Limited Run Games is behind the re-release of the cel-shaded visual style game; a somewhat unusual choice!
The Fear Effect franchise has a bit of a chequered history when it comes to the PC. First of all, Fear Effect Reinvented. The remake was announced in 2017, and was never officially canceled in the end. It would have used an over-the-shoulder camera view, making it a third-person shooter similar to Resident Evil 4 (rather than fixed camera angles like the original), and its cancellation was finally confirmed by Forever Entertainment, the development team, on Discord two years ago. This was followed by Fear Effect Sedna, developed by the French studio Sushee, which finally came out in 2018 and… let’s just say it was lousy, as the isometric view stealth didn’t deliver what the audience would have expected. So the present is weak, but the past is pretty bright in comparison.
The first Fear Effect was quite successful at the time. Developed by Kronos Digital Entertainment, the game was released by Eidos for the PS1 in early 2000, and Hong Kong was certainly quite exciting. This was followed by a prequel, Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix, released in early 2001, which failed to match the success of the first game. A third installment, Fear Effect Inferno, was in the works, but Eidos pulled funding after a budget shake-up, and the US studio (which also provided CG animation for Fox Kids’ Spider-Man series) folded in 2002.
Fear Effect stood out from the crowd with its cel-shaded style and flashy cutscenes. It was stylish, and the video on Steam certainly shows that the art style still holds up. Now, 25 years after its original release, Limited Run Games is finally bringing this game to PC. When? We don’t know, because all we have on Valve’s digital platform is that it’s coming soon. Maybe sometime this summer?
Maybe Fear Effect will finally get the attention it deserves on PC. It’s also coming to PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch.
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