros: - Ok graphics, they aren't 10/10 but they sure do make you immersed into the game - Indepth strategy, both on and off of the train you'll constantly find yourself thinking ahead. There's even a way to modify your game meaning you can make it even MORE complex than the standard game - Fantastic ambiance, as you work in your cabin you can hear the survivors outside getting to work, you can hear the train chugging along, you hear stuff outside the cabin. You almost really feel like you're driving this horror train to "possible" freedom Cons: - No music except for some of the "attacks" so it can get a little boring - It's a point and click adventure, meaning no "free movement" except to pre-defined positions (though there is freelook with right click so it's not terrible) - You're stuck in the cabin. There's no leaving. You are stuck looking at the same walls and equipment whilst telling the remaining population how to live. It's a pretty good game, a fun train sim with a lot to think about. Will this defense be worth building? How much further can I go before I HAVE to make my passengers leave the train? Do my passengers trust me? Who should go into what cabin? Do I have enough food? WHY DID THE LIGHTS CUT OUT AND WHY ARE PEOPLE DYING?