Review #516: Fear Effect 2 - Retro Helix

 It's called Retro because it's a prequel, get it?

Some things never change. Like Eidos' penchant for unnecessary fanscervice.

 My experience with Fear Effect 1 was a bit disappointing, but I wasn't done with the franchise, oh no, there's a sequel/prequel left for me to play. Actually, there was one, because I'm just done with it and... it's more of the same, for better or worse. Mostly for the worse.

 Remember how the cast of main characters was easily the best part about the first game? Wouldn't it be nice to get to know them better? Well, the game delivers... a bit. The first half of the game has you playing as Hana and her lover, newcomer Rain Qin, as both girls get embroiled in far more than they bargained for. If you liked Deke or Glas... you're for a disappointment, since, as previously stated, you're stuck with Rain for half of the game, and she's kinda bland. Both Deke and Glas make their official appearance halfway through the game, but you only get to play as Deke on the first half of a single disc, which is completely ridiculous. On the whole, we get to learn more about Hana as a character, we learn Glas' past, we learn a tiny bit more about Deke and we're introduced to Rain. As for the plot itself, it's the same pseudo futuristic modern day era meets Chinese mysticism. And it works well. The game is longer than the first one, and there're many more cutscenes, as well as more, well, plot, than in the previous game. As far as how good the story is... it's about as good as the first one, but it feels like they should've done more with Glas and Deke... or at least make Rain half as interesting as any of the other three.

Hana is as great a character as you remember her.

 The game plays exactly like the first one: Fixed camera angles, tank controls, stiff movement and unreliable dodging, clunky real-time inventory, passable auto-aim and the 'fear gauge' doubling as health bar that goes up or down depending on things like doing well in combat or being around enemies for too long. It's practically the same game, but now with new environments. I will grant them that they made the collision detection much better, there were fewer times, albeit it still happened rarely, in which my shots would hit an invisible wall as opposed to my target. There's a new option for '3D movement' but it's very clunky, so just stick with the tank controls.

 The game feels much fairer too, don't get me wrong, some encounters still feel like luck-based affairs, but they are rarer, since your characters seem to be able to take more punishment, and there're more weapons available. Dying and retrying was a pain in the rear in the previous game since there were long loading times, but that's a thing of the past, retrying is now instantaneous. The game is quite longer too, each disc has two 'parts'... although the game will have you shuffling discs all the time, you go from disc 1 to disc 3(!!!) to disc 2 to disc 1 again to disc 4 to disc 2 again... you'll have to swap discs at least 8 times, so don't get too comfortable on your chair!

Rain, the new addition, is such a boring character... and you're stuck with her for half the entire game.

 The game has more than double the amount of puzzles the first game had, but... they have aged horribly, requiring almost Sierra Adventure Games-ridiculous levels of thought processing to solve them. Just a tip, play the game with a guide at hand. it makes for a much more enjoyable experience rather than running around trying to use every single item on every single interactive object you can find. Some don't even make sense, like why would you try to fix your shovel by melting the goblet and then pouring it on top...? Argh! Trust me, don't bother trying to solve them, just keep a guide close by.

 Fear Effect 2 is definitely better than the first game: Environments aren't as pixelated, the shooting has been tightened, the difficulty is more balanced and it's a longer game... but the game is still horribly dated, it still looks ugly and grainy, the shooting is still janky at worst and passable at best, some moments still feel as if they require more luck than skill and the game might be longer, but you have to swap discs all the time! If you're not too sure if you'd like the franchise, I'd suggest starting with this one, it's a prequel so it makes sense to play it first and you don't need to have played the first one and it's not as unfair as the first one. And, if you end up not liking it, at least you played the game at its best, so you won't have to endure the age-induced sloppiness of the first!
 5.0 out of 10