Fear Effect

aka: Fear Factor
Moby ID: 3681
PlayStation Specs
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Description official descriptions

It starts as a simple assignment for the three mercenaries - the beautiful, mysterious Hana, the former army officer Glas, and the ruthless killer Deke. Somewhere in the futuristic Hong-Kong, full of huge corporations, flying cars and helicopters, home for the famous Triad mafia, they have to find the young Wee Ming Lam, the daughter of a powerful gangster. But Hana and her partners don't suspect that the search for Wee Ming will lead them not only to very dangerous areas of Hong-Kong, but to outskirt villages infected by zombies, a dubious restaurant-brothel, and the Chinese hell, where they'll have to confront Yim Lau Wong himself - the Chinese equivalent of the Western Satan.

The gameplay of Fear Effect is similar to survival horror titles such as Resident Evil, but it also features many pure action elements and arcade-like sequences, where precise timing matters. The player controls Hana, Glas, or (in a few instances) Deke during different chapters of the story. Player characters can crouch, sneak on enemies, and roll forward or to the sides. There are many human as well as monster enemies to eliminate or avoid. Characters can run and shoot at the same time, as well as use two weapons at once to combat multiple enemies. A considerable portion of the gameplay is dedicated to puzzle-solving.

Instead of the traditional health bar characters have a "fear meter", which turns red and eventually kills the character whenever he or she is damaged or found in a particularly stressful situation. The functional difference between the fear meter and a regular health bar is the possibility to restore it to a normal green color by reducing the character's stress, e.g. solving a puzzle or killing an enemy in a stealthy way.

The game's 3D character models are unshaded, aiming to resemble cel-shading technique and anime art. The backgrounds are pre-rendered and often consist of streaming or looping full-motion video. The story unfolds through numerous pre-rendered movies.

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Credits (PlayStation version)

116 People (87 developers, 29 thanks) · View all

Lead Programmer
Executive Producer
Lead Character Artist
Programmers
Written and Directed By
Game Designers
Production Designer
Art Director
Animation Director
Lead Animator
Characters Designed by
Backgrounds Designed by
Cinematic Artists
Effects Supervisor
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 82% (based on 29 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.3 out of 5 (based on 27 ratings with 1 reviews)

Short, sweet, and it has boobs, ok?

The Good
Those characters. Great voice-acting really makes them shine through, though they aren't as fleshed out as I'd like.

Graphically, it's lovely. Sure, it's quite low-resolution, so it doesn't look as good as it COULD, but you still get a lot of eye-candy from the excellent character design and fantastic pre-rendered backgrounds.

Sound-wise, as I've already said, the voice-acting is first-rate. Couple that with some nicely atmospheric music, and you're onto a winner in this department.

The Bad
Those controls, man. They're clunky. Never TOO clunky, but not exactly fluid.

At times, it feels like Dragons Lair, with some horrific trial-and-error sequences, and boss sequences from hell, which you actually end up in later in the game!

The Bottom Line
If you like your action games highly stylish, well-plotted and full of twists, then it's for you. Poor controls and some bad level design let it down somewhat, but never too much to ruin the game. A winner.

PlayStation · by laemus (11) · 2003

Trivia

Chinese

The Chinese signs in front of Lam's building, that you are required to memorize (in order to solve a puzzle), mean "Lam's Corporation". They are pronounced "lin shi qi ye" in official Chinese (used in PR China), but the Cantonese pronunciation is different: for example, "lin" (which means "forest") is pronounced "lam".

Mythology

The King of Hell, Yim Lau Wong (Yen Lou Wang in official Chinese), whom you encounter in the game, is indeed a popular figure of Chinese mythology. However, his origin is India, where he is called Yama or Yamaraja - the God of Death.

References

The dragons puzzle in the Chinese hell is based on patterns from the famous classic Chinese book "Yi Jing". There was even an occult science based on those patterns.

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  • MobyGames ID: 3681
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Matthew Bailey.

PS Vita added by GTramp. PlayStation 3 added by Matthias Günl.

Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Foxhack, DreinIX, Patrick Bregger.

Game added April 3, 2001. Last modified March 27, 2023.