Effectiveness isn't the only thing you'll find

Humor, sex, drama, thrills, and chills...there's more than what you bargained for when you buy one of the best sickening, and yet satisfying animated action games this side of the U.S.A.! Eidos is best known for Publishing games with characters that have a lot of gut and attitude. And amongst the characters involved in Fear Effect 2, you may grow to love them, hate them, or even ignore them...but there's one thing you've got to admit -- they're good at what they do.

The story of Fear Effect 2 is taking you from how Hana, Glas, and Deke all met on one of their earlier missions...with new character Rain at Hana's side. Now, instead of taking the next Fear Effect game in a sequel direction (like the Tomb Raider series), the new approach (and I think the better one) shows off in a prequel fashion. The story is of what these four interesting characters were like even before you saw them otherwise (excluding Rain because we all know she wasn't in the first game). Hana and Rain (two tough women with the same goal) are mercenary spies accepting a job from their employer Jin. As either Hana or Rain, you'll take turns completing each level. You're given a set of different items, as well as weapons to solve puzzles and to fight the evil that lurks within. But as the levels progress, the story reveals more about Rain's past, and her association with Hana. The story continues as Deke and Glas are introduced as two lone gunmen out to get their piece of the pie. When all four-character stories combine, there's hell let loose, and you've got to set things straight.

Gory and glorious, the animated graphics are outstanding! When placing cell animated cartoons mixed into a game with realistic, pre-rendered backgrounds, you've got one of hell of a game here. Looking at Fear Effect 2 is like watching the ultimate in mature cartoons. Practically throughout the entire game, you're either filling your machine gun's cartridge into a zombie, viewing Hana and Rain's explicitly, or exploring through the damp and desolate backgrounds spread throughout the game. Think of Don Bluth meets Resident Evil.

The gameplay isn't what I'd call the best part of Fear Effect 2. Controlling the character is exactly like playing Resident Evil. The stiffness is there; even though it's not entirely bad, the control just isn't great. You're given a hell of a lot of cool guns to use, but when there's too many enemies and not enough ammo to go around, your health bar will greatly decrease if you're not careful. See, in this game you're given a health meter which is also called the Fear Meter. Every time you're shot at, the only way to regain full health is to complete puzzles. To complete puzzles, you have to kill enemies. And to kill enemies, you need to live and be able to use your wits most of the time.

Puzzles could involve tricky tasks like trying to reach a door by not losing health in a room full of deadly machinery. Not all puzzles are as simple (even though it's not that simple) as that. Some puzzles can be very intricate. One of the strangest ones was figuring out how to play a game of strategy on a puzzle board. Most puzzles you'll either solve right away, or try again and again by loading the game up from the last save. This can become tiresome, and I hate the way Eidos forces you to solve these brainteasers without a slight bit of knowing how to resolve them.

If you want action, a major part of the second Fear Effect IS action! The sound of the game heightens action throughout real clanking metal ground, guns blasting, enemies dying...a lot of cool sounds in such a short game. Some of the time, Fear Effect 2 even relates to Resident Evil by how enemies pop out of almost anywhere. One particular enemy is this tiny robot device with legs. It'll come out from the ceiling, and what you'll have to do is get shocked, then shock it: back to hell!

The game overall has a great story, cool animations, exotic entertainment, a lot of blood, okay but not great gameplay, and some kick butt weaponry. For you mature gamers who just can't get enough of this stuff, well here's more. It's a good buy for almost anyone (except youngins).