DESCRIPTION

In the near future, mankind's tinkering with the science of genetics and the developmental process of genome mapping has resulted in the accidental creation of a new disease known as EINDS. This disease, which attacks a cell's DNA and halts mitosis and meiosis (the processes that allow our cells to duplicate), has killed nearly a billion people and no hope of a cure has been discovered.

With the disease spreading rapidly, it is feared that the manipulations of DNA will lead to mankind's complete undoing. It's up to three mercenaries and a mysterious woman with no past to combine their separate efforts into one adventure involving danger, intrigue, and supernatural involvement, with the prize perhaps being salvation for human kind.

Fear Effect: Retro Helix is a cinematic adventure game for the PlayStation. Although it has been released after the original Fear Effect title, it is in actuality a prequel to the events in the first game, explaining how Hana Tsu-Vachel, Royce Glas, and Jacob Decourt wound up together. The game takes place over four levels, each of which has its own CD: futuristic, gritty Hong Kong, the Walled City of Xi'an, the Tomb of the First Emperor of China, and the legendary Penglai Shan, mountain home to the immortals.

You will take the role of one of the three mercenaries at different points during the game. The action in Fear Effect is fast paced, and gameplay comes in two varieties: quickly progressing through the environments (while disposing enemies) or solving puzzles, which typically consist of opening various locks before you can continue.

The game itself includes cinematic cut-scenes apart from the main presentation, which features cel-shaded characters drawn atop looping cel-animated backgrounds. During the course of the mission you will pick up new weapons and meet characters from the past who will eventually make an appearance in the original Fear Effect. ~ Jon Thompson, All Game Guide