Fear Effect is back after a 16-year hiatus

Fear Effect is an action-adventure game from behind the veil of time. It came out way back when in the year 2000, on grandpa-Playstation, where it practically brought cel-shading to the masses, with weird, pre-rendered streaming/looping 2D backgrounds which were a total trip at the time. The game was well-received, both by gamers and the critics, yielding a sequel. A third game was in the making for PS2, however, it never saw the light of day.

Square Enix is now making good on their promises from 2015, when they said they will look into their massive back catalogue and bring back titles from the past. Along with Fear Effect Reinvented, which is a remake of the original, Fear Effect Sedna is also in development by the same studio, Sushee. Sedna was successfuly crowdfunded in 2016. Sedna, however, is in a different genre, featuring a different view and set of controls, while it is expected for the remake to retain much of the original’s combat and gameplay.

The original Fear Effect games were solid hits and their themes were, among other things, sexually suggestive, especially in the second game where the relationship between the leading female characters was emphasized. There was even a plan to create a love triangle in Fear Effect: Inferno, the PS2 sequel that never made it. Practically the only dated thing about Fear Effect were the controls which were unintuitive and caused serious issues with some boss fights that left the players furious. If Sushee focuses on that part of the game, we might have a great revival on our hands.

Fear Effect Reinvented will be coming to PS4, Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch some time in 2018.