One of the last & best PS titles

This is probably the last review for Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix that will be written. I love this game so much I’m writing a review regardless. Before I begin, I’d like to say that I do not have many games under my belt, so I won’t be using comparisons. The review isn’t just a low-down on the game, but it’ll have a lot of my personal opinions and thoughts. As of writing this review, I’ve completed 10/13 of the game but have not played Fear Effect (1) before.

Story:
Blah, I never understood video-game stories. If I were in for stories, I’d go read fiction. This said, the plot is still reasonably structured, although I’ve heard complaints about its twists and turns. I had to read a dozen explanations of the story before I VAGUELY understood how Fear Effect, Retro Helix, the story and the characters tie together. Apparently I’m bluffing my way through this section. I really have no comment on this.

Let me just add, what I like about the game is how it effectively introduces clues and parts of the story throughout the whole game without making it seem too deliberate. But still, WTF is the story about?

Characters:
What can I say, this is one of the most capturing parts of the game. Hana’s calm, cool and PLENTY sexy. Rain is cerebral, a tad whiney but still PLENTY SEXY. I was very amused by the hip-swaying walk of Hana. Occasionally I make her walk just to see her strut. I wonder who did the modeling for her? These two feisty girls are the perfect duo, and they’re my all-time favourite couple. There’s something about their faces that are so mesmerizing. I’d be the first one to see the movie about Hana and Rain’s relationship.

Kronos deserves more than a slap on the back for NOT changing their looks in Fear Effect 3: Inferno (the upcoming game). Have you seen Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness? Lara looks eeewww.

If only the relationship of Hana and Rain were played out more, the hype about the sexual content would be fulfilled. I can’t say I’m disappointed, but I was expecting at least a thrill. Still, a sufficient amount of flirtation and physical contact can be seen throughout the game, saving it from crashing criticism. But please Kronos, add some more spice next time, okay?

I don’t care about the ‘cheap tactic’ Kronos & Eidos used to attract players, because at least they used it correctly! Sure the plunging super-low neckline (quoted from a French review) wasn’t necessary, but all the T & A adds to the fun of the game, no? I’m shoving political correctness aside for this game.

Oh yeah, Deke and Glas. Lumbering macho guys with terrible hair-do’s and hygiene. Why were they even in the game? To ‘balance’ the masculinity? As if there wasn’t enough testosterone in machine-guns and zombie-killing.

Game play:
Let’s see, LOTS of puzzles and LOTS of gunfire. There are so many types of puzzles, ranging from mathematical to spatial, logical to sheer luck. Kronos did a good job integrating the puzzles with the story and I truly enjoyed the agony of solving them.

Enemies were easy, and if they wanted to make it hard, they’d have more in numbers instead of increasing difficulty, so you’d get totally swarmed and confused. They enemy designs weren’t exactly groundbreaking, but I
personally thought the ‘Acrobats’ were refreshing.

I was hoping for more techno than retro, so I prefer the infiltration bits over the tomb and Chinese bits.

The ‘health’ meter was a concept I absolutely adored. It’s a pulse meter and it increases your heartbeat when you are frightened or hurt, until you die (duh). That way it merged physical and mental states of well being (or ill being). The best part is that you also start pulsing faster whenever danger is near, so game play is made easier. I’ve heard complaints about it being unable to recover until specific areas or cut-scenes, or how it automatically decreases when enemies are near. While this is true, I think the concept itself was able to outweigh the flaws.

The inventory was pure annoyance. You have to flip back and forth between items WITHOUT some kind of pause screen, letting enemies kill you when you fumble, looking for the right weapon. It doesn’t automatically switch weapons when you’re out of ammo, so that provides plenty of terrible deaths.

I commend the arrangement of ‘save points’. They’re scattered enough to worry you, yet they all appear in the nick of time before you grow impatient and curse.

A lot of people are concerned about the replay-value, and in this department the game will drop random enemies and introduce cheats and codes, but whether it earns your replay marks is not for me to comment because I never replay games.

Control:
This is undoubtedly the biggest problem of the game. In FE2: RH you are presented with two controlling modes. There’s the Resident Evil type and the walk-according-to-screen-angle type (a.k.a. 3D mode, whatever). Because I played N64 games before PS games, I naturally chose the 3D mode, which was still a mighty pain in the neck. The problem with it is how the screen changes angles and views quickly, meaning you’d have adjust to the new angle every time the screen changed, which occurs like every 5 seconds! It becomes more tolerable then adjusted later on in the game, but only because you totally know your environment (from dying too many times!)

Graphics:
The background art is fantastic and sets the mood very well. I’ve seen the conceptual art behind the game, I wish I had real prints! From super-high tech labs to ancient tombs, the art team has done a great job. However, while the backgrounds are your usual CG/painted effects, the characters seem to be of a more cartoon-ish deal.

I don’t know if it’s the first time I saw this kind of 3D cel-shading technique used in video-games, but I have to say that it is superb. Personally I would prefer this to ‘mock-realistic’ graphics any day. The technology simply is not developed enough to make character movements life-like, even in the newest consoles; backgrounds & movement appear very ‘cold’. When the graphics begin to look more like Final Fantasy: The Spirit’s Within, perhaps I’ll change my mind.

As for the infamous polygonal display of PS, it’s true that body parts (esp. breasts) will occasionally seem like flesh-coloured traffic cones (quoted, hilarious), which means some of the ‘juicer’ scenes are less ideal than you’d hope for. Particular problems include the feet and the male characters’ arms.

The fantastic things about using the cartoon approach is that the cut-scenes and game play graphics don’t differ much; they’re both great! In fact, the most nervous moments are watching cut-scenes because you can’t tell when you’re back in control! Talk about seamless animation! For the first time I’m actually impressed by facial and body movements when characters interact. At least there’s lip-syncing and detailed facial expression.

Sound:
Music? There isn’t a single tune from the game that rings in my head. There is barely music, but tons of sound effects. None of them are out of place, but sometimes just a little repetitive. The action sounds (weapons, grunts, footsteps, doors, devices...etc.) are your standard issue, something I don’t think has a very large range in terms of quality in video games.

As for the voice-overs, boy oh boy was I delighted, professional voice-acting at its best. The cut-scene dialogs were witty, humorous and realistic. Meaning they talk like real people, with idioms, references to pop-culture and swearing suitably (I.E. no stupid ‘darn it’s). The voices were appropriately seductive, angry, sarcastic or whatever emotion they conveyed. Perhaps I just like the sounds of their voices? I read from gamespotasia.com that Wendee Lee, a famous American voice-over, does the voice of Hana, Anthony Marcott plays Glas and Lex Lang plays Deke. But who plays Rain? I want know!

Another thing, I have suspicions that all the Chinese accents were done by the same guy. That Jin dude had a really inaudible accent, and I didn’t highly regard it because it was too exaggerated. Perhaps if they really pulled Native Chinese off the street, the effect may have been even better.

One last thing i'd like to add: Some people have been complaining about the language, gore and sexual content of the game. The game is rated 'Mature' for a reason, you know.
But honestly, there were only occasional blood splats, mild language (no F-word) and partial nudity. I didn't think there wasn't anything in the game that was over PG-16. It WAS over-rated.