Fear Effect does not offer a lot in the fear department, but instead delivers a non-stop excellent action game.
In "Fear Effect", the player takes the rule of a trio of bounty-hunters, searching for the missing daughter of a local Triad boss. The two main characters are Hanna, a Japanese woman with a dark past, and Glas, an American mercenary who only seems to be interested in getting the job done (and getting paid). From time to time, a third character will take the spot light - a stocky older man named Deke, who is the last member of the trio (and wields two sawed-off shotguns as his main weapons). What seems to be a simple search and retrieve mission soon turns into an all out fire fight as the trio mows their way through dozens of Triad members, soldiers, zombies and even demons, in order to stop the king of hell from fulfilling a terrible prophecy.
The gameplay itself is pretty straight forward. Just point Hanna (or any other character for that matter) towards the enemy you want dead, and hold X until one of you drops. There are some dodging options and a bit of ammo management towards the end, but it's nothing that wasn't done in a hundred other games. The ammo management part is kind of cool though, as you are forced to burn different pieces of paper in order to receive different types of ammunition (something to do with paper offerings to the dead).
A slightly different feature is the "Fear meter". The "Fear Meter" is the game's version of a health bar, depicted as the character's heart rate. The difference between the "Fear Meter" and a standard health bar is that it can't be regenerated manually. Every now and then, a checkpoint, known as a "Rush moment", occurs. "Rush moments" regenerated the characters "Fear Meter" completely, and offer the chance to save the game. Saving points are available along the levels even outside these "Rush moments", in relatively safe zones.
Another neat option for disposing of foes is the stealth kills. Every character has one melee weapon with which they can eliminate enemies quietly and quickly as long as there are not detected by other enemies.
The puzzles in the game are pretty standard for a survival horror game. All of them make sense, and there is no need to backtrack often in order to find the right key (which make them a little better than most). The majority are based on entering the right combination of symbols or using items and clues Hanna picked up along the way. The puzzles themselves drive the game and the plot forward. The gunfights are basically there to occupy the player between cut-scenes and the puzzles.
The graphics are quite good for a PS game, and although most enemies tend to repeat themselves, it isn't really a problem. Every level has its own set of unique enemies, and they all fit right in. the backgrounds are uninteresting at best, and the environments are pretty generic and uninspiring. But the main characters models are well made and the lip-synch is fluent throughout the entire game. There are even a few moments where the graphics actually deliver a gory scene with surprising efficiency.
The soundtrack, however, isn't the best around. Hanna and Glas are well dubbed, but other characters voices are mediocre at best and laughable at worst. For example, Wee Ming, the runaway daughter of the Triad boss, speaks most of the time in a fluent American accent, remembering that she's Japanese only when referring to Glas as Mr. Gras. Other characters speak in high, annoying voices, that only makes the player feel glad once them blow up or shot down. The script suffers from the same corny dialog most Japanese horror games are famous for, with busted English and lousy attempts for dramatic lines, which come out ridicules and lame.
The main problems with "Fear Effect" are its length and difficulty. Although the game is stretched along four CDs, an average player can finish the game in less than 8 hours. Part of that is because the game is so easy. Save points and "rush moments" are abundant and enemies are pretty easy to take down. Even when surrounded, a single dodging maneuver will put Hanna out of harms way. The boss battles are the only ray of light in "Fear Effect". Most of them are fun the play and are challenging enough to pose a real threat (and lengthen the game a bit).
"Fear Effect" is a good game, especially for those who can appreciate a solid action game with a few, almost non existing horror elements. Unfortunately, because of the absence of any real challenge and its short life span, the game's advantages loss some of their charm.