This review contains spoilers
Cry of Fear is a game I first saw at Pyro 3 years ago. This year I finally played it on Medium, and I don't think I've ever been as soft-locked in CoF as I've ever been in any game.
The game had quite a promising start, the level design was phenomenal for it's time, especially since it was made in GoldSrc. The voice acting, I can't criticize, it was Simon's VA first time acting and by the end of the game, he starts shining as a VA.
This game has quite an amazing story, that is being a bit dragged down by the gameplay. As you continue playing you start getting flashbacks of Simon's therapy sessions and so on, making more sense as you progress.
As I said, the first part of the game was really great, where it starts getting annyoing is the constant backtracking in the game. Backtracking is fine itself but having it constantly troughout the game really made it drag out more than it should be.
You at some point lose all your items in the forest part, which was the place you might have the biggest annoyince with since you would probably keep getting jumped by the many monsters, dark rooms that are actually pitch black and even with your monitor gamma to 100% you can't see. But after everything you've went trough at the forest, the day shines and you get the most peaceful moment of the game yet, the boat scene where you are left with the beautiful morning and the peace that came with it.
Another problem is the guns, you get more and more guns that at some point you have more guns than you can carry, and the problem is, you barely get ammo, you will almost always just get ammo for your pistol, not for your other 500 guns, but you don't know that in your playtrhough, so you would feel bad leaving a gun behind. The dual wielding is really cool tho.
Also, keep in mind, when you see "physics" simulations, they were made by hand, GoldSrc never support such magic. Huge props.
Overall CoF is a game with amazing story, it doesn't have a "good" ending, which is something I love for games. You either go nuts, or actually cave in and let others help you.
The game had quite a promising start, the level design was phenomenal for it's time, especially since it was made in GoldSrc. The voice acting, I can't criticize, it was Simon's VA first time acting and by the end of the game, he starts shining as a VA.
This game has quite an amazing story, that is being a bit dragged down by the gameplay. As you continue playing you start getting flashbacks of Simon's therapy sessions and so on, making more sense as you progress.
As I said, the first part of the game was really great, where it starts getting annyoing is the constant backtracking in the game. Backtracking is fine itself but having it constantly troughout the game really made it drag out more than it should be.
You at some point lose all your items in the forest part, which was the place you might have the biggest annoyince with since you would probably keep getting jumped by the many monsters, dark rooms that are actually pitch black and even with your monitor gamma to 100% you can't see. But after everything you've went trough at the forest, the day shines and you get the most peaceful moment of the game yet, the boat scene where you are left with the beautiful morning and the peace that came with it.
Another problem is the guns, you get more and more guns that at some point you have more guns than you can carry, and the problem is, you barely get ammo, you will almost always just get ammo for your pistol, not for your other 500 guns, but you don't know that in your playtrhough, so you would feel bad leaving a gun behind. The dual wielding is really cool tho.
Also, keep in mind, when you see "physics" simulations, they were made by hand, GoldSrc never support such magic. Huge props.
Overall CoF is a game with amazing story, it doesn't have a "good" ending, which is something I love for games. You either go nuts, or actually cave in and let others help you.