Deep Fear

"Very similar to Resident Evil -- the good and the bad"

Allow me to start this review by dispelling a myth. Deep Fear is not an import friendly game. Yes the cutscenes are in english, which conveniently allows you to understand the game. Other than the major menus, however, everything else is in Japanese. The items are in Japanese, the puzzles are in Japanese, if you use the action button next on a background piece or on a character, then you also get more Japanese! In other words, while it is difficult to understand your actions, you can easily understand the game's story.

So if you buy games simply to understand the story then Deep Fear is an import-friendly game. If you are like the rest of us and buy games for its playability, then be prepared to play this game with a walk-through in hand. Thank goodness gamefaqs has an EXCELLENT walkthrough on its site. If only I can remember the author's name, then I would give him some props right now.

Anyway on to the game, Deep Fear is a survival horror game for the Sega Saturn. It is strikingly similar to Resident Evil, which although demonstrates a lack of creativity, it truly not a bad thing.The game is set in a US underwater base. Something terrible has gone wrong and it has resulted in mutated human beings and a crashed submarine. John Mayor, the protagonist of the story, has the nearly insurmountable task of saving the base and ultimately the world. Fortunately he is able to open the door of a completely flooded rooms and walking into it without spilling any water into the other rooms. His legs are also like lead, which allow him to walk around these flooded rooms. And his body does not feel the pressure of deep seawater. These are 3 incredible powers that go unmentioned throughout the game!

Graphics -- 7/10
The engine must be the exact one that Capcom used for its 32-bit incarnations of its RE series. Perhaps Capcom did Sega a favor, thanks to the Saturn's excellent conversions of Capcom's 2d fighters; this is purely conjecture on my part. Like RE, the graphics compose of rather ugly low resolution 3-d characters on beautifully detailed prerendered backgrounds. Camera angles sometimes abruptly switch, which may catch the gamer off guard. It is everything you would expect from RE. Even the animations are very similar with regards to the hero's movement and the mutant creatures' death animation. So with the good, comes the bad. Nevertheless, being a fan of RE, I like Deep Fear's graphical presentation. The cutscenes are plentiful and look ok, but the character art is completely unrealistic. Unless Sega's team has a bizarre image of what a human is supposed to look like.

Music/Sound effects 9/10
The music is amazing! For example, the musical selection during the opening fmv perfectly sets the mood for this game. There is little to no music during actual gameplay, but that is reasonable as no one should expect a sunken submarine to have ambient music blaring out of the loudspeakers. The sound effects are very good and similar to RE. One gun, however, has a ridiculous sounding pop whenever it is fired. Sounds like someone in the sound department made a mistake. If you were able to tolerate RE's voice acting, then Deep Fear's voice acting will not be bothersome -- except for Dubois. Nobody else in this world naturally sounds like him.

Gameplay 8/10
It is just like RE. The gamer has to run around solving puzzles, finding keys and unlocking doors, and fight mutated creatures. Reloading your ammo is easier because all you have to do is find a supply room. Save points are similar to RE's typewriters except that they are air chargers. These air chargers also bring a new aspect to survival horror -- air supply. As the hero, you have to constantly refill the air supply, which adds a fun new twist to this tried and true formula. The controls are just like RE, which I personally have no problem with.

Summary
Deep Fear is a fun game with RE styled graphics & gameplay, excellent music, and a fantastic story. It is not better or worse than RE. I strongly recommend purchasing this game provided that you are a survival horror fan and as long as Japanese is not a language barrier.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/13/05