Reviews - FancyVoltaire

Afraid of monsters? You will be after you experience Cry of Fear, Team Psykskallar's new mod based off the original Half-Life engine. Unlike Afraid of Monsters which carried a slight modification to HL1, Cry of Fear takes on a more realistic rendering similar to what you would see in a 2004 computer game. But this game isn't just Afraid of Monsters with a coat of paint. It's an entirely different haunted house.

The game plays in the point of view of Simon, a troubled kid who carries all kinds of personal issues. When it comes to Simon, his character is satisfactory for a mod. The voice actor can provide the line delive but could use some work in emotional execution. Fortunately he does not say a lot except for a handful of scenes. His story however is one to pay attention to.

The gameplay of the game is similar to Afraid of Monsters but all around more polished and balanced. It is nowhere as heavy-handed as its redecessor which required lots of FPS experience to just get through Easy. The newly introduced inventory space management and save point system is a nostalgic echo of the earlier Resident Evil games.

When it comes to the horror aspect, Cry of Fear masters it on all the branches: Monsters, Atmosphere and Sound. No game since Amnesia has made me actually want to stop playing for the night, refusing to progress until I regained my willpower. The frights are not predictable or easy to get used to. A lot of the creatures carry a great similarity to Silent Hill monstrosities with the deformed designs and hidden meanings. The sound quality for the background and the creatures is asounding, not relying on generic sound effects taken from old movies or games.

The game itself takes about 6-8 hours to complete but carries an insane amout of replay value with different storylines, endings and secrets. And when one playthrough of Cry of Fear only provided you a slice of a delicious yet mysterious pie, you are definitely going to demand seconds.

Abduction is so good, you may as well count it as an unofficial expansion pack to the Amnesia story. The mod follows Daniel a matter of time after the events of the original Amnesia game, only to be kidnapped and brought into another terrifying dungeon owned by a man he once thought was gone for good. The map design, new custom additions and story provide a game worthy to play. The only flaw I could think of is the choice of music for the final confrontation, which is a memorable but very silly theme to put into the finale of a great horror mod. But it is not bad enough to be significant.