Everything you can make out of this game all boils down to this secretly being a love story between Zero and Accord.

Perhaps this is beyond my functional requirements as a Recorder but, I cannot shake the feeling that somehow, somewhere, Zero is still alive...and that someday. Someday, she and I will see each other again.

THIS SILENCE IS MINE

Considering this game is free, there is next to no reason for you to not go and play the first hour of it, see what you think. That’s what I did on my first run of the game, and I decided that I didn’t like it. I never uninstalled it or anything like that, but the mechanics of the game were just too inconvenient for me and the idea of survival horror was pretty new to my tiny brain as well. Played it until the end of the first area, and quit. Thank god I went back and fixed my mistake, because it provided me with some truly beautiful and disturbing moments that stick with me to this day.

Before getting to my favourite aspect of this game, I wanna talk about some of the other great things it does. There are constantly top-tier horror moments in CoF, the college, forest, asylum, just consistently peak horror segments that are petrifying every time and keep the player on their toes for the rest of the game. I like the weapons, they aren’t anything spectacular, nor all that unique but the addition of more than one melee weapon is something I really appreciate and is an idea that many other horror series (cough resident evil cough) refuse to incorporate. The art direction is surprisingly amazing for a game with graphics like they are, and the designs of the creatures are usually pretty grim, quite Resident Evil-esque, so, again, not especially unique but nonetheless very disgusting and Team Psykskallar definitely understood what they were going for in that respect.

Despite all this, the most impactful aspect of Cry of Fear, in my opinion, is ironically the sections when there is no horror. Two or three specific set pieces that are all just indescribably beautiful for so many reasons, but I will try to communicate why I find these moments so genius.

- cityscape over a lake -
Firstly, there is one area in the game, quite early on, either just before or just after being chased down by a chainsaw wielding maniac, where you are left with your own thoughts, walking next to a lake, with a cityscape in the background, this is so brilliant, simply for the reason that the game decides to give you a break and put a nice little city in the background, there is not much symbolism or clever artistic choice going on for this one, it’s just a demonstration of the love that went into the creation of this game and the knowledge of how to make the player enjoy and remember the experience for longer.

- fully lit school -
What makes this section so exceptional is that it is, once again, just simply a break from the nightmare. This section also intelligently capitalises off of the audience’s vulnerability and susceptibility to a surprise ambush, however, for a game that is so great at scaring the player, it manages to put them back at ease impressively well, and it makes the player want to explore this serene school a lot more. (atleast before it gets filled with monsters again after the lights turn off)

- paddle through the lake -
This is my very favourite moment in the entire game, and one of my favourite moments in any game ever, which is impressive for a small indie half-life mod released 10 years ago. It is simply a minute or so of gameplay where the main character gets inside a rowboat and paddles across a small stretch of water. This section itself isn’t so great on its own, but it is what becomes before and after that, and how this boat ride leaves the player to ponder their journey. Just prior to the lake, is a mental asylum: a very frightening section that concludes with a gun duel between you and the doctor, who you have been following for most of the game. This showdown has a sense of finality to it, which is emphasised by the few moments afterwards in which you walk outside to meet… daylight. For the first time in the entire game the sun is out and the once anxiety-inducing trees are now perfectly lit, and the path ahead is clear. The little walk out of the asylum along with the boat ride produces a cathartic feeling in me every time, an “it’s finally over” feeling. This emotion is so difficult to describe, but I’m confident anyone would understand it if they have gotten to this point. The part afterwards is great too, it’s the final area, so there are obviously enemies and scares, but it is done in a fashion that helps to maintain that powerful emotion throughout its entirety, and it doesn’t ruin the moment before to any capacity.

I wrote this review without touching on the story once, which is really depressing and has some great themes, plus the way it is done makes it so that it unravels throughout the game, until all the symbolism and meaning is dropped onto you at the end, changing future playthroughs and making the player realise new things they wouldn’t before.

In the end, Cry of Fear is a really fantastic game. There are some op collectible weapons you can get from beating the game, which in my opinion kind of ruins that feeling i described earlier, but otherwise, pretty much no nitpicks to make other than maybe minor pacing issues.

Just play it lol. 9.5/10