It’s not often that a game inspires controversy before it even hits the shelves. The sci-fi adventure Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix has been under fire since its concept was first reported, and its original ad campaign, launched around Christmas, is not being used in most game magazines. Perhaps it’s all the lesbian sex.

Hana and Rain, Retro Helix’ two female leads, sleep together. “I wanted Hana to be an open character,” says Kronos president and director Stanley Liu, who then trots out an old joke: “She’s what I call a trysexual: She’s willing to try anything.”

Retro Helix follows the adventures of four mercenaries who cross paths while surching for the cure to a mutant virus. The gameplay, which is similar to Capcom’s popular Resident Evil series, blends exploring, puzzle-solving and action sequences. It uses well-integrated cut scenes to tell the story and never takes itself too seriously, especially in regard to the lesbian relationship.

Before anyone gets too het up, be warned that the intimacy between Hana and Rain isn’t developed all that much, with the love scenes never going much farther than a PG-13. Liu admits that Kronos had to work hard to have its publisher accept the mature content of the finished product.

“We heard some concerns from Eidos because Wal-Mart wouldn’t carry it if it was too explicit. I’d say by mid-production, though, we said ‘Screw it.’,” he says, laughing. “And it stayed: we have a little touching and such, but it fits in the story.”

What wasn’t accepted by many was the original print ad campaign, which featured both Rain and Hana in their undies with Rain on top. The tagline is, “No one’s surprised this story is capable of thirteen climaxes.” According to Liu, there was a problem with the word “climaxes”. And according to Eidos PR, the problem came from conservative game magazines.

“We didn’t actually choose to pull the ad. Certain gaming magazines decided not to run the ad,” says Eidos PR Coordinator Kjell Vistad. “That wasn’t an Eidos choice.”

So what did they go with? A fully clothed ad of Rain and Hana with the tag line, “These two ladies put the ass in assassin.” “And that one’s OK!” Liu says.

But don’t let the sex and violence fool you: The story is the title’s real strength. Liu originally planned on making Retro Helix a full-length anime as opposed to a game, which becomes obvious when playing sections heavily influenced by classics such as Ghost in the Shell and Akira. Coupled with some of the best Playstation graphics ever (in gameplay and cut scenes), Retro Helix will make any anime fan feel right at home.

Another strength of the game is its hilarious pop-culture references, which range from a mock infomercial for a killing machine to the lame pickup lines tossed around in a bar scene. All the humorous subplots are weaved almost perfectly into the gameplay, which makes the lack of development on Hana and Rain’s relationship that much more obvious.

Still, Retro Helix is more risqué than the average title and will keep you entertained with its many unnecessary cleavage shots and four-letter words. Hopefully Fear Effect 3, currently in development for the Playstation 2, will bring the series to adulthood.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 26th, 2001 at 1:11 am and is filed under Journalism, Playboy.com, Sex, Video Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.