Once thought lost to time, Kronos Digital Entertainment's PlayStation cult hit Fear Effect is at last getting a rerelease in 2025, and it's coming to Switch. Limited Run Games announced that the 2000 action-adventure, which is known for its striking cel-shaded visuals and motion video, as part of its LRG3 2024 showcase earlier today. The publisher is partnering with Square Enix — who took over former publisher Eidos in 2009 — to release the game physically and digitally.
In Fear Effect, you play as one of three mercenaries — Hana, Deke, or Glas — in the year 2050, after the disappearance of the daughter of a powerful Hong Kong Triad boss. The plan is to kidnap the girl and hold her for ransom, but things don't come to plan. The game's name is a referenced to the pulsing EKG 'health bar', representing a heart beat.
If you take damage, you need to calm your character down to essentially regain health. Stealth kills, sneaking, and other puzzle-based gameplay elements will affect this, too. Fear Effect is beloved among PlayStation fans, and the game did get a prequel in 2001 called Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix , but Kronos shut down shortly after its release.
The third game in the series, Fear Effect Sedna , switched up the gameplay in favour of an isometric perspective, and it didn't go down particularly well with critics. A remake of the first game was in development but was cancelled back in 2023 . When gene splicing goes wrong Have you played Fear Effect at all? Will yo.
