Incredible Graphics backed up a by a Meaty Story

There isn't a game in the PlayStation Library as graphically innovative as Fear Effect. Much of the actual gameplay is very much like Cell Animation with a style that's somewhere between Aeon Flux and Blade Runner. It Admittedly plays a lot like Resident Evil, except for a lot less exploration. Graphically, everything in this game is alive, from swaying plants in the background to flickering lights and bugs on the ground.
The story and characters are refreshingly well designed and equipped with a mature tone. Within the four disc game, there are a few semi-nude scenes, including one disc where the female lead, Hana, runs around in her underwear in a Hong Kong Bordello. There is also a lot of cursing, which fortunately isn't played to the hilt, but enough to make a convincing story. Violence can also be hardcore, but that's all a part of the routine.
There is a vast variety when it comes to the type of gameplay used in Fear Effect. Naturally, there is a lot of shooting. You are equipped with typical weapons, but what's cool is that you can equip two of the same weapon and shoot multiple targets. Also, to add more actions to the fighting scenes (and as to not leave you defenseless) you have a handy dodge/roll maneuver which lets you get away from gunfire.
Kronos was very innovative when it comes to the health meter, which measures your fear level instead of your health. When you are hurt, your fear level rises dramatically, but as you dispatch bad guys and solve puzzles, you calm down and return to normal. Very cool.
The puzzles are often brilliant and are real brain-twisters, but never are they illogical. There is very little exploring and hardly any backtracking in Fear Effect, except when you make on tiny false step and die, making you repeat some scenes. This is what gives Fear Effect its linear quality and no replay value. This can be forgiven, because for the one week you played it, it was absolutely incredible.