Fear Effect

"A game that could've been a classic, but didn't go all the way..."

The Playstation-era made way for many of today's classic game series - Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider, the Solid part of the Metal Gear series. At around the same time this game was released , but nobody talks about it today. Maybe there's a reason to that?


Let's start off with a little explanation of what this game is about - a group of three mercenaries; Hana, Glas and Deke, are sent to a mission in China, where you are supposed to find the missing daughter of a powerful businessman. This will eventually turn out to become something much, much bigger.


During the course of the game, you will control all three of the mercs (at times when the game decides, so no free switching for you).


Graphics
Let's start off with the graphics. The graphics consists of FMV backgrounds, so they're detailed in comparison to other games of the Playstation era. I'm not really that impressed, though, since I'm not really a big fan of screen-based (the screen is static all the time, and the characters are moving) gameplay, since often you'll end up running into an enemy or a trap without even getting a chance to see it beforehand.


The characters are modelled in a style that's sort of a predecessor to the cel-shade look that got popular some years later. They look somewhat out of place to the FMV background and the lip movements when they talk is awful - especially for Glas (and don't say they couldn't do it better back then - the second game got it right!).


Also, here could be a good time to mention that the Fear in the game's name is not the same jump-out-of-your-chair fear like Resident Evil, or the psychological fear in Silence Hill, but it's trying to scare you with gory instant-death scenes instead. The problem with this is that you'll die so often you'll quickly become sort of immune to it, and also I can't really imagine how anything feels for a cel-shaded character... It's just too unreal to be scary.


Sounds
The sound has weak and good points. The background music varies - the disc two "ambient jungle sounds" music at one point sounds more like somebody whistling than a parrot. Also, in the same level, the enemies keep repeating "benguya" or something until it drives you nuts. That isn't really scary!


I like the voice acting, though, and would rank this game and it's prequel as the second-best from this era of gaming.


Controls
Well, here's the biggest issue of the game... The controls are pretty weak. First of all, like I mentioned above you have that kind of static-screen based gameplay. You will NEVER be able to shoot an enemy off-screen, even if you know exactly where they are. This creates a problem if you haven't got much space to move in, the screen changes, and you won't be able to hit your enemy but as soon as they get into the screen they'll shoot you down.


Another problem is the item/weapon management system. You don't have any pause-inventory like in most games, instead you cycle through your weapons and items with the square and circle buttons. While I guess it's supposed to make you feel the fear and stress of the character when you cycle through weapons "live" during the game. The problem is that it often takes a long time to find the exact item, key or whatever you're looking for, and enemies will get some hits in before you even have a chance to pull out a weapon. In the end, that system will just make you frustrated.


A third problem is that the areas you need to touch to be able to do something (say, open a door) is often a little bit off. Often you'll have to be standing with your side to the door instead of with the face towards it to be able to open. This is especially irritating in a room with enemies where you know if you could just find that spot for the door you'd be safely out!


Overall results
So, what about the story? Well, I think it's decent. I don't want to spoil it for you, but it ends up with something very different from what it begins with. Sometimes it feels pretty deep, but sadly there are many instances of scenes that feels unnecessary. Also, I don't really get why Hana's running around for quite some time in act 2 with nothing but a bath towel around her body. It's just not motivated, and it surely isn't exciting...


Even though the game is spread out across four discs, it isn't very long. The FMV backgrounds and all the FMV that brings the story forwards are taking up some serious space, so don't be surprised if you finish the game in 4-6 hours on a first playthrough. A second playthrough will go even faster since you know where the enemies are and already know how to solve the puzzles.


The replayability isn't that good. As I said before, a second game will play out no different from the first, and even though the game has 5 endings (or 3, depending on how you count), 4 of them will be available on every playthrough and you'll be able to get them from the last save point, so you won't have to play through the game again to see them all.


TOTAL SCORE: 6
After all, I think that if you can find this game for a good price it could be a good idea to buy it. It's won't really be like anything you've ever played before (for good and worse), and even if it's flawed it's still a pretty decent game to play if you've finished with all the classics.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 08/28/09

Game Release: Fear Effect (EU, 1999)