Fear Effect

Come see our massive hands-on preview, complete with 15 brand new screenshots.

Eidos' biggest thrust this year, and last, is action and adventure, and more often then not a good blend of both. Working with Kronos, Eidos' newest adventure brings a completely different look and feel to the PlayStation that's not been seen on the system for many a year. Formerly named Fear Factor, Eidos' upcoming Fear Effect harks back to the animation style that made Dragon's Lair so intriguing, but plays much like a new, 3D adventure game.

Created only for the PlayStation, Fear Effect is in the works by the art house Kronos (Cardinal Syn, Dark Rift, Vermin), which in many ways is straying from its former path. Made up of animation and anime fanatics, Kronos is taking streaming animation straight from the disc to the PlayStation to create a lively, bustling effect that's hard not to notice. Each scene is filled with flickering city lights, moving objects, and an atmosphere that just won't stop. The effect is subtle but it works to the game's advantage because it's a relatively slow, puzzle-filled adventure that requires players to take their time and use their noggins.

The Story
The scenario reads much like a cyber punk novel, the kind that was popular in the mid-'80s. A young woman by the name of Wi-Ming Lam, the daughter of the president of a large powerful organization in futuristic Hong Kong, has runaway. A former employee for the company has defected and has joined an underground mafia-type organization called The Triad. The defector has found her and is now holding her ransom. Lam's father offers a hard-core group of mercenaries a healthy bounty to retrieve her. The game opens up as the two mercenaries fly in to the Lam building.

That, however, is just the beginning. Spanning four discs, Fear Effect is made up of four major locations, each filling one disc. Your mercenaries start out in the futuristic city near the Lam building (which our early screenshots depict), but move onto the River Settlement, a creepy village on stilts set deep in the rainforests; Madame Chen's restaurant/sinister-black-market-house-of-vices, and finally to a fourth, undisclosed location. The final area, which Eidos asked us not to reveal until later, is a fantastic world unlike any I've seen before. Let's just say that it's a serendipitous reversal of everything Westerners have come to expect from a certain place in our mythology and history. And it's not Heaven.

Kronos has something on its hands with Fear Effect. Something big. This adventure doesn't simply hammer out a standard paradigm-stale Resident Evil for first-time gamers to ogle over, providing great visuals and lots of blood. Fear Effect is an unusual collage of Eastern influences and Western presumptions that clash and unfold through the central vein of the game -- the story. Kronos' President Stanley Liu explained his belief to the crowd of journalists who visited Kronos during the Fear Effect presentation. Once technology has rendered PlayStation old, and the game's window of opportunity has passed, only one thing remains, and that's the emotion impact of the story. That's the most important aspect of the game, from which all of the technology, characters, action, puzzles and adventure spring. From the two-hour long demo we witnessed, Fear Effect does indeed have a phenomenal story, only part of which has been explained in this preview.

Hands-on Impressions
The first thing I noticed about Fear Effect is that whenever an object can be used, the game tells you. Instead of guessing which areas that are interactive, this game just spells it out. Pass by a ladder, a door, a computer, a puzzle or a power-up, and you're told what you can or can't do. It's a different solution to the age-old interactivity question, and it works.

Second, the game is far more action-oriented than Resident Evil 1 or 2. It's more on par with RE3 in terms of straight action, which means you always have the chance to blow up somebody new. When Glas and Hana first start off, they have almost nothing, except basic weapons. Glas has a Smackjack, and Hana wields a knife. The Aussie owns some handy brass knuckles because, after all, he's a pure bruiser. Right, mate. But later on you'll pick up all sorts of killer weapons. Right now, as I've been playing through the second disc, the different characters have enabled me to use single pistols, double pistols, assault rifles, machine guns, and several kinds of gadgets. I've used everything from a steel bar to keys to a towel. Yes, Hana, when in dire times, uses a towel to fend off her foes. I won't say any more than that.

Moving about the myriad environments is familiar. If you have played Resident Evil, then you will have this game going in a matter of moments. The big differences are the button schemes. The default buttons are completely different. That took me some time.

Using the D-pad, players can walk or run, and depending on the situation, do anything from climbing ladders or bashing through windows. The characters all have the same move set, too. But in hard times, such as when up against a boss character, you'll need to have learned a few skills. Run is always handy. The 180-degree spin is clever, too. But even handier than that is the Tuck and Roll. Against any boss, you'll need this move. When in the roll position you simply can't be hit. You may actually be plugged, and blood will flow from your body, but you won't lose any "fear," as it were. Against several of the bosses I have fought, the Tuck and Roll was vital.

As for varied gameplay, Fear Effect is loaded with a forward-moving story that continues to provide new, exciting ways in which to kill and be killed. The puzzles also play a big part in moving forward. From the ones I've encountered, they range from annoyingly clever to relatively simple. Of course, every puzzle is easy once you figure it out, so in this game Kronos has laid clues down everywhere for you pick up. For instance, when you face the puzzle in which a time bomb is strapped to your partner's chest and the timer is ticking, you should have noticed a certain color scheme somewhere in the vicinity.

Kronos has done what it said it would do. The animation sequences blend in perfectly with the gameplay looks. Well, that's because they are the same. Since the whole game is streaming off the disc, it doesn't matter whether it's gameplay or cutscenes; the engine reads it the same. As far as looks go, the game is crackling with life. But at the same time, at least on this early version, a player can determine when the graphics loop ends and is resequencing. Hopefully, that will be fixed in the final version.

The first disc is the LAM building, and it's followed by the River Village, followed by Madam Chen's. And finally there is the fourth disc, which we really can't say anything about. Let's just say you won't see any angels there, capiche? The River Village is a nice switch from the confines of the steel and glass Lam building. It's built above water, so the huts, bridges, and passages are all above a river, and couched against a lush, rainforest setting. The story really starts developing here, as you finally meet up with Wi-Ming Lam, who is far more intriguing a character than the intro story reveals, and you get a wide, varied range of gameplay choices, as you play each of the three characters repeatedly. The Aussie Deke is a powerful man who carries some killer weapons. You get to play him a lot here. One of the cooler scenes in this level (disc) is the train scene. You actually fight on the top of a moving train!

We'll have more impressions and lots more media in the near future so make sure to come back for soon.

Multiple Characters
First, players get to play Hana, a street-smart heroine, whose life story unfolds as the game progresses. Much like the often-tragic heroes of modern day movies and novels, Hana is an anti-hero, who we like, but don't entirely empathize with. Very unlike Lara Croft, Hana is dark, Asian in looks, and is thin but not overly busty. Though anime in style, she's a more realistic character than Lara Croft. Players will get to know her intimately. How intimately? Well, in one scene we get to see her change (silhouette only) into an outfit created to seduce men. It's a short, sweet outfit revealing a fair amount of skin. The other scenes? Let's just say that you'll get to SEE a lot more of her, just like in anime films and comic books.

Interestingly enough, players not only get the chance to play Hana, they also get the chance to play two of her mercenary partners, Deke and Glas. The story changes through the game leading you in one direction and then pulling you in another. Each character's background is told throughout the story, and each has a slightly different set of priorities that vary from the team central goal. That simply means many colored threads are woven into this fabric.

Fear Meter
Even more against the standard grain of game making, the players in Kronos' adventure can't find simple power-ups. They can find weapon pick-ups, but not health power ups. Which means? Let's just say, your characters might get hurt... Yes, Eidos and Kronos have more in store for you than we can reveal.

Still, we can reveal the Fear Meter. Instead of getting hurt, they encounter more or less fear. This little twist, which may or may not make a huge difference in the way you play, is cool nonetheless. What we would normally refer to as the "Life Meter," in Fear Effect, is called the "Fear Meter." At one end is a complete lack of confidence -- total fear -- and at the other is utter confidence -- no fear. In complete confidence players will experience a wider cone of sight, and be able to see and shoot more baddies. When in complete fear, players can get shot and killed with a single bullet.

What assists players in action are two things, the Fear Meter and the target symbol. The target meter enables players to distinguish their target from dirt. For instance, when you target an enemy, whether it's a boss, guard, green zombie dude, or whatever, a green target symbol appears in the letter box stripe at the top of the screen. (Kronos chose to implement the Letter Box strips at the top and bottom of the game, in both movies and gameplay, for effect, they said.) When you sneak up behind an opponent, the target turns red, signaling a critical hit. Also, whenever you are about to encounter an enemy, the Fear Meter, which is always hidden, appears.

With Hana and her buddies in search of a small girl who holds the secret to everything in their future, these characters have to act smart and tough. Using stealthy moves, sneaking and silent kills reward gamers with an increase in their fear meter. But good old gun-fighting action never grows old, and in some cases, characters will explore with a weapon in each hand, confronting as many as three or four enemies at a time. Aiming is automatic, and targets are tracked much like in Tomb Raider. Thankfully, characters won't be fighting the still cameras. If you walk past a camera change, enemies can't hurt you, and you can't affect them either.

Bye-bye Load Times
Fear Effect looks to take the Resident Evil paradigm into a completely different direction, and to improve on the adventure in ways not technologically possible without streaming video and audio. Fear Effect uses total streaming video and audio so that the information comes straight off the disc as you play it, rather than loading each new room into RAM beforehand. This means that new rooms won't have any load times. None. Well, OK, one. At the beginning of the level, players will experience one load time. But that's it. But still, that's great. The backgrounds are made of prerendered hand-drawn scenes and tons of on-the-fly moving parts, flashing lights, moving gears, completely polygonal no-player characters, etc.

Due now in early March 2000, Fear Effect will span four discs and is sure to provide as many as 20-30 hours of gameplay come the early part of 2000.

Douglass C. Perry

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