Fear Me: Horror Hits Home In A Big Way
Fear Me is a short ultra indie visual novel by solo developer Lemi. While we have seen visual novels tackle horror before, it is a fresh take on what a quick horror experience can deliver while also basically translating to the ongoing pandemic, making the story in Fear Me hit home in a lot of ways.
The story in Fear Me starts out with a quote straight out of the Bible “The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes. During those days, people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them. What will men do when they are pit against each other or against themselves. “ I’m not a Bible man, but some real horrific heavy metal things are there.
That is what we are given to some wicked stylized art of a meteor crashing down to earth, bringing with it a new plague called Split. The way the people treat each other in Fear Me is the same way people were and rightfully so treating each other at the start of our pandemic. The fear, distrust, and anxiety-ridden humans tangibly hit home in my short time with Fear Me.
Going through severe bouts of anxiety about having to see and deal with other people and that sense that anyone around you can be infected with split works now more than ever. Of course, Split comes with some wild side effects. Ranging from just mild voices in your head to controlling your actions to well doing what it’s called and splitting you right in half. You have the potential to come across some other humans in your playthrough of Fear Me. They have a deeper understanding of the disease and understand that if they are around an infected, it is not a safe place to be and the fact that there are monsters out walking around.
Other than hearing about other survivors eventually going mad and clawing their faces off, the visuals in Fear Me are minimal but effective. With an art style that kicks ass and just enough animation to make it feel like a fully realized artistic world. The music queues and sound effects in Fear Me also follow this vibe by being super minimalist and ridiculously effective.
Being made in just three days, I’m thoroughly impressed by Fear Me and hope to experience more visual novels in their style. It has, in a way, brought my attention back to visual novel horror games, the last one I enjoyed being Sucker For Love, but you know I MAY be a little biased on that one now. Either way, creators on itch.io continue to amaze me, and I cannot wait to keep finding more experiences.
Speaking of experiences, be sure to head over to itch.io to check out Fear Me and follow Lemi for future updates on his future projects! While we are talking about itch, check out the submissions for the DreadXp Found Footage game jam. Check out some more horror findings over at DreadXP, like Lee’s excellent Phantasmagoria 2 article and the ever-entertaining Real Professional Podcast.
