[1] Taking place in an anachronistic dark fantasy setting mixing Medieval and early modern environments, Fear & Hunger follows one of four playable characters as they delve into the Dungeon of Fear and Hunger, facing off against deadly traps, puzzles and monsters as they make their way deeper, in order to find the mercenary leader Le’garde.

In an interview, he stated that the idea for the game was born from his school days when he would propose morally awkward hypotheticals to his classmates that would all take place in a morbid dungeon.

Haverinen has stated that the inspiration for the game came from a desire to create a sensation of relentless darkness and experiment in different ways to evoke hopelessness and horror.

Silent Hill, Hellraiser, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Nethack, Berserk, the Souls games and Mortal Kombat were all named as inspirations by Haverinen.

[2][3][7][8] Writing for DualShockers, Marcus Jones wrote that, "Fear and Hunger is the absolute essence of grueling, with death being a natural part of the game.

Yet those who persevere and apply their knowledge of past playthroughs to the current one are granted a one-of-a-kind dungeon crawler that will literally have you crawling back for more.

"[2] Dominic Tarason, writing for Rock Paper Shotgun, praised the game's gameplay and atmosphere but criticized the semi-frequent typos, varying quality of the artwork and some of the more sexual aspects of the horror.