by Wyatt "JOEDOG" Elliott
When we think of Eidos, we immediately think of Tomb Raider. But Eidos, has other great games under their belt. One of the best in Eidos' library is Fear Effect for the original PlayStation. Fear Effect is a interactive anime with the playablilty of Resident Evil.
Fear Effect is back this year in a prequel to the original. You want to know how Hannah got involved with the trio of mercenaries in the original Fear Effect?
Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix follows Hannah's adventures leading up to that event. Graphically FE2 is a small improvement. Remember the original was a masterpiece for the Original PlayStation. So 32bit can only be pushed so far.
Fear Effect handles your character's life span with a fear level. Your character fears danger, therefore the more danger you get yourself into, the less life bar you have. This is a nice and different way to handle lives in a game. The downside however, id that you can not find extra health through out the game. This can make some bosses and tasks difficult.
The music and sound is movie quality. Some games you play and think, this game would make a great movie. (If done right) Fear Effect IS a movie. Fear Effect is one of the few games that can take you through a solid story and still be a very entertaining game. It has all the nessacary elements needed for a great story and a great game.
Fear Effect plays much like the Resident Evil type survival horror. Walk, aim, shoot, and run. Like Resident Evil, Fear Effect keeps the flow alive with hidden loading. Such as entering a door or walking down a latter etc.
Like the original, Fear Effect 2 is four discs long, but the game itself isn't incredibly long to play. All those awesome cut scenes take a lot of disc space.
Fear Effect 2 is rated M for mature, and for good reason. Its filed with violence, some language, a lot of sexual innuendo and mature subject matter. It's the Conker's Bad Fur Day for PlayStation, without the humor.
At days end. Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix is a worthy prequel to one of the best games on the PlayStation. Its not better, but is worthy. I look forward to a third installment to this series.
PUBLISHER: EIDOS
GRAPHICS: 9 MUSIC & SOUND: 9 CONTROL: 8
SECRETS: 7 ORIGINALITY: 8 FUN & REPLAY: 5
OVERALL: 9