Hands on at EGX: Fear Effect Sedna

A forgotten gem has resurfaced in a new shape and style, and that gem is Fear Effect with its newest incarnation Fear Effect Sedna. There are actually two Fear Effect games on the horizon; Sedna and an HD remake of the original game from the PS1. Developed by Sushee under Square-Enix’s banner Fear Effect Sedna is a different beast from the PS1 games. Gone are the fixed camera angles and the tank controls of old, Sedna is an isometric action game similar to Shadowrun & XCOM. Fear Effect Sedna is a sequel to the first two games set four years after the first game and brings back the familiar characters of Hana, Rain, Glas and Deke it also brings in a new character; Axel. Sedna keeps in with tradition by staying with the cel-shaded graphics, they’re not identical to the art style of the original but close enough that you recognize the characters. The visuals are not the only thing familiar about this new sequel either, The puzzles are back too, which is a welcome return as I have fond memories of solving the puzzles in the original games as some of them were good brain scratchers, and the ones in Sedna look set to maintain that standard. Solving some of the ones in the original required some trial and error, the error usually having fatal consequences, which brings me to my next point of familiarity to the original games. The death scenes are back too, I only died a couple of times, once by messing up disarming a bomb and once again on the next mission when I was caught during a stealth section. The latter being so brutal that I actually blurted out “Oh shit!” when it happened.

The gameplay of Fear Effect Sedna is pretty solid, there are different elements at play, as mentioned above there are puzzly bits and stealth sections where you can sneak about and knife guys in the back and there are straight up shooter moments where you just go in all guns blazing. But there is also a tactical pause mode, so when you press the select/menu button the game pauses and instead of queuing up attacks like in KOTOR or the like, you make your play by controlling the character as if the game was unpaused. So take the first example of when you use this in the game, there’s a few guards in the room, as Hana I run up to the first guard and press the button to shoot him, then I run to cover and target another guy. Then, as Rain, I also run up to the first guy and target him for a shot too before running in the opposite direction to target another guy. Once this was done I hit select/menu again and the scene plays out in front of me as Hana and Rain run the same moves I just programmed them to do. It’s an interesting mechanic and one that will allow for a more organized approach to shootouts allowing some simultaneous coordination.

I quite enjoyed my time with Fear Effect Sedna, I really enjoyed the original PS1 games back in the day and were among my favorites of the time, so it was just good to revisit those characters in that world again. Nostalgia aside though, Sedna is shaping up to be a cracking wee game in its own right and one I am very much looking forward to seeing more of when it’s released as well as the recently announced remake of the first game. Fear Effect Sedna is set to release towards the end of 2017 on Xbox One, PS4 and PC.