Fear Equation

Overview

Fear Equation is a turn-based strategy game, played from a first-person perspective. The player takes on the role of the mysterious "Engineer", who has constructed a purpose-built train to survive a post-apocalyptic world covered in a deadly fog.

As the Engineer, the player must search for resources and survivors, while trying to reach the final destination, a place where it is rumoured the fog has no effect. The train has a maximum capacity of 150 -- also known as "Dunbar's number", the minimum number of people required to sustain a civilisation.

The fog is sentient and has the ability to make nightmares a reality, making the Engineer's job harder. To protect the train and its passengers, the Engineer must build the right defenses to ward off the fog's attacks.

Fear Equation was originally released by developer Screwfly Studios on December 12, 2015 for direct sale, and later on Steam and GOG on January 15, 2016.

Gameplay

The primary objective of Fear Equation is to reach salvation at the final destination with as many people alive as possible. This requires plotting a course on the in-game map, however, it is unlikely the train will have enough fuel to get to this location at the start of the game, let alone food and other resources.

As such, the player will be forced to stop at places along the way -- gas stations, hospitals, supermarkets, etc. -- in order to gather sufficient supplies to make it all the way.

During the journey, the player must contend not only with the fog, but two other antagonists: the military and the Fearless. The former wish to destroy anything they come across, while the latter are convinced they are servants of the fog, and will do its bidding -- usually to the Engineer's detriment.

Each turn of Fear Equation consists of four phases - Lottery, Orders, Work and Guard. Certain actions are limited by phase; for example, the Engineer can only order upgrades and repairs during the Orders phase.

A breakdown of the phases is as follows:

• Lottery: No one wants to go back into the fog, but the train requires supplies, fuel and other necessities. Thus, each day the Engineer runs a "lottery" to decide who will go outside. The Engineer can run a fair, randomised lottery or, if he or she needs a particular set of skills, can rig who "wins".
• Orders: In this phase, the player can order repairs, upgrades and defense construction, as well as the transfer of passengers and cargo between carriages. This is the only phase in which these orders can be issued.
• Work: The Work phase serves two purposes -- it provides passengers the time to carry out orders given in the previous phase and allows the Engineer to launch scavenging missions to nearby locations.
• Guard: The night proves the most dangerous time of the Engineer's day. During this phase, the military may try to blow up the train and the fog can manifest nightmares to attack the Engineer's passengers.

The game ends in victory when the player reaches the final destination with at least one passenger aboard. Along with an epilogue, the game provides a rating of the player's performance, based on how many people were killed, how long the Engineer took and the number of living passengers on the train.

Defeat comes in two forms -- either the military destroys the train, or the passengers get fed up with the Engineer's command, break into the cabin and execute him or her.

Story

While Fear Equation does not have a definitive narrative, it is possible to piece together a number of details about its world, based on the game's mechanics:

• At some point in the history of the game world, a supernatural or man-made disaster covered the world in fog. The source of the fog is the basis for Fear Equation's factional system, where passengers side with one another based on where they believe the fog came from.
• Again, some passengers feel the fog is a punishment -- perhaps from a deity or government -- while others believe it signifies a chance to rebuild the world anew. This is another component of the factional system ("Hope" and "Hubris").
• The military and the Fearless are able to protect themselves from the fog, or are somehow immune to its effects. How this is so is never explained in detail.
  
• The Custom Engineer feature of Fear Equation allows the player to create their own character, using modifiers to tailor their game. On the custom screen, the player is presented with identification cards from a company called "XD Industries". The letters "XD" also appear inside the in-game manuals, which suggests the train was constructed by this company, or at least, the Engineer was employed by them before the disaster.
• [Spoiler] It is possible to repel or dissipate the fog, given that a location exists where it has no effect. At the end of the game, if the player has won, they step out of the train into a natural forest environment, with no signs of the fog.