Fear Effect Inferno
Encyclopedia
Fear Effect Inferno is the unreleased third game in the Fear Effect
series. Inferno was originally announced for the PlayStation 2
in 2001, and the first trailer was released during the 2002 E3. The trailer depicted some of the only known footage of the game. The game's status changed rapidly towards the end of 2002 and was finally canceled in 2003. However, between the announcement and the cancellation, information was scarce.
Reports varied as to the status of the game between 2002 and 2003. While an early report by GameSpot
in May 2003 described the game as simply "on hold", IGN
broke the news during their "Missing in Action" series of articles that the game had been canceled. According to IGN's report, the game "was the first of Eidos' victims to its more stringent quality assurance program." Due to the game's poor progress, it was either given more development time or cancelled. Unfortunately, only the development staff knew of the game's status following this condemnation. According to IGN, "at some point in late 2002 or early 2003, Kronos did indeed shop it to various publishers. Nobody, however, bit."
Fear Effect Inferno is based on the best ending the player could achieve in the original Fear Effect. Therefore, the demons set forth by Jin have been killed, Glas' arm has been "reattached," and Deke's body and soul have been restored. According to the videos, Fear Effect Infernos story chronicled Hana's capture by a group of demons disguised as human doctors and nurses. Hana is placed in an asylum where tests are performed on her. During this time, she has several hallucinations, which range from Hana's completion of ancient tasks to her friends, including Hana herself, getting slaughtered by beasts. As she completed more challenges, Hana gained power from these ancient beings, allowing her to escape the grasp of the asylum's demons and experiments. Meanwhile, Deke is working from the inside, possibly as a "patient," killing any and all individuals that get in his way while searching for Hana. By the end of the journey, the four bounty hunters would once again face the fires of Hell, and fight the remaining demons. Besides the demons themselves, their previously-human experiments, henchmen with sunglasses, and a woman that vaguely resembles Wee Ming, no "main enemy" was ever highlighted. However, Fear Effect Inferno promised more characterization during the course of the adventure.
Many drastic changes to the characters were expected to take place during the events of Fear Effect Inferno. As the trailers and demonstration clips explained, Glas and Rain would begin a sexual relationship. At the same time, Hana and Glas would develop closer bonds, which would have created a love triangle for the three bounty hunters. The fates of the characters themselves is unknown; It was never revealed if any of the deaths witnessed by Hana or the player would be permanent.
Graphically, Fear Effect Inferno would have resembled the previous two titles with a "next-gen facelift." Using the PlayStation 2's graphical capabilities, pre-rendered scenes, which would have shown the characters talking and performing more animation-intensive actions, would have been rendered at a higher resolution. Like the previous two games, the background environments would have been short, pre-rendered animations, using a technique utilized by some portions of Final Fantasy X
. The polygonal characters would have been rendered using a cel-shaded method similar to the ones used in the previous two Fear Effect titles for the PlayStation. Other gimmicks, such as Hana frequently changing clothes, would have been prominent in the game, as well; In the existing clips alone, Hana dons no fewer than 4 different outfits.
, but this was only true for the Tomb Raider
franchise. According to an e-mail by Sandy Abe, "Unfortunately Fear Effect probably will not get picked up."
Fear Effect
Fear Effect is an action-adventure game released for the PlayStation in 1999. It was developed by Kronos Digital Entertainment and published by Eidos Interactive. The story concerns three outlaws named Hana, Deke, and Glas who are trying to retrieve the missing daughter of a wealthy Chinese...
series. Inferno was originally announced for the PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
in 2001, and the first trailer was released during the 2002 E3. The trailer depicted some of the only known footage of the game. The game's status changed rapidly towards the end of 2002 and was finally canceled in 2003. However, between the announcement and the cancellation, information was scarce.
Reports varied as to the status of the game between 2002 and 2003. While an early report by GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
in May 2003 described the game as simply "on hold", IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
broke the news during their "Missing in Action" series of articles that the game had been canceled. According to IGN's report, the game "was the first of Eidos' victims to its more stringent quality assurance program." Due to the game's poor progress, it was either given more development time or cancelled. Unfortunately, only the development staff knew of the game's status following this condemnation. According to IGN, "at some point in late 2002 or early 2003, Kronos did indeed shop it to various publishers. Nobody, however, bit."
Story
While story details have been scarce, IGN editors promised that "the fusion [of] Asian myth and freaky modern themes" would be prominent like the previous two titles. Through the few Demonstration clips that Kronos released during the game's development, fans have pieced together a portion of the game's plot.Fear Effect Inferno is based on the best ending the player could achieve in the original Fear Effect. Therefore, the demons set forth by Jin have been killed, Glas' arm has been "reattached," and Deke's body and soul have been restored. According to the videos, Fear Effect Infernos story chronicled Hana's capture by a group of demons disguised as human doctors and nurses. Hana is placed in an asylum where tests are performed on her. During this time, she has several hallucinations, which range from Hana's completion of ancient tasks to her friends, including Hana herself, getting slaughtered by beasts. As she completed more challenges, Hana gained power from these ancient beings, allowing her to escape the grasp of the asylum's demons and experiments. Meanwhile, Deke is working from the inside, possibly as a "patient," killing any and all individuals that get in his way while searching for Hana. By the end of the journey, the four bounty hunters would once again face the fires of Hell, and fight the remaining demons. Besides the demons themselves, their previously-human experiments, henchmen with sunglasses, and a woman that vaguely resembles Wee Ming, no "main enemy" was ever highlighted. However, Fear Effect Inferno promised more characterization during the course of the adventure.
Many drastic changes to the characters were expected to take place during the events of Fear Effect Inferno. As the trailers and demonstration clips explained, Glas and Rain would begin a sexual relationship. At the same time, Hana and Glas would develop closer bonds, which would have created a love triangle for the three bounty hunters. The fates of the characters themselves is unknown; It was never revealed if any of the deaths witnessed by Hana or the player would be permanent.
Gameplay and graphics
Only a few screenshots exist that hint at the gameplay style of Fear Effect Inferno. Based on these images, it was concluded that the gameplay would have been nearly identical to the previous two games. However, a new weapon system would have allowed players to map a firearm to the "X" (Cross) button and another to the "O" (Circle) button on the DualShock 2 controller. This would have allowed numerous weapon combinations. In addition, updated diving moves could be executed to quickly evade enemy fire. The environment itself would have allowed players to hide from hazards, such as bullets, and function as a way to avoid detection. It was rumored that players could control certain actions during scripted in-game fight scenes, requiring the player to execute timed button combinations to fight certain opponents. Fear Effect Inferno would have introduced the separation of the "Health" and "Fear" Meters. However, it is not known how the "Fear" Meter would have affected gameplay since the "Health" Meter functioned as both in the previous two titles.Graphically, Fear Effect Inferno would have resembled the previous two titles with a "next-gen facelift." Using the PlayStation 2's graphical capabilities, pre-rendered scenes, which would have shown the characters talking and performing more animation-intensive actions, would have been rendered at a higher resolution. Like the previous two games, the background environments would have been short, pre-rendered animations, using a technique utilized by some portions of Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X
is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square as the tenth title in the Final Fantasy series. It was released in 2001 for Sony's PlayStation 2, and will be re-released for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita in 2012...
. The polygonal characters would have been rendered using a cel-shaded method similar to the ones used in the previous two Fear Effect titles for the PlayStation. Other gimmicks, such as Hana frequently changing clothes, would have been prominent in the game, as well; In the existing clips alone, Hana dons no fewer than 4 different outfits.
Cancellation
News of the cancellation did not come to fans until 2004, years after the game's initial announcement and quiet absence. Even Sandy Abe, Chief Operating Officer of Kronos, hinted that Eidos might give the series a second chance under a new developer, such as Crystal DynamicsCrystal Dynamics
Crystal Dynamics is an American video game developer based in the San Francisco Bay Area and founded in 1992 by Judy Lang, Madaline Canepa and Dave Morris...
, but this was only true for the Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive. It was originally released in 1996 for the Sega Saturn, with MS-DOS and PlayStation versions following shortly thereafter...
franchise. According to an e-mail by Sandy Abe, "Unfortunately Fear Effect probably will not get picked up."