Fear Effect Sedna

First: thanks for making the series come back to life. I'm a huge fan of Fear Effect. Sedna is a good game. It has the essence of both FE1 and FE2 very well. Graphics are very good with the cel shading aspect like the previous games. Combat gameplay is much better than the demo version now. Great puzzles just like before. Listening to some classic and familiar soundtracks included in the game just give me the chills, nostalgia hits me hard! Also the game has a very good length. I finished it in 8 hours in my first time. Very good references to the classics, specially at the end! Approved. But... the negative points: I don't like the isometric camera change, I prefer the classic one or something that make us resemble it. I missed animated lightning effects and objects like the previous games had. And Sedna is way more linear, sometimes it feels the gameplay it's getting repetitive, in previous games we had to look for items all the time to make puzzles or key to open doors. The villains in this game didn't convince me, they're not rich in personality, it feels like something's lacking. I missed strong villains like Madam Chen or Yim Lau Wong, the king of hell. I'm very lost at the end of the game too, I don't know what happened to the villains, are we getting a sequel to this!? I hope Sushee can change all of this to the future games of Fear Effect, beginning with "Fear Effect Reinveted". I'm sure fans like me will like it way more that way. Please, as requests, I'm playing with a xbox controller but the bindings are wrong and from playstation's controller. Please add xbox controller key bindings/icons ! And if it's possible, please, please add a camera zoom option so we can see the characters more close. And where is the "Mission mode" bonus you guys said??? I was counting on playing it. It sounded cool... If you like Fear Effect (specially if you're a fan), give this game a try. It's not better than FE1 and FE:RH for me but I love it. Story: 7.5/10 Soundtrack: 9/10 Gameplay: 7.8/10 Combat: 7/10 Puzzles: 10/10

I wanted to like this game. I really, REALLY wanted to like this game, because I loved the original Fear Effect games... But I can't; I just can't like this game. The voice acting is terrible, the writing is bad and the gameplay is absolutely AWFUL. Shootouts are a complete ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ where your cover means nothing since all th enemies just rush your position and simply walk past your cover to cap you in the face. There are also special abilities that each of the characters have; but finding out what they do exactly is as difficult as surviving five minutes in one of the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ firefights. There's no description on any of the abilities so your only option is to use them and see what happens. That might sound simple enough, if a bit annoying, but the problem is that the special abilities rarely actually WORK. I must have told the crossbow wielding guy to use his special attack a dozen times and he only used it once, and when he did use it he decided to turn away from where I told him to fire and shoot the WALL instead. Ally AI in firefights is complete garbage too. Unless told what to do using "Tactical Mode" (basically real time with pause-mode) they'll just stand around and fire slowly at any nearby enemies. They'll rarely do as they're told when you do use Tactical Mode and instead of using their special abilities, like I mentioned before, will just jump out of cover to fire leisurely at one of the dozen enemies wrecking your ♥♥♥♥. I've called the battle system a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ before and that's exactly what it is; a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Enemies running about randomly, bum-rushing your cover, allies screwing around and being useless... It's a huge mess and how anybody can code something like this, see it in action and say "yeah, that looks great, let's sell it for £15" is beyond me. The art style, puzzles and soundtrack are good though... The plot, from what I've seen, seems interesting, much like the plots of the other Fear Effect games, but that's it. If you're willing to put up with an absolutely god-awful combat system then I can recommend getting this on HEAVY discount. Like, 80% discount or so, but at full price you should give this a miss. It's a damn shame Sedna turned out this way, it really is. Like I said, I love the original Fear Effect and seeing the attempted revival of the games turn into this barely playable mess of a game is downright depressing. I never post reviews for things, but Sedna disappointed the hell out of me to such an extent that I just had to post something. Tl;dr: an absolute disappointing mess of a game with a plot that MIGHT be interesting enough to warrant getting it on a huge discount. Goodbye, Fear Effect. You had a good run back in the PS1 era.

I actually backed this game and I regre it. It turned to be a cheaply made game that if it didn't have Fear Effect in the title would go unnoticed. I gave it a chance and was really hoping this would lead to Fear Effect being rebooted since it was a great series. At this point, I have no confidence in the developer to handle even the remaster they are working on. The game looks nice. The style is great and that's about all that the game has going for it. The combat is just terrible. It looks like a tactical game like Xcom but it's really just spamming shoot. The AI is nonexistant. The voice acting is average at best. In the beta, I was hoping they would fix most of this so I gave it a chance. Don't waste your money. It's generic with a well known wrapper. That was their plan. It's a shame since I doubt after this we will get a real developer to handle a proper reboot of Fear Effect. It deserves it.

It really does feel like a Fear Effect game. Combat is passable at best, just like the originals. "Animated" (via post-processing) 2D backgrounds, just like the originals. Main strength is atmosphere and worldbuilding, just like the originals. Instant deaths and a cheesy game over screen that you will likely see a lot, just like the originals. Art style is very much like the originals too. Plot and visuals are dark and supernatural, just like the originals. It felt like playing just another PS1 game in many ways. Flawed, and charming. Of course, that might not be acceptable to many in 2018. But honestly I think I liked it about as much as Retro Helix. The only really distracting flaw was the quality of voice acting. There are a few lines in this game that are almost worthy of being in House of the Dead 2.

I spent several hours with this game, trying to find the reason to recommend it. But, unfortunately, the complete lack of quality and polish in most areas resulted in the worst experience I had in my recent gaming memory. I don't know where to begin. Maybe from the gameplay? It is supposed to be a tactical shooter, but it failed on all aspects of that genre. AI is nonexistant and sneaking is as rudimentary as it gets. It's very hard to avoid being seen and when you are spotted, which is very often, it's over in an instant, a large number of enemies will swarm upon you. In such frantic gunfights, any tactical gameplay like pausing, going behing cover, spreading your party members, using special abilities, is almost meaningless. They will rush you no matter if you're behind cover and it will come down to holding the shoot button and watching two groups exchanging bullets until you or your enemies are dead. That's it! It looks like developers are aware this, since they have put med packs as loot drop for most of slain enemies, because you'll be losing a lot of health in those gunfire exchanges. Boss fights in general were forgettable, except couple of less generic ones that did provide a window for some basic tactical gameplay. Maybe this kind of gameplay would have been acceptable in '90s, well, not even then actually. Since there is no rewarding stealth gameplay present, most of the time you will be rushing through the game, at least to follow the developing storyline, which leads me to my next gripe. The story. Dear lord, is it bad... It's not even in "it's sooo bad, it's actually good" category. Exposition is awful, it jumps without any explanation that should justify the context in which the mission is, sometimes leaving spectators confused in what is happening and why exactly. There is no dramatic build up to any significant events in the story, new characters jump in from nowhere who by the way have no development arc. And they are as relatable as any character from Jersey Shore throughout the whole game. And voice acting, it's even worse than the story and the script! I haven't heard such bad acting and godawful one liners ever, period! There are numerous bugs and signs of lazyness that were really irritating. I couldn't reconfigure/save controls xbox 360 controller button configuration, wrong button prompts would come up for specific actions (skip, close, etc..), characters would sometimes continue to move even though my analog stick was in central position, issuing commands in pause mode not working, there's no explanation for any of the special abilities for each of the characters, the list goes on... Few good things that come to mind are atmospheric soundtrack, okayish visual design and some puzzles, that were a breath of fresh air after tiring story cinematics and bad gameplay. Still, these qualitites are nowhere near redeemable. I'm not a fan of the original game, in fact, I've just recently completed it. When I compare it with other great titles of the PlayStation 1 era, it's an average action adventure game, nothing more. I have no gripes with changing the genre in Sedna and I think that even if the gameplay stayed the same as in the original, it would still be a game riddled with tons of problems... I don't know what the primary cause of these issues was. Was it a lack of development time, restricted budget or just lack of skill and talent, or creative vision? I would say the latter, but I would like to be wrong. Maybe the planned Fear Effect remake that is planned this year will disprove my claims...

It's... not bad. It's not good, sadly, and nowhere near the return Fear Effect deserved, but it's more bland than anything. Bland, yet functional combat, bland story, some nice puzzles sharing a place with some ♥♥♥♥♥♥ ones, some nice cutscenes mixed with bad sound design and voicework... Still, some fans of Fear Effect will have a relatively nice time with it. I did. Other fans won't - and there are a lot of possible reasons why. As for non-fans... there is nothing for them here. So yeah, it's a game for a very small portion of people and even than it's not a great one. Too bad, really.

Good art style and graphics good feel to the world and characters writing is ok, better if you are a Fear Effect fan, but is otherwise very cheesy plot, as far as I got, seems interesting puzzles are interesting BUT, the gameplay... the gameplay itself is absolute worthless garbage trash it feels janky and horrible, none of your abilities are clear in what they do, and combat itself is basically "click enemy and hope they die before you do"; its honestly so simple, and so horribly botched I cant even call it 'combat'. Edit: I forgot to mention, but I feel the combat could be better... if the AI was not absolutely braindead so the tactical mode is all but useless, as half the time the orders you give will be botched the same AI problem is present in enemies, who, upon the start of combat, will just walk forward towards you, ignoring fire and around cover. wait until it has a big discount and get it for the style and puzzles; otherwise give it a pass.

Considering all the budget constraints, the game is pretty faithful to the original concepts. As far as I can tell, the main point of criticism is usually some parts (or it as the whole) of the gameplay. The gameplay is varried, though the combat/stealth part is nothing to write home about. Of course its not a tactical thing like Commando or X-Com, like the initial glimpses of info could've suggested - so I guess I can understand dissapointemnt of some people coming from there. The action part is pretty basic (though mostly passable). But come on, the original games haven't done it any better. I'll go even further and say that when the guns or stealth were involved, FE 1 and 2 used to quickly descent into frustating mess, while Sedna is at least forgiving and transparent. We still liked those games, but for different reasons. The stealth/action thing never was the reason why anyone played them. Probably, those parts were one of the least engaging things about FE. The key thing always was, you know, the drive to see what else FE 1 and 2 had to offer - to get further and see more. And it mostly comes down to these: - weird and varried locations and little bit of (PSOne action/adventure -era) exploration (check); - fun mini-games and puzzles (check); - stylized cut-scenes that belong to late 90s and very early 2000s (also check). In my book, Sedna does everything it needs to do. The other point of criticism is VO - and it could be hit and miss at times, but still the game sounds fine for the most part, and It's alright for a game of this caliber. And here's the thing: FE Sedna wasn't made by Crystal Dinamics, Naughty Dog or some Ubi Soft monster studio, so of course the production value isn't even remotely there. The difference can be rather jarring if you are used to play mostly those games. So I guess if you expect that kind of expirience, even a stripped down version of it, than don't, I would recommend skipping Sedna. But as I see it, the devs had limited resources - still they spread them the most optimal way possible, and the result is pretty decent. I think the full package is solid, even if some gameplay elements wouldn't stand on their own.

I love the Fear Effect series. They're a very rare mixture of survival horror and oriental mythology, especially the first game(the best). The second has its moments, though it doesn't quite have the same vibe as the original. Sedna doesn't manage to surpass either one of them. The visuals are super faithful, but the writing feels like it could be for any series, and has none of the Fear Effect DNA. It pains me that the original writer was supposedly involved, because the story felt cookie cutter from start to finish. I'd rather have gotten (the cancelled third game) Inferno, because an unremarkable revival like Sedna is probably going to set FE back another few decades. The gameplay isn't bad, and has an interesting mix of stealth and party mechanics, but it's frustrating more often than not, especially when bosses have you outgunned, and you have no choice but to run around reviving everyone. The puzzles are fun, but sadly, few and far between, and I wish they'd been a bigger part of the game. Sedna was a valiant effort, but in the end, I can't in good conscience recommend it as a follow up to Fear Effect. It's a side-story at best.

When I played the original Fear Effect on Playstation 1, I was thrilled every minute because of the cinematic approach to the fixed camera angles and the items I had to find to progress the game. It was simple but did the job pretty well. It kept me entertained from start to finish, that's my point. However and unfortunately, this game is trying to be like the PS1 games but fails miserably... The voice acting sounds professional on the surface, but it is monotone as hell. The visual design looks even more boring than a company's powerpoint slideshow meeting. The puzzles feel like the original games with their quirks and usual gameover screens if you fail, but that alone did not carry the game. I know I've only played 45 minutes to give it a review but in the original game, the first 45 minutes got me hooked and made me play hours more. This game did not give me the same experience during the first 45 minutes and that speaks something. To the devs and publishers who hopefully will give this IP another try, please remaster the original 2 games from PS1 to the current generation, but if you don't, then I understand because the modern day media cannot accept the old content that might be offensive to a certain type of people online. Just play the original games on an emulator or watch them on youtube and you'll see what I mean.