Product Description
-------------------
This fast-paced 3-D action adventure game is causing a
buzz among gamers for its promising gameplay and anime-style (the
popular Japanese form of animation) graphics. Travel to Hong Kong
where you'll control three mercenaries on a quest to rescue the
missing daughter of the infamous Hong Kong Triad. As the game
progresses, it becomes apparent that there is more at stake than
a single human life. In fact, this four-CD game contains numerous
plot twists and turns that promise to keep gamers hooked from
beginning to end.
As the game title implies, Fear Effect also promises a heavy
dose of terror. The menacing soundtrack and smartly scripted
story combine to add an unusual psychological twist to this
intriguing action game.
.com
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Despite its unforgiving difficulty, Fear Effect is an
innovative cinematic adventure that serious gamers won't want to
miss. Set in a dark, futuristic world, Fear Effect has players
sw back and forth between its three anime-style
protagonists. With a story that's filled with plot twists and
heaps of what the Entertainment Software Rating Board finds
offensive, this is far from kiddie fare.
Easily one of the most visually striking PlayStation titles,
Fear Effect shines with Japanese-animation-inspired 3-D character
graphics and full-motion-video environments that allow for nearly
seamless transitions between story sequences and gameplay. With
the exception of restoring saves and changing CDs, there's
virtually no game interruption.
Unfortunately, it's very easy to die in Fear Effect, which not
only wrecks the game's pacing, but can be really quite maddening.
Many portions of the game are more frustrating than challenging,
requiring players to die and reload their last saved game over
and over until they get things just right.
And while Fear Effect's less-than-perfect controls admittedly do
take some getting used to, its real-time inventory system is just
plain awkward during combat sequences. It's doubtful that
professional mercenaries like the ones you're playing would be
fumbling about while changing or reloading weapons in the heat of
battle.
Despite its flaws, Fear Effect does manage to keep you hooked,
and is one of those games you just have to see through to its
end. --Joe Hon
Pros:
* Striking cinematic visuals
* Virtually no game interruptions
* Intriguing storyline and refreshingly mature content
* Fear Meter aspect adds new challenge Cons:
* Can be more frustrating than challenging at times
* Awkward real-time inventory system
* Relatively short game length with little to no replay value
* May be unsuitable for younger players
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Review
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Eidos' latest PlayStation adventure game blends
cinematic elements of media like Blade Runner, The Killer, and
Aeon Flux, with gameplay devices of titles such as Resident Evil
and Heart of Darkness, yet somehow manages to come off as a
wholly original experience. In Fear Effect, you play as one of
three mercenaries attempting to retrieve the daughter of a
powerful Chinese businessman who has disappeared into the
mysterious Shan Xi Protectorate. Your intentions are far from
heroic; your goal is to reach her before her her's men do, so
you can make a bundle of money by providing her safe return. The
game's environments are similar to the prerendered scenes of
Resident Evil but with FMV footage streaming or looping in the
background, giving each scene a bustling urban look. The game
also controls much like RE; however, the characters can run and
shoot at the same time (and when they hold a in each hand,
John Woo style, they can fire at multiple targets). You actually
play as each of the three characters (covert operative Hana
Tsu-Vachel, general all-around mercenary Royce Glas, and
Australian toughman/explosives expert Jakob "Deke" Decourt)
throughout the course of the game, as the story changes to focus
on events happening around them. This happens quite often, in
fact, and you might find yourself acting as two different people
over the course of one save point to the next. The game's title
is a reference to its adrenaline meter, which is like a
meter though with a few differences. If you've taken fire or been
clawed by a creature, your heart rate will increase and your
meter will turn red. If you defeat a horde of enemies in a
blazing fight, sneak up and take out a guard quietly, or solve
a puzzle, you'll gain an adrenaline reward, and the meter will
return to normal. It isn't totally clear in a given situation
what you should do to bring the "fear effect" back down, but the
stress provides a nicely heightened sense of anxiety during play.
Fear Effect's look is one of its main strong points; it has a
distinct visual style that sets it apart from any other game out
there, really. It's true that many other titles have used
prerendered backgrounds in the past, but the constant pulsing
video effects make you feel like you're actually a character in
Fear Effect's filmic world. What holds the game's graphics back
is that the camera angles, while very cinematic, sometimes make
it difficult to judge distance. This can unnecessarily complicate
the process of picking up items or opening doors, something that
can be deadly if a room full of monsters is attacking you at the
time. Also, while some environments look simply stunning, there
is the occasional visual that just looks muddy and washed out.
Still, the graphical positives far outweigh the negatives and
result in a game that is just great to look at. The Fear Effect
learning curve is a little steep at first. Though not
extraordinarily difficult, the game plays out a bit like the old
laser-disc arcade game Dragon's Lair until you master the
controls (which are like those of Resident Evil but slightly more
complicated). For example, at one point on the first disc, you
have to cross a small rooftop without being by a nearby
helicopter. Until you figure out what you have to do to
accomplish this task, you end up watching a short movie sequence
in which you're riddled with bullets over and over again. At one
point though, you suddenly learn the control setup, and the game
ceases to be frustrating and starts becoming remarkably fun.
There are many cases where you need to make a split-second
decision once you enter a room, as in Amazing Studios' Heart of
Darkness, or die. Though these "puzzles" are never too obtuse,
the lengthy loading times you face when you fail them do detract
from the game. Save points are sometimes placed quite a distance
from a particularly difficult passage, causing you to go back and
cover ground as another character before you're able to confront
the tough spot again, much like having to sit through an intro
sequence before a boss in an RPG. Another drawback is the lack of
additional modes once you beat the game. Basically, once you're
done, you're done, and you have little reason to replay it. Fear
Effect takes longer to beat than Konami's Metal Gear Solid and
clocks in at roughly the same length as a Resident Evil game, but
it's missing the extras we've come to expect from both of these
genre standards. Like Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil though,
the overall experience that Fear Effect provides is hugely
entertaining. It's one of the few games that creates a story
compelling enough to make you want to play through it in a single
long sitting. There are so many twists and turns in the plot that
you want to continually play just a little further and the
storyline's mature tone is refreshing, enough so that it makes
you look past the game's few warts, going a long way toward
making Fear Effect one of the best PlayStation games to come out
in the US so far this year. Here's to a PlayStation2 sequel.--Joe
Fielder--Copyright © 1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without
express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited. -- GameSpot
Review
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