Anybody remember the PSOne classics Fear Effect and it’s sequel/prequel Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix? They were easily two of my favorite games from the PSOne era of gaming. Delightfully weird, challenging, and beautiful, I remember them fondly. They played like the original Resident Evil games, so picture third person action/survival horror, with fixed camera angles and pre-rendered backgrounds, as well as puzzles galore for the players to solve. Fear Effect takes place in a near-future cyberpunk, kind of Blade Runner inspired Hong Kong, and the games art style still holds up today thanks to its cell shaded graphics. Needless to say, I’m excited at the possibility of a sequel.
Thankfully, that is now a possibility due to French studio Sushee resurrecting the franchise with Square Enix’s The Collective’s blessing. The Collective is a part of Square Enix that licenses out the company’s dormant and retired IP’s in agreement for a five percent cut of the Kickstarter pledge amount, and a 10 percent cut of all profits. Square Enix along with giving out the IP will also help publish the game.
The Kickstarter is set to launch on April 12th and Sushee is looking for $100,000 euros, which is equal to $114,120 dollars. Fear Effect Sedna will have the original cast of characters, Hana, Decke, Glas, and Rain return, in a new story that will continue from the second story and the unreleased third game in the franchise. Sushee is changing the gameplay of Fear Effect from the old school Resident Evil style adventure, to a more nuanced version of Harebrained Scheme’s Shadowrun Returns. So in layman’s terms, Fear Effect Sedna will be an isometric adventure title. Sushee founder Benjamin Anseaume said in Eurogamer’s press release of the news that “Fear Effect fans should expect a very different game than the Kronos-developed, Eidos-published original. So players have to expect major changes both in terms of the gameplay and the visuals. – We are a small team of 10 people. We are not Kronos. We are an indie team. We want to make something that respects the series, but it’s not going to be Fear Effect 3. It’s going to be a new Fear Effect with new gameplay. – We want to respect the story and the characters. It was difficult for us to create something based on something we didn’t create ourselves. So we realized we needed help from the former team.”
This a developing story so be sure to check back as news develops on the status and funding of the project. What do you think of the possibility of a Fear Effect sequel? And what do you think about the gameplay changes? Let us know in the comment section below, and be sure to check out the teaser trailer from Sushee!
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvsUKhrSfqc[/embedyt]
