Having invited us not to feed the monkeys in the title of its 2018 debut, Fictiorama Studios’ latest leads us to wonder what the Spanish developer has against our simian brethren following a comic panel depicting the vivisection of an ape. But that’s tame by the standardsa narrativeled strategy game that revels in its tastelessness and is, largely, the better for it. Urged on by the eponymous carnival fortune teller, you’re invited to fulfil the wishes of three unscrupulous characters: a lonely scientist turned pharmaceutical exec, a fretful opioid addict seeking to overcome the tremor that has held him back, and a fanatical televangelist. By implanting urban legends to stoke panic among the populace, you’ll leave them more open to messages that will allow you to fulfil your ambitions. It’s a queasily unsettling premise – a tabloid media simulator, if you will – but the knowledge that the monkey’s paw will surely curl for the wishes of this trio compels you to guide them to the bitterest of ends.
