Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix

I found the game impressive from beginning to end. The story, gameplay, and situations it presents offer a completely absorbing experience. It's true that some puzzles felt tedious, something that wasn't the case in the first game, where all the puzzles seemed well-designed and provided clues so you didn't have to try to solve them through trial and error. Similarly, the final bosses in this game feel much easier to defeat than in the first. I think they should have been more challenging. But none of this detracts from the magnificent experience it offers. I hadn't played it before, and although, in my opinion, it's not as good as the first, it's still an outstanding game, essential in the library of anyone who likes this genre. If Fear Effect 1 is 11/10, Fear Effect 2 is 9/10. [strike]While the port is excellent, just like the first game, enhanced controls in Fear Effect 2 are different from those in Fear Effect 1. The first game's controls were fantastic and completely responsive, making gameplay feel comfortable and enjoyable. These new enhanced controls maintain the tank mode system, where character rotation and movement are automatically generated based on stick inputs. However, they are quite unreliable. There are situations where you input downwards, but instead, the character moves upwards (issues with camera changes or dynamic cameras). The further you progress and the more difficult the situations become, the more these shortcomings are highlighted, leading to deaths in seemingly simple situations. Therefore, I recommend playing in tank mode. I will update the review if the controls are fixed.[/strike] I hope they continue porting games like this. Edit: Implicit Conversion has listened to the users and added a great new modern control!! Thank you so much for the update, you guys are the best!!! 10/10

So I'm gonna say recommended because it's finally on steam, but that's about it. Really. I love the game, but don't expect this port to have the same modern controls as their FE1 port. FE1 had modern-light controls, while FE2 has modern-TANK controls, meaning they're still tank, but the character goes towards the direction you chose depending on the camera angle, making some puzzle more complicated than they were originally using tank controls. I wish they kept their FE1 script for modern controls as it offered a more modern experience on FE1. I also wish they added the possibility to use higher resolutions because this game looks 100 times better using your own settings and smoothing the compressed loop backgrounds on other emulators. It's a shame that this port is so limited, because it could've offered so much more. It's 2026, one should have the option to use higher resolution on old games, especially on PC ports (even though they're emulated). Also, this is a personal opinion, but I don't really like the new art they're using for the games, because none matches the video game's art style and I find it disrespectful to promote their game using art that isn't from the original artists who created it. Fear Effect's art style is perfect, the art they created for the game is amazing, please, don't be ashamed of it. You should honor it.

love Fear Effect 2! this is one of the best play 1 games ever! I hope we get the 3rd game. Limited Run is giving us real gamers, real classic good games!

I'm quite fond of this game.

Not just a classic game but also a quality release.

Honestly 50/50 about this game. I didn't really like the beginning or end, but the middle was pretty fun. Compared to the first game, combat felt weaker. The roll move was made a lot worse, which I can understand since the first game's roll maneuver could be abused to be invincible, but now it's like if you roll from a burst of rifle fire you get hit by either the first shot or the last. Just running left or right felt more useful than rolling, which is a shame because rolling away from damage in the first game felt so good. Visual clarity doesn't seem as good as in the first game, either, and at least a couple of times I was surprised to discover that some indiscernible stuff in the distance was actually a door I needed to use. First, the beginning. What this game made me realize is just how good the beginning is in the [i]first[/i] game. Enemies were cleverly placed: a few knife stealth kills, get your first machine pistol to mow down a group of 3 enemies, then unlock dual-wielding and do a double stealth kill. It was a very smart way to make the player feel satisfied with their actions. I don't think there's a single moment like that in 2. Enemies just kind of feel arbitrarily dumped on you. You get access to a bunch of weapons right at the beginning, and a few new ones are added, but none feel particularly more useful in a situation than others. The end feels rushed and kind of sloppy. You have to pass 8 trials given to you by 8 immortals. Some of these trials are just pure games of chance, like "Here's row of tiles. Walk over the right one or you take damage. It's a game of [i]chance[/i] because [i]chance[/i] led you here. Get it, isn't it clever?" One of the "trials" is just the most basic board game in existence. Roll a die (at least you have a little control over what number it lands on), and move your piece until you reach the end. Seriously, Snakes and Ladders has more depth. I can't help but think that they were just running out of ideas and added these "trials" to pad out the game at the end. TBH I just did not care about doing this part legitimately, and this release's rewind feature made it bearable for me. Also, in general, an issue I had in this game that I didn't have in the first is trying to figure out what item gets used where. A keycard to open a door when I didn't see any keycard reader. Throwing salt in a river to kill off dragons. Almost every time I used an item, I felt more like I had just guessed correctly rather than feeling like I had intelligently figured out what to do. Around the middle part you do kind of a Tomb Raider segment, exploring some ruins, fighting terracotta soldiers, and (as usual) solving puzzles. This is where the game really shone for me. Fighting these monsters made rolling actually feel useful, and I felt like I finally had a reason to choose between the rifle, rocket launcher, shotgun, and other weapons. This area also had some of the most clever puzzles, where you had to resolve some regretful spirits' issues to continue. It's because of [i]this[/i] area of the game that I'm recommending it, because it felt the most like it belonged in Fear Effect, and I had a lot of fun. Overall, a downgrade from the first game.

Первая часть была нормальным таким боевичком уровня B, может даже трешачком direct-to-video, но в целом приятным. Продолжение (а точнее приквел) скорее кажется сумбурным и растянутым. Акценты сместили с боев на головоломки, сложность которых скачет от тривиальных до решающихся методом проб и ошибок (спасибо функциям переиздания от ленивых разработчиков "перемотка" и "сохранение в любой момент"). Головоломок много, некоторые из них откровенно тупые. Боев стало меньше, ситуаций, когда ролик заканчивается и тебе тут же прилетает по роже - тоже, в остальном же перестрелки все так же раздражают. Естественно, из-за неудобного управления, неудобного инвентаря, неудобной камеры. Оружия теперь больше, но крутой тазер по факту уже не нужен во второй половине игры, а электромагнитный "пистолет" пригодится пару-тройку раз за игру. История начинается за здравие как достаточно интересный технотриллер, заканчивается за упокой с китайской мифологией, китайскими чертями и прочим китайским трешем. Хорошо, что для каноничного финала не нужно проходить игру на высокой сложности. В общем, первая часть была интереснее и лучше, а еще - короче, потому не успевала наскучить. P.S. "Порт" - просто вшитые в эмулятор образы для PS1. Максимум современного креатива - обложка на странице в Steam, вероятно, нарисованная нейросетью.

Seeing this PS1 gem now at Steam is lovely. I hoped for Retro Helix after the original first game ported and now here it is! I'm grateful for everyone involved in this, really, thank you! Preserving classic games should be something that we see more and more. As for the game, it's my favorite from the series. It has everything we see in the first entry, but even better. The story is creepy and very interesting, we are back with the cyberpunk theme mixed with chinese mythology. Enemy and villains designs? Awesome. Creative boss fights and tons of weapons for you to play with. In this game, we explore more of the main characters past stories: Hana, Glas and Deke. We are also introduced to a new playable character: Rain, a very charismatic computer genius. Puzzles are back and they are still a lot of challenge and fun to solve. New and amazing scenarios to explore, many more than the first game by the way. The length of the game is also longer than the first and that's a good thing. The soundtrack is beautifuly done, I love every single track of this game, just as I did with the first. Just please add an option to upscale the graphics, and I noticed the modern controls aren't smooth as the one we had in the first game. Please fix that!! I hope this Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix in steam isn't the last that we see of the series. A new game or Fear Effect: Inferno remade would be a dream....

played this game back when i was a teenager, was bad at it back then too! Never did finish it. saw this on sale and thought why not! The graphics as bad as they were back in 2001, camera angles still causing headaches. I am i having fun? yes! im still just as bad as i was back then, but the addition of quick saves has been a life saver. the game has aged a bit with some its content. but its a quick paced game with a odd little plot. if your looking for a bit of nostalgia give it a go!

It's a shame this series never continued outside of Sedna, but both Fear Effect 1 & 2 are such unique products of their time that I can't even imagine what a new entry would look like by Kronos today (RIP Inferno) If it sounds like you're into games with dark, mythological-heavy writing with retro survival horror-based gameplay, I highly recommend the first two Fear Effect games. Maybe if the re-releases do well, it'll encourage Square Enix to do something with the IP.