Cry of Fear Review
Cry of Fear is a Horror FPS mod for Half Life that’s been in the making for almost 4 years. Unlike most mods for Half-Life, Cry of Fear does not use any Half-Life1 content or other peoples’ files. It is all made exclusively from the developers Team Psykskallar who also bought us Afraid of Monsters and Resident Evil: Cold Blood.
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 tie is up; you can’t stay there reading your smses forever. It’s time to head out to find the answers.
The first thing many people will notice about this game is that the graphics are far out dated, in which case I would agree. But why would you complain when the games atmosphere is executed perfectly. Any horror game needs a scary atmosphere to be any good, and trust me when I say that Cry of Fear is scary. Don’t think this is just some game that makes you jump every few hours. It has its own unique horror theme to it. Cry of Fear is aimed at a very mature audience using scenes such as drug addiction, murder, rape, depression, bipolar and much more. This isn’t just about monsters.
Gameplay - 9/10
Doesn’t matter how much you mod it, it will always have the same aspects of Half-Life, the same style first person shooter. But the thing about this mod is that the graphics do not resemble the realism in the tone of the game. For instance one of the developers personally went to a gun range to test the weapons used in the mod, recording the fire rate, recoil and aim with the iron sights. This game also needs some strategy behind using guns because of the ammo system that is used. The ammo is based on magazines not bullets so if you reload with bullets still in your magazine you will lose them. Cry of Fear also has an amazing melee combat system. Using dodges and ducks to perform counter attacks on enemies is very unique for this game type. Stamina is also added into the game that allows the player to sprint, stamina also drains from dodging. Also having limited spaces in your inventory makes you stop and think about the items you really need to keep and what is just extra weight, making the wrong choice will make the game much challenging further along.
Also the addition of Co-op has been included in the mod. Up to 4 players can team up and run the single player mission backwards as Swedish Police Officers. The noticeable changes between single and co-op is the amount of enemies and where they will be hiding. It’s a fantastic addition to an already outstanding mod that the developers have included.
Presentation - 6/10
You really can’t say anything against a game that uses an out dated system. I could sit here complaining for hours about the quality of the graphics that was used, but instead I will focus on why the developers made the graphics good for an old school engine. Every single texture in the mod was created by the developers themselves. Nothing original from Half-Life was used during the development of this mod. But you don’t need A grade graphics to make a masterpiece as the developers here have proven. For the following reasons above I praise Team Psykskallar. To make up for the graphics the developers have done a great job with the sound.
Sound - 8/10
The music in this game will live up to anyone’s expectations, the perfect eerie music that is made for horror games plays throughout the whole game and really sets the atmosphere to the entire game. The only downside I have about this game is the voice acting, the voices in my opinion sound out of place and awkward in most areas. Bringing it back from awful sound acting the sound effects are also really well handled in this game, from standing on shattered pieces of glass to climbing ladders and how could you forget the monster who would yell at you.
An excellent example on the sounds for the mod would be during the first boss battle in the appartments.
You trek down flights of stairs each level containing more blood splatter on the walls, when finally reaching the bottom floor you walk down a corridor that is only vaguely lit. After opening the door you enter a room with one side light and the other pitch black, you hear a chainsaw start revving from the darkness and a a tall slim figure with a chainsaw jumps out and tries to stab you.
Overall Conclusion
In my opinion Cry of Fear is the greatest mod ever made. The effort the developers put into this mod is outstanding and they need to be recognized for this. Team Psykskallar has pushed the limits of the Half-Life engine to level where many people didn’t know it was possible. I highly recommend this mod to anyone who enjoys a good horror FPS. It could be its own game and I would pay for it.
This game deserves a 8/10