It's interesting to see games evolve over time. "Crouch jumping" was literally EVERYWHERE for a while, it was ubiquitous! And now it's completely disappeared to the point where you had trouble with it, just cause you're not used to it anymore nowadays.
It's not a bad thing devs don't use that thing anymore tbh, it's so counter-intuitive when you think about it, I really don't miss that platform aspect shooter games like HL etc had. Accessibility don't always mean easier, but more fun and intuitive for everyone.
Mantling and vaulting is the next step with crouch jumping. Although, Mirror's Edge Catalyst lets you curl your legs when jumping, so that's probably the closest to crouch jumping.
@@dsxz every old game that i played back in the day required crouch and jumping, good memories, and i still have a lot off the games, that i aquired again over the years, just because they're too good to not be played, sadly most have been forgothen.
this game and afraid of monsters showed that lower graphics can actually make something far scarier that being able to see the monster's nostril hair up close(if it has any)
I understand the complaints but given how old it is and that the team that made it was so small and that this game is basically a passion project I just can't help but love this game with all the jankiness. Given that you don't really care about the story it's understandable that you didn't get or like the ending. Glad you gave it a try.
@@CorwinTheOneAndOnly yeah that definetly true but given that most enemies in this game represent something Simon is dealing with it wouldn't make sense if it was completely irl story.
@@CorwinTheOneAndOnly Could be. It is what it is. They did the best they could with what they had and made it free so that's good enough for me to overlook the glaring problems it has. But if you have played Half Life 1 the graphics, movement and enemies aren't as bad.
Jumpscares(to the best of my ability & attention span) screaming face 3:22 15:37 guy bursts through door 21:06 little freak stands up, idk if it counts 22:48 guy flashes on screan, then a freak charges 24:06 window shatters 24:33 things on screen, then an attack 16:12 bathroom freak 26:40 guy appears outta nowhere 33:06 gets rushed 37:39 yikes lady 39:02 another lady 31:00 she busts down a door 42:47 another door falls victim 44:33 door broken
This made me feel extremely old even if I'm just a couple of years older than Insym 😂 guy's about 24 or something? I kinda miss games where you get to crouch jump though. That was one of the best ways to find all the good little secrets and easter eggs.
it just occured to me, I don't think he's played a survival horror game with resource management (or a source game for that matter) before this. no wonder he struggled so much. the game certainly has its flaws and criticism is valid, but I do find it frustrating when some complaints stem purely from a lack of experience with this style of game though I feel that anyone who plans to play this game should familarize themselves with half-life and silent hill/RE first
@@breakingawesome4888 I agree with you on this, which is one reason why I find his outlast comparison to be ridiculous because this style of game is so different. But yeah I was wondering why he never played silent hill but now i understand why it's probably not his favorite kind of game.
So, I normally like Insym's reviews a lot. I find that he's rather reliable when it comes to solid gaming advice and thoughts, but I feel he gave the cold shoulder to this game. I will give the benefit of the doubt, because, obviously, we all have different tastes and opinions. Even then, this game is not perfect, a far cry from it. It's not even close to being my favorite game, but Insym was really harsh on this. The game has several mechanics that are prevalent in modern survival horror and it did it well. Take the reload. Your current clip is low? Do you really want to waste those couple of bullets to ensure you don't have to reload when an enemy jumps out you? Or do you want to make sure the next enemy dies. hardly any game does this. Another is the dual wield mechanic. Almost wholey unique to this game. Simon is not a special op or anyone trained with a gun, so he needs to lower any other item he has to reload his gun. Will you lower the gun and temporarily blind yourself for increased firepower? Will you rely on melee so you can see and preserve bullets? These are common survival horror tropes, yet they are unique this game. Again, hardly any games have taken these mechanics and this game is from 11 years ago. Yeah, the gameplay loop can be frustrating with the game mainly relying on enemies swarming you just out of sight to jumpscare you and make you panic, and it really doesn't because it does a perfectly good job already in scaring and inducing panic with its mind games. The limited item space is something that's been in nearly every survival horror game since the original Resident Evil, likely before that too. Does this game punish a bit too much? Probably, but that's part of the experience, I'd say. The game would function incredibly differently if we, as chatter suggested, had 5 slots instead of 3 (not including the pockets, ofc). Look at Resident Evil 2 Remake, with its shotgun taking the same amount of inventory space as a battery. It's a trope that exists purposefully to invoke a sense of "What do I do?" Is it particularly harsh here, yeah, probably. However, even from a casual view, I feel Insym just failed to grasp certain concepts in the game. It is nothing against him, it just happens. I struggled in the first few chapters as I tried to understand what my goal was, how to play, etc. I had to restart because I soft locked myself on the first boss. The game is punishing and hard, perhaps even unfair. Yet, I feel Insym's dislike of game is based exactly one what the game is intending to be. To explain, he often struggled with the basic movement of the game. This is not the game's fault but rather the engine's. The half life engine relied on certain physics that made it both easy and hard to deal with. One such example is the hitbox of the character. Your character is able to change their hitbox on the fly via a crouch. You can combine this with a jump to increase your jump height by a few pixels. This is mandatory knowledge in a game that uses this engine. Understanding the physics is also necessary for any of the parkour in this game, which was essentially common knowledge in gaming when it came out. Anyone that touched a game was, usually at least, well acquainted with the movement and physics of the very common half life engine: Half Life, CSGO, Portal, Gmod, Team Fortress... It was a hugely used engine for very popular games when Cry of Fear came out. It's no Outlast, because it is trying to match an AAA game. It's telling a story and using its own tools to do so. I guess this is one of the reasons I believe comparing games to be harmful in nature because it takes away the point. We don't need to choose this game over this game for this and that reason. We can play both. We can enjoy both. Both, undeniably, have upsides and downsides. Yes, Cry of Fear is janky, it was made in 2012 in the Half Life Engine by a small group of people with little funding. They achieved greatness with what was, in essence, nothing but determination. Again, I would mention that this is likely, at the end of the day, simply not Insym's style of game, nor may it be yours. It is punishing. You will die. You may not even understand what went wrong. It might not even be your fault. Your only job is to learn what happened and re-experience the hell of Simon's imagining. It tells the tale of physical and emotional trauma well, with gameplay that does itself justice. This was survival horror, and it was done well, just not perfect.
Insym "I don't know who could play this game for hours to get all the endings" Me: *looks at recommended* *sees Pyrocynical's video in recommended* Ironic
I don't think it's fair comparing this game to outlast, it's made in an engine from 1997 even though the game itself is only 10 years old. It never intended to be a modern game for the time. It just did something with the goldsource engine that has never been done before with it.
I played this for 50 hours and I just love this, the whole game is just a fight against Simon's depression. I can imagine, this can be a depression for many people.
played this game back in 2017 and went into it blind not expecting much for a free game. now it's one of my favorite games of all time! thank you for playing it
Thanks for the playthrough. Enjoyed it. I don't know why you keep comparing outlast too this game. outlast came out like a year and a half or more after this game. And was built a gaming engine thats like 20+ years old. And the gaming style was built around that era. Like comparing these two games is like comparing call of duty modern warfare to like the original medal of honor. Hell it might even more separated than that even.
@@CorwinTheOneAndOnly I pretty new to his content so I wasn't aware. Thanks for the info. But ya now that you mentioned it he never tried to pace himself or anything. And cry of fear is pretty brutal. Thinking about it, it's kinda impressive he made it. And makes more sense why he got so frustrated as well.
The fact Insym got one of the worst endings is pretty common. Since any person would just dive right into whatevers possible for them when they see it. But many encounters can be avoided and major points of the game could be solved differently. Its just that the player has to be open minded and kinda have to force themselves to look around for these new routes. But the game puts so much pressure on the player, it tells them to just keep moving forward. Like theres no consequences. But in ‘reality’ you can actually bend the rules to open these new routes. So yeah, im firm about this game having some psychological input based on player decisions. Its a really good game for its time.
It's also worth keeping in mind that this game even came out in february 2012. I know Insym uses Outlast as a reference from back then, but Outlast actually came out almost two years later. At the time Cry Of Fear got released, the survival horror genre we know today was still very much being shaped, the only reference already around back then was Amnesia: The Dark Descent (which is still a reference today). If I'm not mistaken, not even Slender was around yet. The fact that a small team made a free game out of a mod for another game in a pretty under developed genre is nothing short of impressive. This game was massive back then, and justifiably so! I'm glad most of the commenters, like you, don't agree with Insym's views on it. It's a real shame that his experience with the game was not the best.
We came to a point where recent horror games intentionally try to emulate lower graphics from older games in order to make it creepier (Puppet Combo games are a great example) So having an actual older game, with actual graphics from back in the golden era of TH-cam, is amazing, especially seeing how well it holds up today, but in a different way: I could totally see a newer game intentionally use graphics like the ones in this game in order to amp up the creepy factor I played this game 10 years ago and found it creepy by itself, and now, watching it and going through it again, I'm finding it extra creepy because of how the graphics aged and came to fit into that "creepy old game graphics" we love, only it *_actually_* comes from an older game, made a decade ago So good
I really like this game, and it doesn't bother me that Insym didn't. What does bother me a bit is how his experience with it could have been *_SO MUCH BETTER_* than what it was. I wish the parallels between reality and the things in Simon's book (what you see in-game) were a bit clearer for him to catch up on. I wish he'd trusted the doctor with the gun. I wish he was a bit more careful with ammo and healing. But overall he did okay.
*A repost of my comment from the Vods Channel after people being angry with how Insym played the game or insulted the devs or both.* People let's be respectful yeah? Here is my take on this: Let us be respectful, chill and understand where Insym is coming from. I know it is one of your favorite games. I quite like it too but try to see this game from a new player's perspective, or as someone new to the Half-Life engine in general not just Insym. If you have never played or are not used to playing CS or the old Half-Life or Source games, you probably will not encounter the mechanic of Crouch Jumping. The mechanic itself is IMO underutilized and became something we got used to since we played/play those games from back in the day. This has nothing to do with a "millennial gamer" mindset. Some people will claim that the game was made by a small team, but there are a lot of games that were once small dev teams that became HUGE. From RPGs to RTS, to FPS, Even Counter-Strike. Even today we see indie games by small indie teams growing to become amazing games in their respective genre (Some even loner ventures of just one dev). And they nail, story, gameplay and sound. Cry of Fear does an amazing job with its sound design and uncanny monsters that make you wonder what is really going on with Simon. That keeps the tension going. You can have a psychological horror game that does not involve backtracking like what happens in Chapter 4. I find that if they had cut a few places of the game and invest on others we would have a much better game overall. There is a reason why the earlier parts of the game stuck with a lot of people who play or watch the gane. You are on the edge, wondering what is happening. The game gives you the incentive to keep looking and wondering. Couple that with the ambiance and sound design, and you've hooked the player. But then chapter 4 rolls around, and you are dragged out of the tension to go looking for things you already knew or saw. The question now becomes, "Where did I leave the damn fuse?". And that is where the immersion ends for most people. The story itself is amazing, and it does indeed go deep but the pacing of the gameplay and how it's presented is a little slow and unnecessarly punishing sometimes. If you don't go looking everywhere, YOU WILL miss syringes and ammo. Things that are essential for your survival. And that for me is bad map/game design. Can we really blame the player who misses something on their first blind playthrough? Not Guided, blind. Sure, you may be a player that looks around and checks every corner, but some will not have that taste for exploration of crouching everywhere and pressing E on everything. So even if the argument is that Insym did not look enough. We know that those items are there. We know he won't find it. We saw Insym missing them. We already saw it all, but not him. And here is where a compairson to DS happens. Some may compare the game to Dark Souls, but I beg to differ as Dark Souls have really polished mechanics and gameplay and as some people said, genre, team size and engine. Another point is that FromSoft Games leave a lot for the player to explore and get to know the place on their own. If the player does not wish to go above and beyond searching for stuff. They can do that and still get through the game as key items are 99% of the times unmissable. Even the player missing their Estus Flask was not expected behavior of the game, so a glitch/bug and not purposely done to screw the player as if they never talked to Oscar. Most of the time you die in DS because you did not "GIT GUD" but you eventually learn yours and the enemy's mechanics to win. You are not overly punished for not looking. FromSoft games also have an amazing soundtrack, sound design coupled with good gameplay. When you are not engaging in the amazing and immersive story that it has, You are taking the world in and having a blast while playing and dodging or... dying lol. That being said, I only spoke about DS because people already made that comparison. To end my point about compairing this to other games even games that Cry of Fear was based on like RE and Silent Hill were not THIS punishing with their mechanics. Now something I disagree with Insym. The Outlast compairson I find it a little unresonable. Not because of the year or team size but the Engine itself. The Half-Life engine is very old so even small things like ADS is a miracle to pull off and a little janky sometimes. ADS was not even a thing outside of Zooming crosshairs on Crossbows and Snipers. On a technical level based on others mods and games that use the engine, in my opinion Cry of Fear is a marvel. But again, we only know that because we grew with old Half-Life and Branched games and that is not me trying to sound like an elitist. We just know what the games were like and played. So I may not agree but I do see where he is coming from. And that is the most important part, understanding where he is coming from while not feeling attacked nor frustrated. That all being said, while I find the engine itself and what they manage to pull off with it is a spectacle. Having played the older games, I do feel like they miss-handled how you the story are presented and the item placement in later chapters. And that is something they definitely could have done better. Insym said best when he said that he felt like the latter half was done by a different team. It's quite a contrast with the earlier chapters. Not in an all positive way in my opinion (Mostly negative). The TLDR for all of this: Just be respectful even if they disagree with you. Try to understand where they are coming from and do not attack them or their image. If you read all of that good lord. I wish you the best of days!
The vod comments got a bit of hand for sure, this game is rather beloved by people, so some strong opinions to be had. I think Insym's criticisms are reasonable, though I agree with you on the Outlast comparison, it's not a fair comparison. We can all like whatever games we want, and Insym didn't like this one, and that's fine. Best to just all relax somewhat. Great comment!
This post ^^^ Honestly, the moment I saw Insym posting Cry of Fear, I immediately knew there was going to be a lot of strong criticism, especially with the mechanics of the game that aged poorly over time (11 year does that 😂). Outlast comparison is unfair tho, definitely 😅 but like what Insym said, he didn't really know much about the game. I'm sure he went off to actually search after posting and streaming though! I just hope that this doesn't put him off from playing other classics that had different mechanics from way back :(
Hell yeah, I've been requesting this for like over a year! The other endings are a lot better and i think you'd enjoy watching a video essay on it. I think this game connects better with old school survival horror fans. Which is the same reason i think you would definitely not like Silent Hill or Resident Evil 1. Sucks you didn't end up liking it but thanks for seeing it through. Was a great video as always.
as for the original resident evils: the 3rd person camera in like "security cam mode" like they used in the first RE's is janky and annoying as fuck. I disliked it back in the day and still hate it xP even the RE1 remake has this camera and it really As for silent hill, if we take a slightly more recent SH like SH homecoming, then it's more this style but also more methodical, enemies are annoying till you know how to handle them. there's a rhythm to most SH enemies and they have fairly clear weakpoints. there's not a crazy amount of 'one shot mechanics' and there's a crazy amount of athmospheric tension building (hearing the smog enemy for half an hour while trudging to a forest before finally meeting him on the road, hearing the dogs skulking around during your trip in the cemetary only to meet them half an hour later,...)
Man I couldn't finish this game because of how terrifying the enemies were to fight and my heart could not take it. More than happy to watch my favorite streamer play it though!
Boi hates on COF bc his skillgap too big, and plays phasmo for 2k hours where you basically do the same sh*t everytime. And crazy that he thinks that Outlast is a masterpiece even tho it's not that good xD
You telling this is a bad game makes me a bit how should I say this ''irritated'' cause you heard the game was made in HL1 engine (Do keep in mind that HL1 was made in 1998) so ofcourse the gameplay is gonna be wanky, I think they made a wonderfull game for an engine being from 1998 (I might be wrong and you can comment to correct me and I will retract my statement but this is just how I feel)
@@Freeman4815 Wrong. It's a half life 1 mod and uses the half life 1 engine "GoldSrc" (Gold Source) from 1998. Half-Life 2, along with garrys mod and some other games, uses the normal source engine by valve.
@@Mowdown This is separate game, not a mod. It uses the same mechanic from HL2, menu or even the same console and cheats work and they are specific for game engine.
I'm SO SO glad you finally decided to play this masterpiece! It's my most favourite horror game of all time, another bonus is ofc that it's free. I'm so hyped to watch this!
The two hours where u were desperate for heals made for fantastic watching. I like that u just get in there & try to make the most of what u have. Me, I’d save scum until I had more heals than I knew what to do with lmao
Watching him blast half of every magazine into an already dying creature in the middle of a death animation had me laughing. I remember liking the atmosphere but most of the 'scares' just hurt my ears.
I love how the last two hours of the game were so immensely glitchy... This has to be the most glitched out game I have ever seen. x.x Great job, Insym! I give you so much praise for your patience in beating this entire game.
I truly don't understand how people use horror videos to fall asleep to, especially from Insym, while he is a great guy, his voice is kinda grating to the ears sometimes so that's all the more weird. People out here falling asleep with super high pitched noises and jumpscares? lol
With all respect, its kind of silly when streamers do stuff like needlessly waste ammo and morphine and then get frustrated and complain about the difficulty. Like I agree the game is flawed and overdid the difficulty in a lot of spots, but you are not giving yourself a fighting chance when you fool around so much.
Was really glad when chat was correcting the others for why this game looks old lmao Its still one of my favorite games graphically just cause I love old goldsource mods
Right? I think the Source engine by itself aged in a way where every environment made on it becomes a liminal space. This, combined with the fact that lots of horror games nowadays intentionally try to create lower graphics in order to make the game look creepier, convinces me that Cry Of Fear aged very well! Back in the day we didn't have any of these factors to add up to the horror.
Its interesting seeing you go from enjoying the game so much in the first half to despising it in the second. Cry of Fear has such a good opening and the first few chapters are great, but it does fall off kinda hard. If it wasn’t for so much padding (like having to backtrack so often) I think the game would have been way more enjoyable. However for the time it came out, and taking into account the EXTREMELY small team that worked on it, you can’t really blame them. In the developer commentary they actually talk about how they were afraid the game was too short and were brainstorming idea’s to pad it out. However I love this game despite its shortcomings and it has alot of fantastic moments that I personally feel shine through the negative, but I can understand why you didn’t like it.
Hi Insym, so glad you're playing this, love that you're uploading everyday, keeps my day interesting, so thank you. Love your videos, have a great day 🙂
Recently I mentioned a "CryOfFear-like" moment in the Mists of Aiden playthrough (photocam and face jumpscare). And two days later Insym uploads this video. Magic 👀
Wow I can remember Markiplier playing this a billion years ago. I remember allll the scares and frustrating bits like it was yesterday. Thank you for this.
Purely because I'm curious, how many people heard "Boop superjuice" every time Insym used a syringe or is it just me who has watched Mark for too many years lmao.
I remember playing this game when it was a mod and not just a standalone and the first jumpscare with the camera a friend got so scared that we pushed a plug with the chair. It made false contact and lights went out lmao. It was really creepy timing
Thank you for always delivering the best content, Insym. It's awesome seeing you play these classic horror games as well! ✨️ Cry of Fear always had a special place in my heart as a horror game, especially with its story that dealt with serious topics.
Insym: what, you have to jump and crouch what kind of stupid mechanic is that? me at 03:15:15 : oh no, the game is trying to make insym map surf (landing sideways on a step incline while maintaining forward momentum to annul falling damage from any height), right?
insym ama be 100% honest i dont really agree with you on this video i when i played the game i didnt really waste my ammo because i realised that if i reload i dont save the spare bullets so it was a gamble if i try to hit my shots and not waste any more ammo or lose my spare bullets but insure an 100% garantee kill i think u need a little bit of expirience and try to get the other endings because ive 100% the game i understand your frustration on the game ending the platforming part yea that does kinda suck i think the devs even said that they dont like that part but its a really old game and they tried to make a remastered version but got canceled because it was really expensive to keep making the voice actor of simon is one of the devs and its his first time of voice acting you can tell that at the start he is quiet and more close to the end you can see he is more confident talking but this game is about the story so dont bash the game for what it means it be although i believe you might redeem this game because i loved this game
Even as a huge fan of this game, I can 100% agree with what you said at the end. I wish the devs would've ditched the action/shooter aspect and instead focused more on the horror and atmosphere (which is its' real strength). Also, I don't understand why there have to be so many different types of weapons, despite the player's inventory space being very limited. Don't even get me started on the parkour sections, they were just so janky and frustrating. I think the best things about this game overall are the soundtrack, scenery and atmosphere. (P.S.: One of the devs who worked on the soundtrack has a band called Intig. I highly recommend checking them out if you like this game's OST)
I remember playing this game co-op with a friend of mine when it first came out, scared us shitless lol especially the chainsaw guy, flashbacks right there.
Damn, I remember playing this game in multiplayer with friends ! This game and another where one of you was a monster that could hang to walls and ceiling and needed to kill everyone, such memories ! :D
I'm sorry chief but I played this game when I was 15 years old on medium difficulty and didn't have any problems except for some of the puzzles. You not recommending it to other people just sounds like it stems from a skill issue to me.
Omg dude I’m so glad you found this! Back in 2012-2014 when some of the bigger TH-camrs were playing this it was the best content to watch. Classic hl mod horror
It's interesting to see games evolve over time. "Crouch jumping" was literally EVERYWHERE for a while, it was ubiquitous! And now it's completely disappeared to the point where you had trouble with it, just cause you're not used to it anymore nowadays.
crouch jump was really a half life/source/half life mod thing. I cant think of another game from back in the day that required that
It's not a bad thing devs don't use that thing anymore tbh, it's so counter-intuitive when you think about it, I really don't miss that platform aspect shooter games like HL etc had. Accessibility don't always mean easier, but more fun and intuitive for everyone.
Mantling and vaulting is the next step with crouch jumping. Although, Mirror's Edge Catalyst lets you curl your legs when jumping, so that's probably the closest to crouch jumping.
@@dsxzhalo
@@dsxz every old game that i played back in the day required crouch and jumping, good memories, and i still have a lot off the games, that i aquired again over the years, just because they're too good to not be played, sadly most have been forgothen.
this game and afraid of monsters showed that lower graphics can actually make something far scarier that being able to see the monster's nostril hair up close(if it has any)
in my mind, half of what makes horror games so horrifying is the element of our own imagination.
And this game specifically which embodies depression and its consequences makes it even scarier!
Fr high graphics make it not as scary for me
@@Baconator3r yes and these days its just graphics anyways :)
@@andreasiven21 I hate how games are starting to be more graphics rather than actual good gameplay and story
I understand the complaints but given how old it is and that the team that made it was so small and that this game is basically a passion project I just can't help but love this game with all the jankiness. Given that you don't really care about the story it's understandable that you didn't get or like the ending. Glad you gave it a try.
@@CorwinTheOneAndOnly yeah that definetly true but given that most enemies in this game represent something Simon is dealing with it wouldn't make sense if it was completely irl story.
@@CorwinTheOneAndOnly Could be. It is what it is. They did the best they could with what they had and made it free so that's good enough for me to overlook the glaring problems it has. But if you have played Half Life 1 the graphics, movement and enemies aren't as bad.
@@CorwinTheOneAndOnly Okay. Did you even understand the story at all ?
Jumpscares(to the best of my ability & attention span)
screaming face 3:22
15:37 guy bursts through door
21:06 little freak stands up, idk if it counts
22:48 guy flashes on screan, then a freak charges
24:06 window shatters
24:33 things on screen, then an attack
16:12 bathroom freak
26:40 guy appears outta nowhere
33:06 gets rushed
37:39 yikes lady
39:02 another lady
31:00 she busts down a door
42:47 another door falls victim
44:33 door broken
Thank you 😅
"I've never had a game where you had to crouch jump"
Seems like you're missing out on all the source games.
This made me feel extremely old even if I'm just a couple of years older than Insym 😂 guy's about 24 or something?
I kinda miss games where you get to crouch jump though. That was one of the best ways to find all the good little secrets and easter eggs.
@@heroyolkie I'm 24 too. Age is not the issue here.
I've watched this guy dodge more morphines than I've ever seen from any other playthrough. bro might as well played on nightmare mode
it just occured to me, I don't think he's played a survival horror game with resource management (or a source game for that matter) before this. no wonder he struggled so much. the game certainly has its flaws and criticism is valid, but I do find it frustrating when some complaints stem purely from a lack of experience with this style of game though
I feel that anyone who plans to play this game should familarize themselves with half-life and silent hill/RE first
@@breakingawesome4888 I agree with you on this, which is one reason why I find his outlast comparison to be ridiculous because this style of game is so different. But yeah I was wondering why he never played silent hill but now i understand why it's probably not his favorite kind of game.
Oh, this game wasn't released at the same time as Outlast. It was released in february 2012, almost two years prior.
So, I normally like Insym's reviews a lot. I find that he's rather reliable when it comes to solid gaming advice and thoughts, but I feel he gave the cold shoulder to this game. I will give the benefit of the doubt, because, obviously, we all have different tastes and opinions. Even then, this game is not perfect, a far cry from it. It's not even close to being my favorite game, but Insym was really harsh on this. The game has several mechanics that are prevalent in modern survival horror and it did it well. Take the reload. Your current clip is low? Do you really want to waste those couple of bullets to ensure you don't have to reload when an enemy jumps out you? Or do you want to make sure the next enemy dies. hardly any game does this. Another is the dual wield mechanic. Almost wholey unique to this game. Simon is not a special op or anyone trained with a gun, so he needs to lower any other item he has to reload his gun. Will you lower the gun and temporarily blind yourself for increased firepower? Will you rely on melee so you can see and preserve bullets?
These are common survival horror tropes, yet they are unique this game. Again, hardly any games have taken these mechanics and this game is from 11 years ago. Yeah, the gameplay loop can be frustrating with the game mainly relying on enemies swarming you just out of sight to jumpscare you and make you panic, and it really doesn't because it does a perfectly good job already in scaring and inducing panic with its mind games. The limited item space is something that's been in nearly every survival horror game since the original Resident Evil, likely before that too. Does this game punish a bit too much? Probably, but that's part of the experience, I'd say. The game would function incredibly differently if we, as chatter suggested, had 5 slots instead of 3 (not including the pockets, ofc). Look at Resident Evil 2 Remake, with its shotgun taking the same amount of inventory space as a battery. It's a trope that exists purposefully to invoke a sense of "What do I do?" Is it particularly harsh here, yeah, probably.
However, even from a casual view, I feel Insym just failed to grasp certain concepts in the game. It is nothing against him, it just happens. I struggled in the first few chapters as I tried to understand what my goal was, how to play, etc. I had to restart because I soft locked myself on the first boss. The game is punishing and hard, perhaps even unfair. Yet, I feel Insym's dislike of game is based exactly one what the game is intending to be. To explain, he often struggled with the basic movement of the game. This is not the game's fault but rather the engine's. The half life engine relied on certain physics that made it both easy and hard to deal with. One such example is the hitbox of the character. Your character is able to change their hitbox on the fly via a crouch. You can combine this with a jump to increase your jump height by a few pixels. This is mandatory knowledge in a game that uses this engine. Understanding the physics is also necessary for any of the parkour in this game, which was essentially common knowledge in gaming when it came out. Anyone that touched a game was, usually at least, well acquainted with the movement and physics of the very common half life engine: Half Life, CSGO, Portal, Gmod, Team Fortress... It was a hugely used engine for very popular games when Cry of Fear came out. It's no Outlast, because it is trying to match an AAA game. It's telling a story and using its own tools to do so.
I guess this is one of the reasons I believe comparing games to be harmful in nature because it takes away the point. We don't need to choose this game over this game for this and that reason. We can play both. We can enjoy both. Both, undeniably, have upsides and downsides. Yes, Cry of Fear is janky, it was made in 2012 in the Half Life Engine by a small group of people with little funding. They achieved greatness with what was, in essence, nothing but determination.
Again, I would mention that this is likely, at the end of the day, simply not Insym's style of game, nor may it be yours. It is punishing. You will die. You may not even understand what went wrong. It might not even be your fault. Your only job is to learn what happened and re-experience the hell of Simon's imagining. It tells the tale of physical and emotional trauma well, with gameplay that does itself justice. This was survival horror, and it was done well, just not perfect.
stop yappin
@@isitkian nah hes right
seems like we got ourselves a chatterbox
@@branescan still talking too much
i ain’t reading allat
OMG A CLASSIC
Yep
Absolutely
Insym "I don't know who could play this game for hours to get all the endings"
Me: *looks at recommended* *sees Pyrocynical's video in recommended*
Ironic
I don't think it's fair comparing this game to outlast, it's made in an engine from 1997 even though the game itself is only 10 years old. It never intended to be a modern game for the time. It just did something with the goldsource engine that has never been done before with it.
I played this for 50 hours and I just love this, the whole game is just a fight against Simon's depression. I can imagine, this can be a depression for many people.
played this game back in 2017 and went into it blind not expecting much for a free game. now it's one of my favorite games of all time! thank you for playing it
Thanks for the playthrough. Enjoyed it.
I don't know why you keep comparing outlast too this game. outlast came out like a year and a half or more after this game. And was built a gaming engine thats like 20+ years old. And the gaming style was built around that era. Like comparing these two games is like comparing call of duty modern warfare to like the original medal of honor. Hell it might even more separated than that even.
@@CorwinTheOneAndOnly I pretty new to his content so I wasn't aware. Thanks for the info. But ya now that you mentioned it he never tried to pace himself or anything. And cry of fear is pretty brutal. Thinking about it, it's kinda impressive he made it. And makes more sense why he got so frustrated as well.
Cry of Fear is also Free too Play on Steam
The fact Insym got one of the worst endings is pretty common. Since any person would just dive right into whatevers possible for them when they see it. But many encounters can be avoided and major points of the game could be solved differently. Its just that the player has to be open minded and kinda have to force themselves to look around for these new routes. But the game puts so much pressure on the player, it tells them to just keep moving forward. Like theres no consequences. But in ‘reality’ you can actually bend the rules to open these new routes. So yeah, im firm about this game having some psychological input based on player decisions. Its a really good game for its time.
It's also worth keeping in mind that this game even came out in february 2012. I know Insym uses Outlast as a reference from back then, but Outlast actually came out almost two years later. At the time Cry Of Fear got released, the survival horror genre we know today was still very much being shaped, the only reference already around back then was Amnesia: The Dark Descent (which is still a reference today). If I'm not mistaken, not even Slender was around yet.
The fact that a small team made a free game out of a mod for another game in a pretty under developed genre is nothing short of impressive. This game was massive back then, and justifiably so!
I'm glad most of the commenters, like you, don't agree with Insym's views on it. It's a real shame that his experience with the game was not the best.
We came to a point where recent horror games intentionally try to emulate lower graphics from older games in order to make it creepier (Puppet Combo games are a great example)
So having an actual older game, with actual graphics from back in the golden era of TH-cam, is amazing, especially seeing how well it holds up today, but in a different way: I could totally see a newer game intentionally use graphics like the ones in this game in order to amp up the creepy factor
I played this game 10 years ago and found it creepy by itself, and now, watching it and going through it again, I'm finding it extra creepy because of how the graphics aged and came to fit into that "creepy old game graphics" we love, only it *_actually_* comes from an older game, made a decade ago
So good
I LOVE CRY OF FEAR!! THANK YOU FOR PLAYING IT!!
Omg I never thought I'd see you play this classic! One of my favorites! ❤️
5 hour video... Woah. Can't wait to see what this is about then!
I really like this game, and it doesn't bother me that Insym didn't. What does bother me a bit is how his experience with it could have been *_SO MUCH BETTER_* than what it was. I wish the parallels between reality and the things in Simon's book (what you see in-game) were a bit clearer for him to catch up on. I wish he'd trusted the doctor with the gun. I wish he was a bit more careful with ammo and healing. But overall he did okay.
*A repost of my comment from the Vods Channel after people being angry with how Insym played the game or insulted the devs or both.*
People let's be respectful yeah?
Here is my take on this: Let us be respectful, chill and understand where Insym is coming from. I know it is one of your favorite games. I quite like it too but try to see this game from a new player's perspective, or as someone new to the Half-Life engine in general not just Insym. If you have never played or are not used to playing CS or the old Half-Life or Source games, you probably will not encounter the mechanic of Crouch Jumping. The mechanic itself is IMO underutilized and became something we got used to since we played/play those games from back in the day. This has nothing to do with a "millennial gamer" mindset. Some people will claim that the game was made by a small team, but there are a lot of games that were once small dev teams that became HUGE. From RPGs to RTS, to FPS, Even Counter-Strike. Even today we see indie games by small indie teams growing to become amazing games in their respective genre (Some even loner ventures of just one dev). And they nail, story, gameplay and sound.
Cry of Fear does an amazing job with its sound design and uncanny monsters that make you wonder what is really going on with Simon. That keeps the tension going. You can have a psychological horror game that does not involve backtracking like what happens in Chapter 4. I find that if they had cut a few places of the game and invest on others we would have a much better game overall. There is a reason why the earlier parts of the game stuck with a lot of people who play or watch the gane. You are on the edge, wondering what is happening. The game gives you the incentive to keep looking and wondering. Couple that with the ambiance and sound design, and you've hooked the player. But then chapter 4 rolls around, and you are dragged out of the tension to go looking for things you already knew or saw. The question now becomes, "Where did I leave the damn fuse?".
And that is where the immersion ends for most people.
The story itself is amazing, and it does indeed go deep but the pacing of the gameplay and how it's presented is a little slow and unnecessarly punishing sometimes. If you don't go looking everywhere, YOU WILL miss syringes and ammo. Things that are essential for your survival. And that for me is bad map/game design. Can we really blame the player who misses something on their first blind playthrough? Not Guided, blind. Sure, you may be a player that looks around and checks every corner, but some will not have that taste for exploration of crouching everywhere and pressing E on everything. So even if the argument is that Insym did not look enough. We know that those items are there. We know he won't find it. We saw Insym missing them. We already saw it all, but not him. And here is where a compairson to DS happens.
Some may compare the game to Dark Souls, but I beg to differ as Dark Souls have really polished mechanics and gameplay and as some people said, genre, team size and engine. Another point is that FromSoft Games leave a lot for the player to explore and get to know the place on their own. If the player does not wish to go above and beyond searching for stuff. They can do that and still get through the game as key items are 99% of the times unmissable. Even the player missing their Estus Flask was not expected behavior of the game, so a glitch/bug and not purposely done to screw the player as if they never talked to Oscar. Most of the time you die in DS because you did not "GIT GUD" but you eventually learn yours and the enemy's mechanics to win. You are not overly punished for not looking. FromSoft games also have an amazing soundtrack, sound design coupled with good gameplay. When you are not engaging in the amazing and immersive story that it has, You are taking the world in and having a blast while playing and dodging or... dying lol. That being said, I only spoke about DS because people already made that comparison. To end my point about compairing this to other games even games that Cry of Fear was based on like RE and Silent Hill were not THIS punishing with their mechanics.
Now something I disagree with Insym.
The Outlast compairson I find it a little unresonable. Not because of the year or team size but the Engine itself. The Half-Life engine is very old so even small things like ADS is a miracle to pull off and a little janky sometimes. ADS was not even a thing outside of Zooming crosshairs on Crossbows and Snipers. On a technical level based on others mods and games that use the engine, in my opinion Cry of Fear is a marvel. But again, we only know that because we grew with old Half-Life and Branched games and that is not me trying to sound like an elitist. We just know what the games were like and played. So I may not agree but I do see where he is coming from. And that is the most important part, understanding where he is coming from while not feeling attacked nor frustrated.
That all being said, while I find the engine itself and what they manage to pull off with it is a spectacle. Having played the older games, I do feel like they miss-handled how you the story are presented and the item placement in later chapters. And that is something they definitely could have done better. Insym said best when he said that he felt like the latter half was done by a different team. It's quite a contrast with the earlier chapters. Not in an all positive way in my opinion (Mostly negative).
The TLDR for all of this: Just be respectful even if they disagree with you. Try to understand where they are coming from and do not attack them or their image.
If you read all of that good lord. I wish you the best of days!
The vod comments got a bit of hand for sure, this game is rather beloved by people, so some strong opinions to be had. I think Insym's criticisms are reasonable, though I agree with you on the Outlast comparison, it's not a fair comparison.
We can all like whatever games we want, and Insym didn't like this one, and that's fine. Best to just all relax somewhat.
Great comment!
This post ^^^
Honestly, the moment I saw Insym posting Cry of Fear, I immediately knew there was going to be a lot of strong criticism, especially with the mechanics of the game that aged poorly over time (11 year does that 😂).
Outlast comparison is unfair tho, definitely 😅 but like what Insym said, he didn't really know much about the game. I'm sure he went off to actually search after posting and streaming though! I just hope that this doesn't put him off from playing other classics that had different mechanics from way back :(
5 hours, wow this is incredible. Thank you for the insane amount of content
Hell yeah, I've been requesting this for like over a year!
The other endings are a lot better and i think you'd enjoy watching a video essay on it.
I think this game connects better with old school survival horror fans. Which is the same reason i think you would definitely not like Silent Hill or Resident Evil 1.
Sucks you didn't end up liking it but thanks for seeing it through. Was a great video as always.
as for the original resident evils: the 3rd person camera in like "security cam mode" like they used in the first RE's is janky and annoying as fuck. I disliked it back in the day and still hate it xP even the RE1 remake has this camera and it really
As for silent hill, if we take a slightly more recent SH like SH homecoming, then it's more this style but also more methodical, enemies are annoying till you know how to handle them. there's a rhythm to most SH enemies and they have fairly clear weakpoints. there's not a crazy amount of 'one shot mechanics' and there's a crazy amount of athmospheric tension building (hearing the smog enemy for half an hour while trudging to a forest before finally meeting him on the road, hearing the dogs skulking around during your trip in the cemetary only to meet them half an hour later,...)
The timing of the first jump-scare was impeccable. 😂😂😂
Man I couldn't finish this game because of how terrifying the enemies were to fight and my heart could not take it. More than happy to watch my favorite streamer play it though!
Boi hates on COF bc his skillgap too big, and plays phasmo for 2k hours where you basically do the same sh*t everytime.
And crazy that he thinks that Outlast is a masterpiece even tho it's not that good xD
Its kinda amazing that Insym streamed this long and no one im chat helped him understand the dual weild mechanics.
You know you're getting old when games such as Amnesia, Cry of fear and Happy Wheels are considered classics now. Fuck dude I'm getting old.
Same. And I'm just a few years older than Insym. 💀
That or games just evolved SUPER FAST. Technology do be changing the way we play games.
Your pink guy profile pic says it all LOL
I love that Simon decides that he should inject himself with needles he finds in alleyways
You telling this is a bad game makes me a bit how should I say this ''irritated'' cause you heard the game was made in HL1 engine (Do keep in mind that HL1 was made in 1998) so ofcourse the gameplay is gonna be wanky, I think they made a wonderfull game for an engine being from 1998
(I might be wrong and you can comment to correct me and I will retract my statement but this is just how I feel)
HL2 engine actually
@@Freeman4815 Wrong. It's a half life 1 mod and uses the half life 1 engine "GoldSrc" (Gold Source) from 1998. Half-Life 2, along with garrys mod and some other games, uses the normal source engine by valve.
@@Mowdown This is separate game, not a mod. It uses the same mechanic from HL2, menu or even the same console and cheats work and they are specific for game engine.
54:38 - this moment entertained me so much I literally applauded 😂 Thank you for brightening my day!
The moment that starts at 39:00 and goes up to 39:27 should totally be added to the Clips channel, that gave me the best laugh I've had all week
“So anyways I just started blasting” lmfao
@@saintsundere Best use of a meme I've seen all year 🤣
I'm SO SO glad you finally decided to play this masterpiece! It's my most favourite horror game of all time, another bonus is ofc that it's free. I'm so hyped to watch this!
I'm both thought you wasting a whole magazine was funny but angering me at the same time
The two hours where u were desperate for heals made for fantastic watching. I like that u just get in there & try to make the most of what u have. Me, I’d save scum until I had more heals than I knew what to do with lmao
This has such a high nostalgia value! Omg I remember being so much younger when I watched let's plays of this!
4:25:12 Maybe it's just me, but seeing daylight and HEAR birds cheeping is somehow nice, relaxing and (knowing that game) terrifying.
Watching him blast half of every magazine into an already dying creature in the middle of a death animation had me laughing. I remember liking the atmosphere but most of the 'scares' just hurt my ears.
I love how the last two hours of the game were so immensely glitchy... This has to be the most glitched out game I have ever seen. x.x Great job, Insym! I give you so much praise for your patience in beating this entire game.
Insym quickstarted his channel with phasmo and jumpstared his channel in to being one of the most enjoyable horror game content creators!
your long videos are perfect to fall asleep too even tho they are scarryyyy
Glad I'm not the only one that likes to listen to a long Insym vid when going to sleep.
@@Zeoni Dont worry yu got backup from me too :P not alone
I truly don't understand how people use horror videos to fall asleep to, especially from Insym, while he is a great guy, his voice is kinda grating to the ears sometimes so that's all the more weird. People out here falling asleep with super high pitched noises and jumpscares? lol
@@sirnunyabuiz6529 turning down the volume to where it's not so loud does more than you think
@@AVideoMan83 But why not listen to music then?
Story 10/10
Music 10/10
Sound design 9/10
Gameplay 9/10
Game design 8/10
i spent 450 hrs in this game....
With all respect, its kind of silly when streamers do stuff like needlessly waste ammo and morphine and then get frustrated and complain about the difficulty.
Like I agree the game is flawed and overdid the difficulty in a lot of spots, but you are not giving yourself a fighting chance when you fool around so much.
Was really glad when chat was correcting the others for why this game looks old lmao
Its still one of my favorite games graphically just cause I love old goldsource mods
39:12 "no full auto in buildings"
I've noticed how almost every space in this game has turned into a liminal space. It didn't have the same effect when it just came out.
Right? I think the Source engine by itself aged in a way where every environment made on it becomes a liminal space. This, combined with the fact that lots of horror games nowadays intentionally try to create lower graphics in order to make the game look creepier, convinces me that Cry Of Fear aged very well! Back in the day we didn't have any of these factors to add up to the horror.
I felt that way when I saw the college/school part.
Its interesting seeing you go from enjoying the game so much in the first half to despising it in the second. Cry of Fear has such a good opening and the first few chapters are great, but it does fall off kinda hard. If it wasn’t for so much padding (like having to backtrack so often) I think the game would have been way more enjoyable. However for the time it came out, and taking into account the EXTREMELY small team that worked on it, you can’t really blame them. In the developer commentary they actually talk about how they were afraid the game was too short and were brainstorming idea’s to pad it out. However I love this game despite its shortcomings and it has alot of fantastic moments that I personally feel shine through the negative, but I can understand why you didn’t like it.
Hi Insym, so glad you're playing this, love that you're uploading everyday, keeps my day interesting, so thank you. Love your videos, have a great day 🙂
FINALLY!!! After almost a year of waiting, its finally here! thx Insym for your videos
this brings back so much memories when I watched pewdiepie play this years ago.
YESSS THIS IS SO NOSTALGIC!!! Remember Pewdiepie playing this 😭 My fav horror game with Amnesia!
Recently I mentioned a "CryOfFear-like" moment in the Mists of Aiden playthrough (photocam and face jumpscare). And two days later Insym uploads this video. Magic 👀
Wow I can remember Markiplier playing this a billion years ago. I remember allll the scares and frustrating bits like it was yesterday. Thank you for this.
Purely because I'm curious, how many people heard "Boop superjuice" every time Insym used a syringe or is it just me who has watched Mark for too many years lmao.
I remember playing this game when it was a mod and not just a standalone and the first jumpscare with the camera a friend got so scared that we pushed a plug with the chair. It made false contact and lights went out lmao.
It was really creepy timing
Whaaaatt i literally was just getting bombarded by cry of fear gameplays😭😭😭 i cant believe u played it at the same time
If you've never played Condemned: Bloodshot then you need to because its horror is similar to this only 10x worse. Would love to watch you play it.
Thank you for always delivering the best content, Insym. It's awesome seeing you play these classic horror games as well! ✨️
Cry of Fear always had a special place in my heart as a horror game, especially with its story that dealt with serious topics.
** just want to add that it was THIS GAME SPECIFICALLY that made me absolutely paranoid of spending my resources. 😂
this game is like silent hill, the atmosphere, the enemies, only that without a fog wall
Lol "TH-cam, don't look! It's not what it looks like!"
> Is exactly what it looks like
you can actually play as the two policemen that found simon in his apartment if u pick the online option
CoF was my 1st horror game ever and after all those years I still have nightmares with those monsters
Everyone should watch the Pyrocynical video after this. It's a great analysis of the game.
It's really terrifying since it really tackles on anxiety and depression. Self harm even
2:38:30 this remembers me of Tombraider 3 aldwich xD
Insym: what, you have to jump and crouch what kind of stupid mechanic is that?
me at 03:15:15 : oh no, the game is trying to make insym map surf (landing sideways on a step incline while maintaining forward momentum to annul falling damage from any height), right?
39:12 , ITS DEAD , ITS GODDAMN DEAD , STOP FIRING ITS FING DEAD
loving your videos and your vibe man, ty for the longplays, I really prefer this style, helps me to sleep better, cheers.
i finished the game last night, 10/10 spooky.
I'm so happy that Insym is finally playing a game I recommended! Thank you Insym!
I loved that you played this!! This is a masterpiece of a game!
Now imagine playing Afraid of Monsters (from same creator)
If there ever was a horror game that deserved a remake it's cry of fear this is the best horror game i have ever played.
insym ama be 100% honest i dont really agree with you on this video i when i played the game i didnt really waste my ammo because i realised that if i reload i dont save the spare bullets so it was a gamble if i try to hit my shots and not waste any more ammo or lose my spare bullets but insure an 100% garantee kill i think u need a little bit of expirience and try to get the other endings because ive 100% the game i understand your frustration on the game ending the platforming part yea that does kinda suck i think the devs even said that they dont like that part but its a really old game and they tried to make a remastered version but got canceled because it was really expensive to keep making the voice actor of simon is one of the devs and its his first time of voice acting you can tell that at the start he is quiet and more close to the end you can see he is more confident talking but this game is about the story so dont bash the game for what it means it be although i believe you might redeem this game because i loved this game
Even as a huge fan of this game, I can 100% agree with what you said at the end. I wish the devs would've ditched the action/shooter aspect and instead focused more on the horror and atmosphere (which is its' real strength). Also, I don't understand why there have to be so many different types of weapons, despite the player's inventory space being very limited. Don't even get me started on the parkour sections, they were just so janky and frustrating.
I think the best things about this game overall are the soundtrack, scenery and atmosphere.
(P.S.: One of the devs who worked on the soundtrack has a band called Intig. I highly recommend checking them out if you like this game's OST)
i've been waiting for you to drop this one
Literal Game Reviewer Gameplay 💀
I remember playing this game co-op with a friend of mine when it first came out, scared us shitless lol especially the chainsaw guy, flashbacks right there.
Haha that's an old Sony Ericsson Walkman phone! Those were the coolest phones ever😄
the way you talk reminds me of like 2013 PewDiePie, I love it
39:10 Insym going full American here LOL
Saw this on VODs channel already, so dropped a like and dipped.
Damn, I remember playing this game in multiplayer with friends !
This game and another where one of you was a monster that could hang to walls and ceiling and needed to kill everyone, such memories ! :D
This is one of my favorite horror games! Really demented and depressing, easily a 10/10 game (especially for free)
I'm sorry chief but I played this game when I was 15 years old on medium difficulty and didn't have any problems except for some of the puzzles. You not recommending it to other people just sounds like it stems from a skill issue to me.
They predicted Skibidi toilet 2:58:54
I can literally watch this guy play any game and it’s enjoyable
cant believe you actually played cry of fear! this game is absolutely insane.
This feels like an old Pewdiepie video all over again. It's awesome.
I Love cry of fear soo much, Thank you for playing that Insym❤❤
Just when i think of going for a speedrun of this game this man just posts this like what.
Omg dude I’m so glad you found this! Back in 2012-2014 when some of the bigger TH-camrs were playing this it was the best content to watch. Classic hl mod horror
I LOVE THIS GAME SO MUCH!!! thank you for playing it Im so fucking excited to watch this
Cry of fear is one of the very VERY VERY VERY few horror games that is actually scary.
It also kinda had a physological impact on me
Great game, maybe you should check out alien isolation too. Probably one of the most impressive horror game AIs
Soooo much nostalgia 😭 I haven't seen this game since the early days of PewDiePie 😭😭
Insym try play Darkwood you will LOVE the game it's a survival game with some horror elements here and there
There's a link in the description to suggest games!
YOOOO never though id see you play this, im so exited!
dashed 7's, underlinded 1's, and crossed out 0's everyday for this guy.....
21:00 first night in london
I’ve been waiting for Insym to play this game ❤