Diehard fans of the original PlayStation may remember Fear Effect, Kronos Digital Entertainment’s cel-shaded, FMV-heavy action-adventure game. All the way back in 2017, publisher Square Enix Collective revealed that indie developer Sushee would fully remake the game and translate its old-school design choices for a modern audience. This remake, titled Fear Effect Reinvented, effectively disappeared from the gaming news landscape and general public discourse for years, leaving its future in doubt. That all changed yesterday. Forever Entertainment, the current publisher of Fear Effect Reinvented, uploaded a new teaser trailer for the game, which is now being developed by MegaPixel Studio.
The trailer depicts a brief in-game shootout that displays all of the visual and gameplay changes front and center. Although the remake stays faithful to the original in the sense that it uses a similar cel-shaded art style, it completely swaps out the original’s survival horror-esque tank controls in favor of more traditional cover-based third-person shooting.
The gameplay definitely looks a bit rough around the edges, particularly when it comes to the simplistic blood splatter effects and the characters’ lack of reaction to bullets. But of course, it could end up looking quite different once the remake officially comes out.
A few more things worth noting
According to the trailer description, the remake features the same three protagonists as the original and they each come with their own campaign. Despite the change in gameplay, the remake still retains some of the original’s survival horror elements, which include inventory management and environmental puzzle solving.
Although Forever Entertainment did not unveil a release date for Fear Effect Reinvented, the end of the trailer did confirm that the game will arrive “sooner than you think.” After more than five years of waiting, Fear Effect fans will at last soon be able to see if this remake succeeds in updating the original.
