S.C.A.R.E.D. Hour Zero

S.C.A.R.E.D. Hour Zero is the first game in the S.C.A.R.E.D.verse. Set in the modern day, it details the events of the S.C.R.E.A.M. Incursion and the start of the Holy War.

### Rating

Mature: Realistic Violence, Blood and Gore, Sexual Violence, Drug Reference, Brief Nudity, Suggestive Themes, Mild Language

### Media

Digital Download, limited physical DVD copies

## Plot

At 3:25 pm, S.C.R.E.A.M. (Soldiers Created for Researching Enemy Armies and Munitions) began their attack on the D.E.A.T.H. (Department of Evolution, AIDs, Tachycardia and Hormones). Recon team ZULU went in to scout out the location of Doctor Alexander Grey, a whistleblower to the D.E.A.T.H. company, while Enforcer 34-1 and Fireteam GOLF were dispatched to recover Doctor Grey and extract the civilians.

Enforcer 34-1 entered the facility and cleared out the security guards protecting the area, on a mission to eliminate D.E.A.T.H. Security Officer Goldburg. After clearing the area, GOLF began extracting civilians as 34-1 attempted to regroup with ZULU. ZULU was under heavy fire and were killed by Security Forces which were attempting to extract Doctor Grey themselves. 34-1 was able to kill the detachment and, with GOLF Squadron, were able to escape the facility with Doctor Grey.

The Greyfield Police Department set up a perimeter around the block sized building as the Virginia National Guard mobilized. S.C.A.R.E.D. (Stealth Combat and Rescue Elite Deployments) General Foxx heard of what was happening, and prepared a counter attack, due to D.E.A.T.H.s importance to the military, and because of his suspicions of D.E.A.T.H. being a cult. Foxx put Sargent Burton Maddison Garland in charge of all S.C.A.R.E.D. Operations going on. After contacting National Guard Commander Millward, S.C.A.R.E.D. was able to dispatch reinforcements, under the guise of the United States Marine Corps. A special taskforce known as Marine Escort consisted of the S.C.A.R.E.D. Leftenant, Private David Yager and Private Ron Moore was dispatched to the area. The team split up, with the Leftenant clearing out the rear S.C.R.E.A.M. guard. Yager and Moore were able to evade hostile forces as they worked their way to a loading bay which was the rally point for the incoming assault teams. During the fight, the Leftenant was able to gather a flash drive from a computer that detailed how seven Navy SEALs were called in in an attempt to remove something from their facility, but the team was killed, as well as a folder that detailed money transfers from D.E.A.T.H. to S.C.R.E.A.M., revealing that S.C.R.E.A.M. was funded and supported by D.E.A.T.H. As Marine Escort prepared to hold off an incoming S.C.R.E.A.M. force, Yager and Moore were killed, while the Leftanent was able to kill them. He attempted to make his way to what would be a helicopter landing zone but was ambushed by Kiam Henderson.

Commander Millward, worried about the lack of contact with Marine Escort, sent in Assault Team Union. Led by Captain Thomas Harrison, Harrison and his squad mate made a full frontal assault on the front lobby, clearing it of S.C.R.E.A.M. Forces, while additional members of Union began their attack in other areas of the facility. Harrison was able to meet up with a surviving security guard and was able to regroup with the guards squad. S.C.R.E.A.M. began using some sort of jamming device which cut the team off. The team dug in and prepared for a defense.

After Garland lost contact with Marine Escort and the Leftenant, he dispatched Recon Team Yankiee, consisting of Lieutenant Chloe Anderson, Corporal Brighton Williams and Corporal Dan Mole. The team was able to locate the Leftenant's weapon and the remains of Marine Escort, but not the Leftenant himself. The team split up, with Mole and Williams going back over the steps of the Leftanent and Anderson going over the steps of Marine Escort. Remnants of Assault Team Union are pinned down by S.C.R.E.A.M. forces, but she is unable to save them. As she heads deeper into the facility, she gets a distress call from Captain Harrison, and moves to assist him, being informed that long range radios are being jammed. After arriving at the area Union is at, she covers their escape as she kills off several waves of Enforcers and Raiders. Mole and Williams split up to cover more ground, with Mole being close to Andersons position. After regrouping and disabling the jamming device, Garland orders the squad to try to find who the commander of S.C.R.E.A.M. is.

After being saved, Harrison and his team make their way to an established landing zone, attempting to extract the surviving D.E.A.T.H. personnel they have. As they attempt to escape the area, they're shot down by a S.C.R.E.A.M. anti air unit in a nearby construction site. Special Operations Sargent Hendricks Jackson, who was heading to the area to assist National Guard teams, was diverted to the construction site to help Harrison out. During this time, Corporal Williams was ambushed by several Failed Test Subjects. Unsure as to what they were, he panicked and killed them, before escaping into a vent. While in there, he ended up crawling to the location of where S.C.R.E.A.M. Commander Mordrid Lucrita is. Relaying the information to Garland, he and his team are then ordered to head to the roof for evac. On his way there, he ends up saving a Security Guard, David Lyle, from an Enforcer, who reveals an important security center is under siege. After getting the order to support, he and Lyle begin an offense, but Lyle is killed in the fighting. Williams is able to save the center. While there, the officer in charge tells him that they're moving to a more secure position. Garland agrees with this and Williams goes to offer protection, unaware that the information at the current area has been destroyed by the security forces. Around this time, Jackson has rescued the survivors of the helicopter crash. Harrison and his team join up with reinforcements, and offer their support to Harrison.

As Union and Jackson return to the facility, Garland informs them that Anderson is close to their position. Jackson is able to save her from an enemy patrol, where she reveals that Mole has been separated from her. She remains in her hiding place as Jackson clears the landing out. After Anderson gets on the chopper, Union begins their mission, looking for Lucrita. Jackson ducks into a vent and finds himself close to Moles location, but was too late to save him. Mole was killed by Henderson while being attacked by Nahum, to prevent his soul from being stolen. Jackson recovered a hard drive containing information on D.E.A.T.H.s project Mengele. As he continues on, he travels into a facility that is containing Y-19, and notices S.C.R.E.A.M. WASPs putting it into barrels. Unsure as to what it is, he avoids it as best as he can. Inside one containment chamber, Lucrita is overseeing the containment process, and remarks unimpressed on Jacksons performance. He is not worried about Jackson and denies his men to engage, and instead has them continue with their objectives. As Jackson moves on, he gets a distress call from Williams and quickly moves to support him. There he meets up with Franklen and the Base Commander. Williams and Franklen stay behind while Williams continues gathering information as Jackson makes an assault towards a command center setup by Security and Soldiers.

Unknown to the government, D.E.A.T.H. had gotten an order to eliminate all government forces after the base commander was rescued. Jackson was able to survive, but Williams was killed by Franklen, who escaped in the vent. Jackson fought his way through D.E.A.T.H. and S.C.R.E.A.M. forces, unsure of his location. He finally got back into contact with Garland and was ordered to prevent S.C.R.E.A.M. from escaping the facility. It was here he ran into Tuker Mase, the leader of the D.E.A.T.H. forces, who sarcastically remarked to him, then ordered his men to kill them, promising them a hefty bonus for whoever killed him. Jackson was able to make it to the roof where the helicopter carrying Lucrita and Sigma S.C.R.E.A.M. forces was shot down. Fighting through Elite Security forces, he came face to face with Lucrita after killing his soldiers. Lucrita desperately tried to explain that S.C.R.E.A.M. was on his side but was killed.

Jackson was picked up by Dust 7 and taken to warehouse district that was where S.C.R.E.A.M. retreated to. Several squadrons of D.E.A.T.H. forces also fought their way there. Greyfield Police Department set up a perimeter around the area, trapping the local gang The Black Jackets and dozen of civilians in the kill zone. Jackson took point and investigated the area, fighting Black Jacket members while he waited for National Guard forces to finish cleaning up and securing the D.E.A.T.H. facility. Garland suspected the Black Jackets were allied to some extent with S.C.R.E.A.M. but there was no way to prove it. Jackson discovered that the warehouse was a secret front to an abandoned D.E.A.T.H. Lab, while the Black Jackets confused and thought it was a spaceship. Jackson uncovered several documents detailing Project Mengele while Harrison informed him that he was going to be on his own due to the size of the facility, and amount of stragglers of both D.E.A.T.H. and S.C.R.E.A.M. Failed test subjects that had been living in Y-19 for years began attacking Security officials and Jackson. Jackson finally confirmed the suspicions of D.E.A.T.H. being a Nazi cult, and came face to face with S.C.R.E.A.M. General Archild Prayer. Prayer concealed his worry and told his men to kill Jackson while he went and tried to get the elevators reactivated so his men could escape. Jackson killed all OMEGA Enforcers and defeated the D.E.A.T.H. assault force, killing both Franklen and Mase.

Jackson then began chasing after Prayer, killing the last of the WASPs and several Failed Test Subjects and Holy Warriors. He finally came face to face with Prayer for the last time, and after a long battle, he killed Prayer and ran for the elevator. The test subjects and Holy Warriors began attack the surface, killing the security and gang members on the surface. The surviving gang members prepared for a last stand in the Warehouse where he killed Black Jackets leader Thomas Write. National Guard forces were waiting for him to open the warehouse doors where they began to gather whatever they could as Jackson returned to base.

## Gameplay

The gameplay is split between several chapters, called Assessments, where the player plays as a variety of characters each with different health and slightly different speed and gameplay mechanics. Each character also uses slightly different weapons and some even have different flashlights. For example, the Leftanent does not use one but Jackson does. Another big difference is someone like Enforcer 34-1 can replenish all their health while Lieutenant Chloe Anderson will only be able to replenish her health to whatever it was at the end of a level. During gameplay, players can carry any weapon they find and pick up, and can pick up an indefinite ammo supply for each weapon. Players must pick up health kits hidden in levels to stay alive, and starting in Assessment03, flash light batteries to see in the dark. Players can lean around corners and shoot at enemies to keep themselves safe from damage assuming that enemies aren't within the players line of sight prior to leaning. There are three different difficulties the player can pick from as well: Recruit, Commando and S.C.A.R.E.D. Operative. In Recruit, weapons don't do much damage and health kits give a lot of health. In Commando, weapons do medium damage and health kits give medium health, while S.C.A.R.E.D. Operative has weapons do realistic damage and health kits give low health.

## Development

*See also, S.C.A.R.E.D. Hour Zero Cut Content*

S.C.A.R.E.D. Hour Zero was in development since 2015, originally called Real Life Horror, which would've been about the real threat of terror and super natural horror. This idea was scrapped in favor for an Unnamed Project Bullhead Studios director Theo Moore was working on. The game was reportedly "95% done" with only bug fixes and a final name needed, but all the work was lost when a system crash on the computer caused all the data to be lost. Moore has stated "Despite really enjoying making it and proud of what I did, I decided to leave the idea to the dust and will never attempt to remake it, at least not 1 for 1." After the loss of the project, Moore took a step back and brain stormed.

In 2016, Moore played the original F.E.A.R. game and got inspiration from it, and shortly began working on a new project, at the time called DEATH. DEATH would've been about two mercenary factions hired by the same client, fighting it out in a facility trying to stop a virus from escaping and infecting the world, but competing against each other to be the first to get the money. This idea was scrapped because Moore felt the level design wasn't very good and that the logic behind it wasn't very realistic, but might come back to it at a later date. He then shifted more so towards the concept of F.E.A.R., creating a faction of special forces in the United States that were fighting a rival agency that were conducting illegal experiments on people. While this idea stuck, the name of the faction was S.C.R.E.A.M. which was what the name would've been. He changed his mind after the legal issues with the movie franchise Scream. The idea however stuck, so he reworked it again.

The idea stuck and the name S.C.A.R.E.D. came up, but nothing for the acronym yet. He decided to work on the game first, going through various level designs before ending up on the S.C.A.R.E.D. Prototype. Originally, the idea would've been more like F.E.A.R. but taking a slightly more tactical feel, with a squad the player would've fought with. The squad would've consisted of The Leftanent, Hendricks Jackson, Chloe Anderson, Dan Mole and an unnamed soldier. The game didn't get far in development, but it would've been somewhat like Star Wars Republic Commandos. At some point during it's development, The Leftanent was removed and instead Jackson would've been the player, like he was in the Unnamed Project, DEATH and S.C.R.E.A.M. Also, the project was set to be an homage to F.E.A.R. The Leftanent was instead moved to a new game, a demo title S.C.A.R.E.D. Hour Zero. S.C.A.R.E.D. was then called Special Counter Assault Recon Engaged Demolitionists and would've focused on tactical squad play where the player was a demolitionist expert and would've been able to destroy walls and doors. The demo, Hour Zero, would've played slightly different than the full title, featuring a lone operative working his way past a squad of enemy soldiers supplying Intel for Jackson and his team. One thing that would've been unique were the weapons used: the G18 and MCS870 would've been exclusive weapons in the demo while the full game would've had more weapons and a different shotgun.

Special Counter Assault Recon Engaged Demolitionists suffered many delays and design issues, so Hour Zero was tweaked slightly before it became Assessment00. Theo made a trailer for it, but never uploaded it. After showing it off to his friends at school, he felt it wasn't good enough. By this point, the issues and bugs and problems Special Counter Assault Recon Engaged Demolitionists was having made him can the project. Moore revisited his Hour Zero demo, and changed the first level to have a less lengthy vent maze section, added more weapons and changed Yagers model from Harrisons model to what he is now. After finishing it he showed it off again as well as changing the loading screens, but wasn't satisfied because he was the soul voice actor.

He invited a few friends over; Dustin Scott and Joshua Staley, to voice a few characters. He also invited Isacc Mower over as well, but Mower was busy that week, so Moore decided to continue to voice Garland and S.C.R.E.A.M. forces, which finally got their name Soldiers Created for Researching Enemy Armies and Munition, Bill and Fred. At the time however, D.E.A.T.H. was called Department of Evolution and Throat Hormones. After finishing the voice acting with Scott and Staley, Moore decided to change the voice of Fred, so he invited Tuhker Mulford over to help out. Mulford voiced Fred. Moore then changed D.E.A.T.H.s name to Department of Evolution, AIDs, Tachycardia and Hormones to give it a more memorable name, as well as changing S.C.A.R.E.D. to Stealth Combat And Rescue Elite Deployments.

After this, Moore wanted to go back to his original idea of the more tactical feel of S.C.A.R.E.D. After uploading Hour Zero, he began working on the full title, changing it up to be more action packed like Hour Zero. Several ideas included a massive city shootout, a hotel overrun by Failed Test Subjects, a bigger D.E.A.T.H. facility and a gang of some sort causing trouble in the city streets. Development for this game took much longer than he wanted, and started to worry that the few people who played Hour Zero at the time were thinking the game wasn't coming out. Moore took a break from the full game and worked on Assessment01, using Chloe Anderson and creating a squad for her. He used a few scrapped levels from S.C.A.R.E.D. to help out with Andersons game. After he finished it, he went back to working on S.C.A.R.E.D. before recording the voice acting for Assessment01. He got Noah Mouritsen and Mower in on it and after finishing Assessment01, he wanted to dedicate his entire time to S.C.A.R.E.D. On weekends after football games he would the entire day working on the game.

After a year however, he was getting nowhere close to finishing it. "It was simply too much for me to handle on my own. I had too many ideas I wanted to do." he said. He worked on what he hopped would be the final demo for Hour Zero, Assessment02. This demo took a little longer to make as he tried to implement the squad system he was working on. This however wasn't working very well, and he wasn't sure what to do. Scott suggested that he make the chapter about his character, Brighton Williams, and Theo agreed. He changed the levels up slightly and wrote a story to support the new idea and finished it a few days before his high schools teams first game that season. After Assessment02 came out he took a break and focused on Football before coming back to S.C.A.R.E.D. after the season ended. "It was a wonderful breath of fresh air to take that break."

When he started working on it again, he kept running into various problems preventing him from bringing his vision to life. "FPS Creator had massive memory problems, and there was just so much I wanted to do I couldn't cram it all into the required memory. I had to change so much I was basically making a whole other game. So I stopped once again." Theo said. He decided to focus 100% on school and other sports, until the Covid 19 pandemic.

During the lock down, he got back into it after a five month break. "I actually almost got the entire thing done. I was really close to finishing it, but the memory capacity was my biggest enemy. At this point, I was better off restarting and making a different game using the ideas I had." He wrestled with these ideas for a while until the pandemic settled down a bit. He went back to playing Football and took another break, but came back to working day in and out on it after he suffered a foot injury during practice.

"At this point I gave up. I bit off way more than I could chew, so I decided to work with what I had on something I new would work." He took many of his ideas he already made and began development on Assessment03. After finishing it, he held off on releasing it and worked on Assessments 04-7, wanting to drop the entire game at once. After he finished the script for the game, he invited Karter Bouhman, Hallie Johnson, and Matajia Fields over as well as Dustin and Isacc over to record their lines for their characters. However, several other voice actors were unable to come due to scheduling issues and because they went to serve an LDS mission. So he changed the script to accommodate for it. "Thankfully, these changes weren't drastic enough to make me have to redo the voice lines for Matajia, Hallie and Karter."

After he got those lines recorded, he had a foot surgery for the injury he suffered at football. After a week bed ridden he worked on Sector 12 and once he finished it, he was able to work on the rest of Hour Zero. He got the rest of the lines recorded by Isacc, Dustin, Josh and Hallie, as well as doing his lines. He spent the rest of the summer and most of the beginning of his first semester in college smoothing out all the bugs in the game before releasing the entire game on October 21, 2021. "This was the biggest load off my back I ever had. It was such a relief to finally finish it!"

## Battles and Conflicts present in the game.

### Miscellaneous events

World War II (indirect mention)

9/11 (indirect mention)

Mission To Israel (mentioned)

Mission to the D.E.A.T.H. Facility (mentioned)

### S.C.R.E.A.M. Incursion

#### D.E.A.TH. Siege

Setup00

Assessment00

National Guard

Assessment01

Assessment02

Assessment04

Assessment05

Lab

#### Liberation of the Construction Site

Assessment03

Construction

#### Warehouse Raid

Warehouse Raid

Assessment06

Assessment07

## Weapons

MCS870

MP5N

XIX

AK74m

G18

M16A4 w/M2003

M67 Frag

M4A1DX

Colt .45

MAS 36

MP 40

Emergency SOS Light

AKM

M4A1

RPK

Blaster

Vickers

M9A1DX

M249DX

Millsno 36

1911

LRSR M107

MP5sd

RPG 7

minigun

M4001 w/M203

## Factions

### United States of America

#### Stealth Combat And Rescue Elite Deployments

Leftanent

Recon Team Yankiee

Special Operations Operatives

#### Virginia National Guard

##### Virginia Army National Guard

Marine Escort

Assault Team Union

Soldiers

#### Greyfield Police Department

SWAT Teams

Police Officers

### Soldiers Created for Researching Enemy Armies and Munintions

##### HOTEL Company

HOTEL 3

HOTEL 5

HOTEL 7

##### OMEGA Company

OMEGA Enforcers

Raiders

Enforcers

WASPs

Combat Officers

### The National Socialist German Workers Party

#### Department of Evolution, AIDs, Tachycardia and Hormones

##### Mase's Squad

Security Guards

Security Officers

Elite Security Guards

Elite Security Officers

### The Black Jackets

Thugs

Criminals

### Failed Test Subjects

Mutants

Humanoids

## Characters

### Playable

Enforcer 34-1 (S.C.R.E.A.M. Assessment)

S.C.A.R.E.D. Leftanent (Assessment00)

Lieutenant Chloe Anderson (Assessment01)

Corporal Brighton Williams (Assessment02)

Special Operations Sargent Hendricks Jackson (Assessment03-07)

Captain Thomas Harrison (bonus level)

Unknown Enforcer (bonus level)

Unnamed police officer (bonus level)

Unnamed S.C.A.R.E.D. Operative (bonus level)

### Allies

Sargent Burton Maddison Garland

Private David Yager

Private Ron Moore

Corporal Dan Mole

DUST-7

### Enemies

General Archild Prayer

Nahum

Commander Mordrid Lucrita

Kiahm Henderson

Tuker Mase

## Game download link

https://gamejolt.com/games/scaredhourzero/656243

## Trivia

* S.C.A.R.E.D. Hour Zero was designed as an homage to the F.E.A.R. franchise: S.C.A.R.E.D. is based off of F.E.A.R., S.C.R.E.A.M. are based off the Replica and D.E.A.T.H. is based off of Armacham Technology Corporation.
* Hour Zero was originally going to be the name of the Demo, while the full title would've been S.C.A.R.E.D. Bullhead changed this to make the game have a more memorable title, as well as being a "hub" for the S.C.A.R.E.D.verse.
* Raiders, WASPs, Enforcers, and Security Guards all had over an hour of combat dialogue each recorded. Bullhead wasn't able to implement all of it but is hoping to revisit these factions in the future to have all of the quotes used.
* Hour Zero is fairly easy to mod giving the player various weapons, some cut from the final version.
* Assessment00 is on Moddb under two separate names: it states it was developed by *Department of Good Games*, and published by *Theo Moore Games*. These were the original names of Bullhead Studios.
* The bonus content was added to the game as a "Thank you" and so fans can have some end game content, as well as using a few ideas that were cut, such as the squad system in National Guard.
* There exist physical copies of Hour Zero. Bullhead is willing to make them for those who ask.
* All the playable story characters are on the cover art for the game.
	+ The original box art showed Bullheads old logo.