Fear Effect

"Highway to hell"

The mercenaries Hana, Deke and Royce have the commission to bring back Wee Ming, the daughter of a rich man. This is how it all starts...

Graphics: 9

Leveldesign: 10
Gloomy. All the stages are really gloomy. This game creates the ''fear effect'' by very detailed, sometimes even photorealistic backgrounds combined with short and always repeating animations. Although there´s always a short gap before these animations start again they help much to create the games´ original atmosphere.
Character-design: 8
All the characters are very well designed but they look like comic-figures. Maybe this is the reason for the originality of the game, but I would have preferred more realistic characters, because especially when you compare the people to the background you´ll recognize a bit of a distinction between their design. But even though the programmers did a great job, because every movement of the characters and the enemies is very smooth.

Sound: 8

Music: 7
Apart from the very cool opening theme the music doesn´t play a leading part in the rest of the game. Surely there is music, but it seems that it has the only function to strengthen the existing gloomy atmosphere. Well done, but nothing special.
SFX: 8
Well done. Especially the cool reloading-sound is remarkable.
Voice acting: 10
FE has great voice talent according to the fact that it´s ''only'' a videogame. All the speakers do a great job, and all the voices fit perfectly to the different characters. Sad that the spoken words often do not fit to the movements of the characters´ mouths.

Gameplay: 8

You are always controlling one of the main characters, but usually it´s Hana. You start the game with a knife and a pistol. As soon as you encounter any enemy green cross wires will appear at the bottom of your screen, showing that you will automatically hit the enemy if you are now firing. If you should manage it to sneak close to an enemy without being detected red cross wires will appear, showing that you now have the chance to kill the enemy with one strike/shot. So you can easily spare some of your ammunition. Most of the enemies leave ammo behind, but some of them also carry important items, usually keys with them. So you sneak/run/roll your way through the stages in order to meet another boss.
All the stages contain several puzzles, each of them either quite simple or hard as hell. A bit lame are the puzzles where you die if you not manage to solve them, because then you have to start again from the last saving point. Well, there are enough saving points, but every reload takes really its time.
Using the ''Fear-meter'', Fear Effect goes its own way in handling the damage your character receives. Every time you´ve been hit, or everytime you didn´t solve a puzzle for the first time your fear increases. When you are at the highest level of fear, one bullet is killing you. Having the lovest fear-level you can receive much more damage without dying. Strange is the fact that you can´t use any healing items. Being in a safe place, or killing enemies without receiving damage yourself will simply recover your Fear-meter.

Story: 9

Being a simple ''go in, catch the girl, leave, receive the money''-mission in the beginning it develops to a really bad nightmare for each of the characters. Especially the very cool protagonists do their part to make this a very thrilling story.

Replayability: 7

Well, you will play this game at least twice to discover the different endings, but after that you might want to play it again in order to see sexy Hana blasting her way through the game. Actually I would compare it to a good movie - playing/seeing it from time to time is always fun.

Final Score: 8

Fear Effct is an original action game with cool characters, a thrilling story, and much action. If there wouldn´t be such things like the innovative but strange ''Fear-Meter'' or the ultra-hard deadly puzzles, it probably would´ve become an all-time classic.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/17/02, Updated 08/17/02