The Fabulous Fear Machine, a spiteful strategy game from the developers of the Beholder series and Do Not Feed The Monkeys, is here in time for the spooky season.. and given its themes, it’ll be right at home there.

The Fabulous Fear Machine is a game where you set out to spread an epidemic across the population. It’s not a disease you’re out to infect people with though, it’s fear. As the Master Of The Machine, you must inspire terror across the globe through the use of urban legends and cryptids.

God Of The Machine

It centers around the titular machine, a strange cabinet reminiscent of Zoltar from Big, which comes with a talking fortune-teller dummy inside. The machine is supposed to be able to grant you one wish, at the very ominous-sounding price that you need to entrust your life story to become part of the machine after your death. That doesn’t sound shady at all.

Regardless of the really Faustian vibes, several ambitious individuals take the Fear Machine’s offer and trade their stories for having its power at their disposal to get what they want the most.

You’ll follow each of their rises to power, though we’re willing to bet that deals for wealth and influence with a red-eyed puppet in a cursed fortune teller cabinet probably don’t work out well for everyone involved. Just a hunch.

As the Master or Mistress of The Machine, you need to influence the world to bend in the way you want it to. You do this through launching a meticulous campaign of mass manipulation, through rumors, urban legends, and the actions of fanatical agents of the machine in places across the world.

Spread Your Influence

You’ll need to cultivate panic and push public opinion toward your own nefarious goals, though you’ll soon find you’re not the only one mired in the world of misinformation. You’ll need to face off against rival puppet masters and the forces of good trying to get in the way of your supernaturally-enhanced power trip.

It’s a game about planning carefully, and abandoning any kind of moral fiber immediately. Who needs goodness and kindness when you can have anything you want?

Ready to sell your soul to The Machine? You can check out The Fabulous Fear Machine now for PC via Steam.

Interested in some more new releases? Take a look at our news piece on COCOON.