Developer: Tin Man Games
Publisher: Tin Man Games
Platform: Mobile – Android, iOS PC – Direct, Steam

The Fighting Fantasy series of gamebooks began in the early 80s where legions of readers picked them up. Unfortunately, I missed out on this whole world of gamebooks until discovering Tin Man Games. Their digital renditions are tremendously enjoyable, especially Appointment with F.E.A.R. which is a video game version of the 1985 book.

Players begin by crafting a hero to play as. Customization options aren’t immense, but you can select between two genders, races, outfit colors, and superhero skill set. Each superpower tweaks how you’ll be able to react to situations that arise during the storyline. Because you’ll very likely have to play through more than once you’ll be able to see how different heroes handle issues.

Since Appointment with F.E.A.R. is basically a digital book it shares a lot of common ground with typical visual novels. The story is presented via text and there are many points where players choose between a few decisions. All the art is also comic book-inspired which definitely makes the presentation more dynamic. Unlike most visual novels, fights also break out. At this point you select attacks and try to whittle down the enemy’s HP before running out yourself. Weirdly, one fight I encountered glitched out leaving me with 0 HP and stuck in the scene.

The storyline is typical comic fare with an evil group, F.E.A.R., planning something diabolical. Your entire goal is to find clues throughout the city in order to find their headquarters and meeting time before it’s too late. With only three days to accomplish this you likely won’t win the first time. Thanks to the enjoyable writing and variety of choices it’s not painful to replay. In fact, it’s tremendously fun to explore new areas or see what would happen if you chose differently.

Some may notice that Appointment with F.E.A.R. is cheaper on mobile platforms than PC. If you don’t mind the mode of play, then mobile is a bargain! However, the Steam version offers nice benefits too via controller support, achievements, and trading cards. Controller supportworks, but a little spotty. During a playthrough my game suddenly stopped showing controller prompts (which highlights a currently selected option). So far it seems Tin Man Games is quickly responding to bugs with patches, at least.

Appointment with F.E.A.R. is a fantastic, goofy superhero adventure that will last you at least two hours to finally beat. Play it via whatever platform you desire and you shouldn’t be disappointed.

4 out of 5 alpacas

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