You wake up in a dark alley, not knowing anything. What has happened anyway? You struggle after the truth and answers. Answers you want to know in the darkness and fear, which makes your heartbeat race like violent blows against your head. Where do "they" come from? What has happened? Are you just turning insane? The time is up; you can't stay there reading your smses forever. It's time to head out and find the answers. Cry of Fear is a singleplayer modification of Half-Life 1 which brings you the horror you've always been afraid of. It's a total conversion of Half-Life 1, which means it uses NO Half-Life 1 content or other peoples' files. It's all made exclusively by the developers. It also uses new gaming styles that you will rarely find in Half-Life mods, such as advanced cutscenes and other stuff that will be revealed at a later date.
This review may contain spoilers
Cry of Fear is a good, fun game but is nowhere near extraordinary.
*SPOILERS BELOW*
The Good:
- CREATIVELY DESIGNED MONSTERS. I liked the lady/ies who make Simon want to shoot himself.
- INTERESTING BOSS FIGHTS. Different strategies, man.
- NICE VISUALS/AMBIANCE. The boat ride was memorable.
- FITTING MUSICAL SCORE.
- CHALLENGING GAMEPLAY.
- LEVEL/MAP DESIGN (or at least most weren't terrible)
The Bad:
- TOO MANY MONSTERS. At some parts that the game stopped being fun and just became a chore.
- THE INVENTORY SYSTEM. It did not add a sense of "being helpless" or "powerless". Instead, it made the whole game a hassle, particularly when it came to keys. I would drop my pistol because my inventory is filled with a whopping three items, pick up the key, run and unlock the door that's 5 minutes away, spend another 5 minutes running back to my pistol to pick it up, and another 5 running back to the door just so I could be properly equipped for the next area. This type of inventory doesn't add anything to the game except a new pain in the ***.
-THE STORY/PLOT. The story had so much going on that it all just felt cobbled together. It tried too hard to force emotion onto the player that it came out like a joke. For example, here's Simon going about his business, killing monsters, discovering truths,OHBYTHEWAY THERE'S THIS GIRL NAMED SOPHIE WHO HE USED TO LIKE BUT SHE KILLED HERESLF AWWWW ISN'T THAT SADDDDDD, forget about Sophie- onto more monster killing whoopwhoop. But then the story never even revisits that seemingly "important" part of the plot. It was just there to be there.
-THE CHARACTERS + SYMBOLISM. I didn't care one bit about Simon or what his "monsters" represented because his whole development was just so flat.
-THE GAME IS TOO LONG. It just dragged on and felt too long for its own good.
-TOO MUCH BACKTRACKING.
All in all, Cry of Fear was a solid, good game. There was a lot wrong with it and I probably won't be playing it again, but it was fun.