Fear Effect remake coming to PC next year
Reinvent the wheel
Sony scallywags might remember Fear Effect, the horror shooter that came out on the PSone a full 17 years ago. Quite good, it was, and now it's getting a remake. Named Fear Effect Reinvented, it's coming to PC in 2018. If you never played the original, I'll explain you control three mercenaries shooting and rolling their way through Hong Kong in search of a triad boss's daughter, who they intend to kidnap and ransom, when events turn a bit supernatural.
The remake is a collaboration between Square Enix's Collective indie scheme and developers Sushee, who are also working on real-time tactics spin-off Fear Effect: Sedna. The team want the remake to stay "as close as possible" to the original Fear Effect, keeping the gameplay and story but updating the graphics and tank controls.
Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz, Sushee creative director Thibaut Romaggi explained how the game has changed since 2000:
"We won't be making a simple remake, we want to stay as close as possible to the original, but important aspects of the game will evolve. Graphics, of course, as you can see in the announcement trailer... we tried to find a very modern, yet respectful artistic direction.
"The second big evolution are the controls. I don't know if you've played Fear Effect and Fear Effect: Retro Helix recently, but - unlike the rest of the game - the controls didn't age very well. We will propose a more modern experience with more fluid controls. But we're also thinking about the hardcore fans and we'll let them play with the old controls."
Fear Effect is one of the series that Square Enix own but don't intend to do anything with themselves. In 2015, they invited pitches for new Fear Effect, Anachronox, and Gex games. Slushee got the go-ahead for Fear Effect: Sedna and took it to crowdfunding in 2016. That's still in development, due to launch this year, but now they're getting to (re)make a proper Fear Effect game too.
The trailer doesn't give away much but it does show off the modern take on the original's cartoony art style. Have a gander:
