Flashback Friday: A New "Fear Effect" Game--What Are the Odds?

A new game in a series that hasn't been seen for a decade-and-half? That's interesting. Let me explain though. You see, a few days ago I was thinking about older video-games I had played, and one that I mulled-over was, "Fear Effect," and its less-impressive (but not terrible) sequel/prequel, "Fear Effect 2". A weird game full of cell-shaded graphics, violence, sex, and general mayhem, "Fear Effect," was basically a sci-fi sexploitation flick come to life. It took place in the future, but toward the end worked in mysticism and general madness as the characters descended into Hell...or something. Note that it wasn't necessarily that good of a game, but it sure was an interesting one.

As for "Fear Effect 2," it covers how some of the characters from the first game came to meet one another and featured a highly publicized and promoted same-sex romance between two of the female protagonists that involved a make-out scene in an elevator (it was 2001, the idea of a lesbian kiss still could throw the media into a tizzy). Also, it took the somewhat tongue-in-cheek nature of the first game and just went full-out on the objectification with ads like this (yes, these are real):

As I said, the games themselves generally weren't this heavy on the sexualization, but they still definitely had that playing a part. Oh, and there was a third game planned for the Playstation 2 but it ended up cancelled. The series was clearly dead and gone, until now when suddenly it has sprung back to life.

It was funny to think that the very next day after my thinking about the series that it was announced how there will be a Kickstarter by an indie developer (with permission from the intellectual property owner, Square) who wants to create a new, "Fear Effect," game that is less of a third-person shooter like the previous titles and more of an arena-style fight where over various turns you control a team as they combat enemies. This apparently isn't a reboot, but will in fact follow the plot of previous games (including the one that never came out). Here is the teaser trailer for it:

 I am always leery of Kickstarter campaigns for games considering how many have been funded and then failed to release (although there are of course success stories too), and the concept of how this indie developer gets to make the game with the Fear Effect license because they have to pay Square a royalty of sorts from their Kickstarter strikes me as odd, but if we can get a new and potentially good, "Fear Effect," game out of all this my interest is indeed piqued. We will see how the Kickstarter does once that crowdfunding campaign is launched, and hopefully if all goes well by 2017 we will have a new, "Fear Effect," game.

Whether this will be more guilty-pleasure styled or serious shall be seen, but I did read the developers have already promised no more steamy elevator scenes, and I imagine in 2016 having an ad that declares how your female protagonists put, "The ass in assassin," wouldn't really fly.