Fears to Fathom - Home Alone is a psychological horror game that delivers an atmospheric and tense experience. It's the first episode in the Fears to Fathom series where you play as 14-year-old Miles, who finds himself home alone while his parents are out of town for work.
The game does an excellent job of setting up the creepy vibe right from the start. The graphics have a cool VHS film aesthetic that adds to the eerie atmosphere. Even when nothing is actively happening, you can't shake the unsettling feeling that something isn't quite right. I was on edge the entire playthrough, just waiting for the next scary moment to happen.
Without giving too much away, the story takes some dark turns as Miles gets caught up in a disturbing situation. The developer did a great job of building suspense and dread. I definitely jumped a few times from the well-executed jump scares. The fact that it's based on something that could realistically happen adds an extra layer of fear.
One of the coolest aspects is that the ending changes based on the choices you make as Miles. So you have some control over whether he survives the night or meets a dark fate. It makes replaying worthwhile to see the different outcomes.
In terms of gameplay, it's relatively simple as a story-driven horror experience. But there are nice touches like being able to receive texts from NPCs and have your voice activity picked up if you speak out loud during tense moments.
For technical details, Fears to Fathom runs on the Unity engine and is only available for Windows PC currently. The recommended specs are fairly modest, so it should run well on most modern computers. It's about 850 MB to download.
The only real downside is that it's quite short, taking around 30 minutes to an hour to complete depending on your play style. But it's the first episode, so there's theoretically much more story content to come in future releases.
Overall, Fears to Fathom - Home Alone makes for an excellent little psychological horror experience, especially for the free price tag. The atmosphere, tension, and general creep factor are extremely well-done. Any fan of horror games should definitely check this one out while eagerly awaiting the next episode's release.