An episodic series, Fears to Fathom follows the story of the narrator of each episode who shares their story of the horror they survived. Players follow the narrative to learn what happened that lead up to the moment that allowed the survivor to live to tell their tale.
The episodes so far are:
- Home Alone (released July 2021)
- Norwood Hitchhike (released January 2022)
- Carson House (released January 2023)
- Ironbark Lookout (released October 20th 2023)
Fears to Fathom features examples of the following:
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Shared Tropes
- Arc Villain: All of the episodes have at least one antagonist unique to their respective plots, and are some form of intruder or stalker.
- Home Alone - The Intruder.
- Norwood Hitchhike - The Stalker.
- Carson House - Cara.
- Ironbark Lookout - The Cult.
- Cower Power: Each protagonist has to hide for a time before escaping danger to conclude the story. What makes it challenging is that they mustn't make noise to attract attention to their whereabouts; the game can also pick up noise coming from the player's microphone while hiding.
- Miles in Home Alone has to hide in his room from an intruder until the police arrive on the scene.
- Holly in Norwood Hitchhike hides in the motel closet while the intruder looks for her before the owner intervenes.
- Noah in Carson House hides in the laundry room until Cara has moved elsewhere, giving him a chance to escape and call for help.
- Jack in Ironbark Lookout hides under his bed then in the outhouse from the cultists before running for the park entrance.
- First-Person Perspective: Each story told in Fears to Fathom are played in first-person from the viewpoint of the protagonist.
- Foregone Conclusion: Given that each story is narrated by the episode's protagonist, we know that they will all survive their horrifying ordeals to tell the tale (although the player can still get game overs if they make the wrong decisions, albeit this just takes them back to their previous save point).
- Genre Anthology: All of the episodes are self-contained horror stories with no shared characters; the main theme found in each episode is that the stories are ostensibly true tales of people who narrowly survived horrifying encounters.
- Good Samaritan: The first three games have small moments of concern and kindness.
- The neighbor in Home Alone warns Miles of the strange man at his front door, notifies his parents, and goes over to check on him while the police search the house.
- In Norwood Hitchhike Holly gets a ride to a motel from a relative stranger and repeated assistance from the desk clerk.
- Noah can help an elderly woman find an item at the grocery store.
- Meaningful Background Event: It is possible to see the stalker in each episode shadowing the protagonist in the background long before they make their presence known at the climax, which an attentive player can spot.
- Sequel Escalation: Both in runtime and each game's threat. The first game sees you playing a boy home alone for the night, who has to deal with an intruder. By the fourth episode, you play as a fire watchman who spends several days in the woods as things get in increasingly creepy, culminating in him facing off against a cult who may be responsible for numerous disappearances.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: All the plots are based upon supposedly true stories submitted to the developers. Although some details are altered or embellished so the stories can be fitted into a video game format and we can't be certain how accurate they are, for the most part the plots feature fairly plausible scenarios, with the threats coming from dangerous people rather than anything supernatural.
Home Alone
14-year-old Miles' parents leave town for a work-trip, trusting him to stay home alone for the night. However, Miles quickly finds himself in over his head when a stranger begins creeping around the house.
- Dramatic Irony: The player will become aware of the intruder long before Miles does, which is used to enhance the horror. A keen-eyed player can spot the intruder sneaking upstairs in the background while Miles is eating lasagna on the living room couch. Since Miles doesn't know of the danger, he has no reason to be afraid and the player has no choice but to go upstairs for the story to continue.
- Imminent Danger Clue: A stranger is seen walking around the front of the house before disappearing. Said stranger would later break into the house when it gets dark, even try to trick Miles into opening the door.
- Sleepyhead: Discussed by Miles. He admits at the time the story takes place, his sleep hours became irregular but he was trying to fix that.
- Unseen Evil: The intruder is never fully seen, as he's always depicted in shadow, and his sinister intentions are also never fully defined. Miles can catch one glimpse of the intruder's face toward the end.
- Would Hurt a Child: Should Miles attempt to escape down the stairs, the stranger will catch him and likely kill him.
Norwood Hitchhike
19-year-old Holly Gardner is driving back to her home state after visiting a gaming convention. To avoid bad traffic on the interstate, Holly travels along a backroad in the rural Norwood Valley, only for her car to break down. Forced to spend the night at a shady motel, Holly soon realises that car troubles are the least of her problems.
- Beware of Hitchhiking Ghosts: Invoked in-universe. The cashier warns Holly not to pick up anyone because the area has the ghost of a teenage girl who died on her prom night.
- Big Damn Heroes: The motel owner, who manages to intercept the intruder trying to come after Holly.
- Impairment Shot: This effect happens after Holly drinks a coffee from the vending machine. She initially chalks it up to exhaustion, but later believes her coffee was deliberately drugged.
- Inn of No Return: It's implied by Holly that unknown people use the motel as a hunting ground for potential victims, and the owner is terrified of them.
- It Was Here, I Swear!: When Holly leads the motel owner to where the vending machine where she got the spiked coffee, she is alarmed to find the machine is not there.
- Karma Houdini: Holly states in her ending narration that the motel manager wanted to avoid getting the police involved and let go of the situation, which means that her stalker ultimately got away scot-free.
- My Car Hates Me: While driving down the road said to be haunted, Holly's car breaks down just as she cleared away the logs blocking her path.
- Slipping a Mickey: Discussed by Holly. She suspects the coffee from the vending machine was drugged so that whoever was stalking her could have an easier time snatching her.
Carson House
18-year-old Noah Baker agrees to housesit for his father's friend and client Roy Carson. What he anticipated to be an easy job soon turns into a growing nightmare, as Noah finds himself plagued by harassing calls and text messages, and suspects someone is trying to break in.
- Addled Addict: Two months into her relationship with Noah, Cara began to use meth (with the implication that wasn't too stable before that either). When Noah attempted to get her help, she turned on him and felt that he was trying to change her, culminating in them parting ways. Cara's character model is unhealthily thin, looks unkempt, and has dark circles under her eyes. It's confirmed at the end of the episode that she was drunk and high while stalking Noah through the house.
- Age-Gap Romance: Noah - who was 18 during the events of the episode - mentions that Cara is three years older than him, making her around 21 when they dated. He says he was initially a bit wary about dating her because she was older than his previous girlfriends, but he decided to give it a chance because they got along so well. However, the relationship didn't last long because Cara turned out to be far more immature and reckless than Noah despite being older. Cara being an adult while Noah was still in high school when they dated also gives off some red flags, with Cara's later actions cementing their relationship as disturbing and unsavoury.
- Descent into Addiction: Discussed by Noah. Cara, who began taking meth, went down that path while Noah was dating her. He tried to sway her out of it, but she refused and became hostile, so he broke up with her.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Completely averted. Cara's obsessive and violent behavior towards her ex-boyfriend throughout the game is Played for Horror all the way to the end; the police and courts also take it seriously, as she ends up being arrested and locked up for stalking and attacking Noah.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Cara is an unstable young woman with dark brown hair who stalks Noah, her ex-boyfriend.
- Harassing Phone Call: Noah gets numerous texts from his ex-girlfriend via an unknown number. She blows up when he doesn't respond and breaks into the house to attack him.
- If I Can't Have You…: Cara says this verbatim to Noah right she attempts to kill him.
- Kill the Lights: In the final chapter, Cara shuts off power to the house after, presumably, seeing the security cameras.
- Loony Fan: A news article shares how Mr. Carson has fans of his wife who made death threats against him for his alleged infidelity. This winds up being a Red Herring. The intruder isn't a psycho-obsessed fan of the Carsons, but Cara, Noah's ex-girlfriend who's there for him personally.
- Mistaken for Prank Call: When Noah gets texts from an unknown number, he assumes it's his friend Turner pranking him. To his horror, he finds out from another friend that it isn't Turner messaging him.
- Not Good with Rejection: Cara. After her drug use drove Noah away and he began seeing another girl, Cara does not take it well at all, stalking Noah to the Carson house and breaking in with a knife. She will try to kill Noah if she spots him and in the ending, the police are convinced she had malicious intentions towards Noah despite her claiming otherwise.
- Police Are Useless: Averted. Once Noah's father calls them about Cara, the police review the camera footage and rightfully conclude that Cara's actions were unlawful and malicious, and promptly arrest her.
- Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: Cara. When she finds out where Noah is staying, she attempts to get back together with him, but quickly slides into threatening violence when he refuses and threatens to call the police. She attempts to kill him with a kitchen knife and also threatens to kill his new girlfriend Evelyn. She was heavily under the influence of meth and alcohol at the time, though it's implied she wasn't all that stable before that and the drugs just worsened her mental state.
- Psycho Knife Nut: Upon entering the Carson household, Cara grabs a kitchen knife as she stalks and attempts to stab Noah to death.
- Red Herring: It's implied that one the Loony Fans of Ray Carson's wife could be the intruder, with Noah being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The intruder isn't one of them and couldn't care less about the Carsons. She's after Noah himself.
- Surreal Humor: Both TV shows that Noah watches have bizarre animation, sound, and scripts.
- Useless Security Camera: Averted. The security cameras in the Carson house helped Noah spot Cara in the house trying to find him.
- Yandere: After being ignored and rejected by her ex-boyfriend due to her unstable behaviour, Cara intends to kill both Noah and his girlfriend.
- Younger Than They Look: Noah's friends mention that Cara's drug habit has made her look older than her 20 years.
Ironbark Lookout
Jack Nelson, a 24-year-old fire lookout with a passion for the great outdoors, is transferred to a new post, Tower 11 in Ironbark State Park. Although the area seems peaceful, Jack quickly learns there have been several strange sightings and mysterious disappearances in the park. As the days pass, Jack begins to suspect he's being watched.
- Cassandra Truth: After Jack flees the park and tries to warn everybody about the cult, neither the authorities and his own family believe him. It's implied that the park staff and the local townsfolk do have some knowledge of what's really going on, but they're reluctant to back-up Jack's account and look the other way.
- Cult: A cult is revealed to be operating in Ironbark State Park. Not much is known about them and their activities, but they're definitely not benevolent; they stalk, threaten and try to attack Jack when he gets too close to revealing their activities and they're likely responsible for at least some of the disappearances of hikers and campers in the park. Silas is strongly implied to be a cult member and indicates that they believe some events, such as forest fires, are nature's way of restoring balance and shouldn't be interfered with.
- He Knows Too Much: How the climax starts. Jack sneaks a photo of some cultists ritualistically burning something at a restricted area. But they see his camera flash and make a beeline for the tower.
- Implied Death Threat: Silas's parting words. It's soon revealed he was lying about his job; indirectly confirming he's a cultist, and retroactively making this a Shame If Something Happened. And in the Cower Power sequence, it almost comes true.Silas: Have a good night, Jack. Hope you sleep well. but remember.. ... ... curiosity can lead to places you'd rather not go. ... ... Farewell, Jack.
- I Never Told You My Name: A retroactive example. Jack initially doesn't think much of it that Silas knows his name without Jack having told him, because Silas claims to work at the park and says his co-workers have talked about Jack. However, Jack gets a lot more worried when he mentions it to Connor, who says that no one named Silas works with them.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The posters at the park entrance are for Brit Knee Spheres, Sanita Williams, and Hugh Jassman.
- Police Are Useless: Despite getting photo evidence of cult activity in the forest, his fellow park rangers insist that everything Jack saw was just a prank or delusion and don't take any further action. However, it's implied by their behavior that the veteran park rangers are well aware of the cult's presence and turn a blind eye to their activities out of fear, so they have every reason to cover up the incident.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: The rumors of the park's creatures, "entities," etc. It's inhabited by a cult whose uniforms make them look like Grim Reaper Horned Humanoids.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Once Jack evades the cult's initial attempts to catch him, he makes a run for his RV and drives straight out of the park, immediately quitting his job afterwards.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: All of the park rangers and camp staff caution Jack not to wander too far north, especially at night, ostensibly due to the presence of dangerous wildlife. The way they say it gives Jack the impression there's something else going on they don't want him knowing about.
- Uncertain Doom:
- One of Jack's first calls is to investigate a campsite in an off limits area. He comes across a campsite that seems to have been abandoned in a hurry. Finding no sign of the campers, Jack can only report what he found.
- During one night, Jack gets into radio contact with a lost hiker and tries to guide him to safety. The last thing Jack hears is the hiker finding someone else in the forest before he's pulled away to accept a supply delivery from another ranger. Afterwards, Jack doesn't hear anything more from the hiker.
- Workplace Horror: In a first for the series (unless one counts Noah's housesitting duties in Carson House), this episode heavily revolves around the player carrying out Jack's duties as the new fire lookout in a state park. This includes recording the wind speed, temperature and weather each night before turning in, communicating with other lookouts, investigating problem campers and assisting a lost hiker over the radio. Over the course of about a week, Jack starts to sense there's something sinister going on in the park, but the other staff are either dismissive or give only cryptic warnings.
