Reviews - Mob11

Cry of Fear is (or was) a mod for Half Life 1 (moddb singleplayer mod of the year 2012, scariest game of the year 2012). Don't let the age of the engine put you off, it has been totally modified with new graphical and gameplay features. And since Valve broke many HL1 mods with their latest update, it is getting an overhauled stand-alone release on 24th April. If this had been released in 2004 it would have easily competed with professional games.

When I was younger I found Alien vs Predator 1 incredibly scary, but now I feel hardly anything when I play it. Amnesia was scary, but completable. I can sit through any horror film no problem. This is the first game that made me wonder if I should stop playing it because it was unhealthy to stress my mind this much. It's the first game that made my bladder spasm. As a baseline, think of the Iron Maiden moment in Amnesia and imagine if the whole game was that constant level of scary instead of a momentary peak.

Some people try and generalise it saying it's jump scares, but that's mainly the beginning. Cry of Fear does jump and atmospheric fear incredibly well so you never relax. It borrows a lot from old school survival horror. There are environmental puzzles, exploration, inventory management and you're constantly low on ammo. It drags a little with the second Fuse quest in the middle of the game but other than that it's tip-top. Combat is a crucial part of survival horror IMO. In Amnesia you know that no matter how bad an enemy is, you're not expected to defeat them. The game has to be designed to give you an out, to let you bypass them entirely as 1 hit will kill you. In this game the enemies aren't going anywhere. You know you will have to confront them.

Also replicates the variety of content from old survival horror games. Multiple endings, a big singleplayer campaign, an Assignment Ada style bonus campaign that lets you play a short campaign from an NPC character's pov, and on top of that a more action-orientated Mercs style co-op campaign featuring the survivors of the local police force.

I hope to god someone mods it for Oculus Rift compatibility. Will be downloading and permanently writing this to DVD on Wednesday.