Fatal Hour: Petroleum

Fatal Hour: Petroleum is the first chapter in the Fatal Hour Saga, a series about survivors struggling to live through a zombie apocalypse. In this single-level challenge, you command five survivors stranded at an abandoned gas station while Mechanic Mike repairs their bus. The group is surrounded by undead, including former residents and inmates of a nearby women’s penitentiary, and must hold them off while the repairs are underway.

The situation

The survivors are travelling through the wastelands, following an automated radio transmission in hopes of finding living people. When the bus engine starts failing, they reach a gas station in the middle of nowhere. Mike can repair the engine, but the undead have noticed the group, and time may be short.

Survival gameplay

You command a team whose members have different personalities and preferred weapons. The game combines top-down, third-person action with real-time strategy and tower defense on a single map. You play each chapter as a separate challenge, choosing from different difficulty levels and trying to achieve the best result by surviving as long as possible.

The survivors

• Prepper Jack: A pre-apocalypse prepper and expert marksman who uses a military-grade precision sniper rifle.
• Trailer Jane: A former waitress who survived the outbreak at a diner with her father’s Colt 1911. After her trailer park was overrun, she made killing the undead her mission.
• Deputy Klaus: A deputy from Dirtmine, Arizona, who was returning to the sheriff’s office when the outbreak struck. He is a firm believer in teaching lessons.
• Samu Jin: A tech student who carries an ancient sword replica and wears a gas mask, convinced that something in the air caused the outbreak. He has refused ranged weapons and fights the undead at close quarters.
• Shotgun Joe: A taciturn man who favors a sawed-off shotgun and has little patience for people who talk to him.
• Mechanic Mike: A peaceful, physically imposing mechanic with an exceptional understanding of engines. After his mother became one of the outbreak’s first victims, he fled town; he now works on the bus while the others defend the group.

Chapter structure

Each Fatal Hour chapter is a standalone, single-level minigame that presents a separate survival challenge. At least three chapters are planned in the series; the first focuses on keeping the undead at bay at the gas station until the group’s transportation is repaired.