"Hello, Hana ! You haven't changed since I met you the first time!"

Hi everyone ! Today I return to this review for an old familiar game of Kronos Digital Entertainment : Fear Effect. Well, writing reviews is not my favourite work, but I think this game worth a review of me since I finished it up. I had played Fear Effect 2 : Retro Helix before this one. Although it's some kind of reverse, I think now I can compare them together to see if the series has really advanced.

Gameplay 9/10
It is similar to Fear Effect 2 : You take the role of a team including eminent characters in military to do some missions, just like James Bond 007. The adventures in the game consist of many various challenges, difficulties and enemies' cunning plans. And you must get pass of them to reach your target in the end. This game has no much dread, but you still feel it in your mind, even though your opponents are very ordinary and vulgar. It has a similarity with Resident Evil : You solve puzzles and you find keys to get pass the areas. But the puzzles are extremely hard, and the enemies are pretty intelligent with the artificial detection system that you must be careful and expert in playing if you want to survive. Although no one calls Fear Effect a ''survival horror'', I think it deserves that name. Because you will be afraid, you will face terrible situations and you coldly get pass your fear to keep you alive.
Besides, Fear Effect is an adventure of many related characters, giving you a lot of choices to rescue your partners. You can select different choices to save them or not, then you get your endings. The game doesn't force you in a general rule. It lets you be free in action, and you may have your own solution to escape from dangers. Unlike Resident Evil, your control are completely free : Attack and Avoid. You not only attack like shooting in Resident Evil, but avoid and crouch like a real spy who is in mission. Those things make the game more interesting and harder as well. So are those things all really advantages ? Let's see...

Controls 9/10
You have some buttons used to attack and a lot of buttons used to defend and dodge. Then you have many types to get for you the best one in Options menu. The game has given you a big control system, that means your missions in the game are not easy. This will make the game not boring and you have your enthusiasm to continue til the end. But of course, it's not completely perfect. It's related with Weapons and Enemies system which I will tell about.

Main characters 5/10
So bad design. I agree that this game must use the cartoon factor to encourage some remarkable characteristics of the game, but the author didn't use all its advantage to design the characters well. I think this kind of graphic is not bad enough to make the characters bad-looking. For instance, Wee Ming Lam can be considered as a fascinating girl, but I think she looks like a middle-aged woman more than a young lady. Then the main one Hana is just ''an old woman'' and Royce Glas looks so terrible. But it's lucky that this bug has been corrected in Fear Effect 2, which the same main characters are better and real.

Storyline 9/10
Okay, one of the best mystery next to Koudelka and Silent Hill. The story is built on the base of Chinese traditions such as the superstitious paper dolls, burning things, King of Hell, etc making the game meaningful and lively. Wee Ming Lam, who was born from a paper doll through the King of Hell's magical power, has become the problem of the series in the game : Many people are turned into demons as human blood touches her. But there's something more terrible than ever behind these events. And then those specialists Hana Tsu-Vachel, Royce Glas and Jakob Decourt have been taken into the catalyst and now they have to find the truth about Wee Ming and the King of Hell. Well, the bring up episodes in the game open a lot of excitements and amazements. You'll know its true advantage of the story when playing it.

Puzzles System 10/10
The puzzles in Fear Effect are great, greater than part two. They are more various with different styles and different solutions such as : Flower chart, melodies, dancing puppet, matrix, etc. If these puzzles are just similar to those Resident Evil or Parasite Eve, I have nothing to say. But the hard is that how to find the solutions. It's not shown clearly or its hidden locations are so easy to find as the other games. You must think, you must use your brain, use your logical ability to unlock the answers. The puzzles are hidden with many surfaces which symbols are unknown. There's no code for you to understand them, and you must try to understand by yourself, your logic and your intelligence. How do you think, play it okay ?

Instant Situations 8/10
Pretty good too : Running out from explosions, luring enemies into charts, passing the guards, overcome electricity, etc. There are all kinds of them gathered in this game. Those situations can get rid of you just for a moment, so it requires a lot of your careful and agility to get pass. Want to try ? Why not ? But of course, raise your patience before playing, or you'll regret.

Weapons System 7/10
Worse than Fear Effect 2. You just can use a few weapons which are so usual : Handgun, Shotgun and Machine Gun. Another things is that the given ammo is too few, especially in Hard Mode. I have nearly gone mad to overcome just a very small step of the game, because of its extreme difficulties. It's not right when some good weapons can only be unlocked by game sharks. Generally, this is not as good as Fear Effect 2.

Enemies 8/10
About enemy system, I think it's great. Just like Fear Effect 2, you must face various types of enemies, even hell messengers. But this is an important system that determines the difficulties of the game. The detection is created to make the game real and interesting. But it becomes a matter for players when the enemies are given so many, while their ammo is limited so much either. The author should have reduced the number of enemies in a fight, or at least reduced their damages caused on characters, because the Fear Level of this game is specially sensitive, unlike other common games which use health or hit point system.

Camera angles 7/10
Just have one sentence to say : They should be put in better places with better sights.

Major bugs 5/10
I have repeated very much in Fear Effect 2 very much, and now it's of course to insist in this first Fear Effect : Hana shouldn't do such that action to ''distract'' the enemy. Even if at that time she has no more choice, the author should have put her in another situation for a better solution, than doing ''naughty'' action. It's more serious when this bug is ''advanced'' in Fear Effect 2.

Graphic 7/10
Similar to Fear Effect 2. The graphic follows cartoon factor that can make life for fantasies and mystery. But it seems that this Fear Effect doesn't have much sense about fantasies. Besides, the graphic has reduced the quality of character design, so then I can't give it a high score.

Sounds 8/10
Pretty good. No more to say.

Replayability 7/10
This is divided into two opposite sides : One is that the challenges in the game make you more curious and hearty to continue and play repeatedly ; the other is that those challenges are hard enough to decrease your enthusiasm. In this case, I don't know if it's good or bad. Okay, just have your opinions and be free. But then it shows you that Fear Effect is not an ordinary game to love only or hate only. Yeah, it's a little extraordinary...

Final Conclusion
*Advantages :
- Gameplay is great. The episodes are interesting and thrilling.
- Graphic is not good, but all right, following cartoon factor to show the little fantasies of the game and has been done better in Fear Effect 2. Okay.
- Fun factor is high too. You need to drill this game very much to beat it up.

*Disadvantages :
- So much loading and loading quality is suck, long and sometimes stops.
- Character design is bad.
- Camera angles aren't arranged well.
- Too few ammo and weapons.
- There are ''naughty'' scenes.

As I said, this game is ''extraordinary''. So just follow your nature and your thinking to buy it. You can either love or hate it after playing the game. Be free !

Gameplay - 9/10
Controls - 9/10
Main characters - 5/10
Storyline - 9/10
Puzzle System - 10/10
Instant Situations - 8/10
Weapon System - 7/10
Enemies - 8/10
Camera Angles - 7/10
Major bugs - 5/10
Graphic - 7/10
Sound - 8/10
Replayability - 7/10
Overall Score : 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/06/02, Updated 02/04/03